Immigration Reform: Being Played For a Fool Again

From http://xicanopwr.com/

America is an idea, a set of beliefs about people and their relationships and the kind of society which holds the best hope of satisfying the needs each of us brings as an individual. The global mobility of human resources between countries is a key driving force of the currently ongoing economic and regional development all over the world. In reality, immigration exerts many positive and important impacts on a country’s economic, cultural and social structure. It will be hard to find any country in the world where immigrants never contribute to the development of a country. However, here in the Good Ole U.S. of A, immigration is being called into question by immigration critics who are compiled to exaggerating how the large influx in immigration has contributed to the increase in unemployment and other serious social problems. Some critics even go so far to argue that this country is losing it’s cultural heritage. And like clock work, each year, the politicos in DC try to cater to their demands by addressing the problem by trying to create a comprehensive immigration reform bill.

Last week, after having a secret meeting, key senators from both parties along with the White House reached a compromise on a comprehensive immigration reform bill. What is interesting about this bill, is the way this bill is being fast tracked through the Senate and how it is being shoved down our throats regardless of our opinions. The 380-page text of the legislation was only produced last Saturday by Senate staff, and some key sections continue to be changed - one the reason it has been hard to provide detailed analysis of the legislation.

George Lakoff was correct on how we metaphorically describe this nation as a family because the way everything is handled, it feels like this nation is one big dysfunctional family, where those in office are the parents and we - the masses - are its children. And like any family, we are being told what to do, regardless if we like it or not. However, it seems the parents are not seeing eye-to-eye on this bill; both parties are goal in preventing it from reaching the president’s desk. Even though the media describes the bill as “comprehensive immigration reform,” the fact is, this bill is anything but “comprehensive.”

The bill has four major provisions which eventually transform the present family based immigration system into a “Rich man’s immigration system” that would curb future immigration only to those who can afford the high visa cost and those with college degrees, while at the same time creating a new bracero program and adding more border cops to the Southern border. The proposed bill primary focus is ending “chain migration” by creating on a point system where high skill, income, and education levels determine eligibility for immigration; however, there are some who state this is not true and that would reward the less educated.

The proposed bill gives priority to “enforcement” to such measures as doubling the size of the Border Patrol, vastly expanding the military-style barriers along the US-Mexico border, increasing the number and size of detention facilities for undocumented workers, and instituting a new police-state technology for workplace checks on the legal status of every worker in the United States.

The proposal would establish a temporary worker program, (the old braceros program, just renamed) to bring new immigrants to the US and a separate program for your seasonal migrant worker. Skills and education-level would be weighted over family connections in deciding whether prospective immigrants should get permanent legal status. In other words, the comprehensive immigration reform bill is reverting back to the 1917 Immigration bill that forced everybody over sixteen years of age to take a literacy test. This time around, it is being called a merit system - a system that is being used in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

The bill would also create a new temporary worker program, allowing 400,000 temporary workers to enter the country each year on “Y visas” to fill a multitude of jobs for which there simply Americans will not do. This process may be repeated; however, it is limited to a total of three two-year-periods, thereby ensuring a truly “temporary” worker program. As workers labor under conditions of thinly disguised slavery, they are effectively denied the right to bring family members with them. They would be forced to jump through hurdles, such as providing evidence that their spouses and children had private health insurance coverage.

It is interesting to see the how the media and the more hysterical anti-immigrant demagogues are claiming this bill offers “amnesty” to 12 million undocumented immigrants, the simple fact is, the Senate bill is not an amnesty. The comprehensive reform bill is simply another smoke and mirrors ploy, in which millions of undocumented immigrants would face various conditions making it a difficult “path” to earned citizenship, such as passing background checks, paying fines, and “getting in line.” Under the proposed legislation, in order for the undocumented workers to qualify for this new “path” to citizenship, they would have to apply for a four-year renewable temporary “Z” visa, which would mean they would have to cough up $5,000 in fees and penalties and pay an additional $1,500 processing fee for each person applying for a Z visa. Even though this visa can be renewable indefinitely, the bill does not mention if the $5,000 a one-time penalty or that they would continue coughing up that amount each time they were to renew their visa. Once this is done, the visa holder can then be qualified to converted their visa to permanent residency if the head of household applies within 8 years and RETURNS to their home country to collect the visa at a consulate. However, they must remain there for 6 to 8 months before they can begin their “path” to citizenship. This would also include paying another $4,000 fine along with a $3,500 visa fee. Permanent status would only be granted after the Department of Homeland Security has cleared its backlog of the four million applications by legal immigrants who are waiting for visas to bring relatives into the country. The process can take about eight or plus years to clear. The “legalization” process abounds with provisions described as “triggers,” that would determine if they can stay or not. It would not be surprising to see hundreds of thousands of immigrants be denied legal status and exposed to immediate deportation.

What’s more, our elected leaders, tried to fast track this bill without having a true dialogue. It is clear that both Republicans and Democrats were catering to both conservative and liberal voters, in hopes of winning votes in the upcoming 2008 presidential elections rather than the lives and suffering of the immigrants who do not have a vote. If passed, it would have truly demoralized millions of people and their families into feeling like unwelcome guests, this also goes for the non-brown immigrants. The bill would have put everything just slightly out of reach for them. It will make them feel like they are on some treadmill being told pay a little more and all your dreams will be met just over the horizon. What they don’t realize it is just a carrot dangling on a stick just inches out of their reach, and no matter how far they think they have gone, they are still on the same treadmill and the carrot is still there, still just out of reach. The only ones who benefit for this are the corporation with their cheap labor.

If there is a reason causing the large influx of immigration from Mexico into the US, it is NAFTA. For the past 13 years, North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has provided cover for our imperialistic march for power and profit. Predatory multinational corporations have prospered from their economic conquest as they allied themselves with friendly governments at the expense of ordinary working people who ultimately payed the price. The result - mass and growing poverty, human misery, and ecological destruction great enough to threaten the ability of the planet to sustain life.

The Senate bill could not help but reflect who would benefit from this bill - the business sector. Even though the business sector spoke against the bill, in reality, it was the elite capitalist from major corporate players in agriculture, construction, and other sectors of the economy who drafted the bill. Both parties want to assure businesses have a large exploitable documented temporary worker pool they can use as needed, abuse as they wish, underpay, deny benefits and above all use as a wedge to destroy organized labor and the rights of all working people in the country. We must continue to remain aware that it is our neo-liberal agenda that is driving millions of people to abandon their home. They are here to seek a better life, only to find themselves to be exploited in the workplace, and terrorized by Homeland Security ICE storm troop enforcers.

We must be aware of the hypocritical nature of wanting to benefit economically from the Mexican migration; but at the same time, create a hostile environment driven by fear against immigrants to control migration flows. It is time for human, civil rights, and other progressive organizations to mount a combined effort to fight back! We can no longer sit back and watch this country be destroyed itself at the expense of society’s most vulnerable while the capitalist continue to get wealthier on the backs of the immigrant people, while they receive nothing in return.

It is time to end this racist war on immigrants.