PHOTO/MAR IS SEA Y
CHICAGO, IL — The recent court decisions to halt two immigration programs are an attack on all workers. A few days before the Expanded DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents) became effective, 26 states, mostly Southern, filed a lawsuit against the federal government. A Texas judge then placed a hold on the programs. On May 26, a second court in New Orleans, Louisiana upheld the lawsuits.
As of this writing, none of the politicians, Democratic or Republican, are saying anything about this. Where is the political leadership from our so-called “representatives of the people?”
The answer is that today, the government, politicians and the corporations are one and the same. U.S. immigration legislation is essentially written by corporations in order to increase profits and to legally approve a strata of guest workers that the corporations need, and to deport those who are not needed. Meanwhile, the four to five million people who were to benefit from the expanded immigration programs are stuck in limbo. Not only will parents not be benefited, student programs will not be renewed.Clearly, the system does not have solutions.
What’s behind the immigration reform fight, and why should we care?
In the past, during the industrial era, immigration was used by the corporations to control wages. Today, with electronic production, there are less and less jobs, and employment is no longer expanding. Today, immigration is used to drive wages down by increasing the competition of the workers over the few jobs that exist.
Current and proposed immigration laws also facilitate the spreading of fascist terror. Laws deny citizenship and political rights to a growing sector of workers, and force workers to accept routine raids, detention, criminalization, and deportation without legal recourse. Almost no public information is released about Border Patrol shootings. All this diverts, divides, and defuses the movement for human rights for all,
The decision to halt Extended DACA and DAPA needs to be resolved. But we should not expect that the politicians will make the necessary decisions. It’s going to be up to the people.
This means we, the people, must show that immigration is a class issue that affects all of us. Then, we must build unity in this fight wherever we can. The poorest workers in the U.S. can and must be united in a struggle for their common interests, whether it is food, housing, healthcare or immigrant rights. Understanding the need to unite our efforts to gain what every human being needs to live and thrive is the next step forward to a world with justice and peace for all.
