‘Support amnesty for all immigrant workers in the US’
https://themilitant.com/2021/04/03/support-amnesty-for-all-immigrant-workers-in-the-us/
BY BRIAN WILLIAMS
Vol. 85/No. 14
April 12, 2021
The Joseph Biden administration insists that its attitude toward
immigration is more “humane” than that of Donald Trump’s before it. But
the fact is Biden is trying to shut the U.S. southern border as
increasing numbers of migrant workers from El Salvador, Guatemala and
Honduras, and especially from Mexico again, are trying to get into the
country.
“Biden, please let us in,” is the slogan on white T-shirts worn by many
camped out in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, some of whom have been
there for weeks.
Unlike migrant surges in 2019 and 2014, which were comprised of families
from Central America and unaccompanied minors, this one is largely
individual adults, mainly men from Mexico. Single adults were 82% of
those apprehended by U.S. border forces so far this year.
They’re driven by the need for jobs in the face of pandemic lockdowns,
as well as economic and social crises at home. While hiring is
increasing in the U.S., 2.4 million workers lost their jobs last year in
Mexico.
The Biden administration has kept in place former President Trump’s
COVID-19-motivated order to immediately expel individuals crossing the
border from Mexico, depriving them of a court hearing and a chance to
apply for asylum. Some 20,000 Border Patrol cops, the vast majority
deployed along the U.S. southwest border, are implementing this policy.
Many of the individuals expelled back to Mexico wait there and try
again. The percentage of migrants stopped at the border who previously
had been caught has grown to nearly 40% in the past six months.
Mexican workers face an economic crisis deeper than in the U.S., where
jobs are on the upswing, spurred by increased COVID-19 vaccinations.
Over a third of the U.S. population has gotten a shot. In Mexico only 5%
has.
The White House, however, did reverse the Trump administration’s policy
of turning away unaccompanied children at the border. As of March 25
over 18,000 children have been taken into custody by federal
authorities. Still, this is a smaller number than the adults who’ve been
expelled or barred from the U.S.
The children are detained in overcrowded facilities, which the Biden
administration had refused to allow journalists to visit. One of these,
a 160,000-square-foot tent area in Donna, Texas, houses 1,000 children.
“Lawyers who inspect immigrant detention facilities,” said the Dallas
Morning News March 15, “interviewed children who reported being held in
packed conditions in the tent, with some sleeping on the floor and
others unable to shower for five days.”
The Biden administration has been setting up additional detention
centers. In Texas this includes in Carrizo Springs, in the oil fields
near Odessa, the Dallas Convention Center, and military bases in San
Antonio and El Paso. The administration has called on other government
agencies to send volunteers to help.
While expelling individuals, mainly men, the Biden administration has
also sought to bar families, predominantly from Central America. “There
is no change in policy: the border remains closed,” the Department of
Homeland Security says.
But because of opposition from the Mexican government, some are being
allowed to stay in the U.S. temporarily for hearings on asylum pleas.
Harris assigned to ‘deal’ with crisis
The White House assigned Vice President Kamala Harris to deal with this
crisis, saying she will oversee administration plans to reduce migration
from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Biden is requesting Congress
allocate $4 billion to make the deals.
But this crisis can’t be resolved by throwing money at capitalist
regimes there. Conditions facing working people in Central America are
rooted in the workings of the U.S. capitalist rulers’ drive for profits,
which pushes down wages and working conditions in the factories and
fields across the region.
The capitalist class in the U.S. is not interested in permanently
shutting its borders. Many bosses are dependent on drawing immigrant
workers into the workforce to superexploit them, driving down the wages
of all workers and weakening unions. The bosses’ government — whether
Democrat or Republican — manages the flow of immigrant labor, both legal
and not, depending on the ups and downs of production.
Over the past six years the number of H-2A “guest” visas for farmworkers
has been rising. It remained below 100,000 until 2014, doubled to over
200,000 in 2017, and has continued to increase. These workers, who are
in the U.S. an average of six months, guarantee a supply of cheap labor
for big capitalist farmers.
“The Socialist Workers Party campaign fights for amnesty for all 11
million undocumented immigrants who live and work in the U.S., and
against deportations,” said Gerardo Sánchez, Socialist Workers Party
candidate for Dallas City Council. “This is central to uniting the
working class, to strengthening our unions and organizing to fight
together against the attacks of the bosses and their government.”
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‘Safety is in the hands of these fighters’
Support for strike battles is crucial!
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DSI Tunneling workers in Louisville hold the line
Books of the Month
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--
Carl Sagan “It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance
between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all
hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great
openness to new ideas. Obviously those two modes of thought are in some
tension. But if you are able to exercise only one of these modes,
whichever one it is, you’re in deep trouble. If you are only skeptical,
then no new ideas make it through to you. You never learn anything new.
You become a crotchety old person convinced that nonsense is ruling the
world. (There is, of course, much data to support you.) But every now
and then, maybe once in a hundred cases, a new idea turns out to be on
the mark, valid and wonderful. If you are too much in the habit of being
skeptical about everything, you are going to miss or resent it, and
either way you will be standing in the way of understanding and
progress. On the other hand, if you are open to the point of gullibility
and have not an ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot
distinguish the useful as from the worthless ones.” ― Carl Sagan
