By the border down Mexico way
We build fences like the Berlin wall
To make it harder to play
The toughest charade of all
Can you crawl despite your thirst?
Can you run despite your fear?
And will the patrol get you first
Or will you make it free and clear?
You may break your heart and die
Or break the law and try
To earn a living in the sun
But either way you’ll fry
And hiding is no fun
The US Senate is considering an amazing bill that would
legalize standardized indentured servitude of 13 years for immigrants, where
the rights of an immigrant are not only restricted, but where the immigrant
would have to pay a penalty while living in the shadows and being forced to
work under the table. It is at
once a travesty against humanity and simultaneously a more human alternative
than the US House of Representatives that sees immigrants as a privatizing
boondoggle for security and construction while forbidding entry to anybody through our south. It means nothing that our national
security threats have been mostly from the north (Canada) or from our airports
or the Saudis. Is this the best of
all worlds in the land of opportunity or what? Will either alternative preserve families? Well, not exactly.
We hear and read virtually every reason for “sealing our
borders,” but the reality is that the only border we focus on is the Mexican
border. There are some real
reasons for this, however, are they reasonable? There are millions from countries south of the United States
that have a seriously impoverished class of inhabitants. They migrate into Mexico and some stay
while others continue north into the US.
The migration is a sign of human desperation and because people are
desperate, they will take risks that others avoid. Grinding poverty is an incentive for emigrating. In 1870s Italy, people starved and the
government even assisted people wanting to leave for the US or Argentina. During the potato famine, the exodus of
people from Ireland was a matter of desperate clinging to life. In some states south of Mexico and in
Mexico itself, the differential between rich and poor is sharp and vast. The problem is economics and the
reaction is not only half vast, but strangely targeted. We will spend far more to seal a border
from economic refugees than we might spend to invest in the people facing
deprivation and even starvation.
We are soon to spend $46 Billion, by one recent estimate, for
construction and high-tech electronic and human detection systems on our
southern border. That level of
investment in education and training of our neighbors would pay high dividends
and spark internal investment in agriculture and even manufacturing in poor
nations. Actually, 10% of that
money expended on sustainable industries could reduce poverty and the need to emigrate. If we spent the rest on educating and
training our own workforce, then high paying jobs could become a reality for
thousands or even millions of Americans.
Silicon Valley complains bitterly that we do not educate our citizens
for the jobs they have and will have.
If you define slavery as humans being involuntarily
exploited, then we are moving at warp speed to that end. In fact, a Saudi princess just last
week was arrested for overt slavery in Irvine, California. She was placed on $ 5 Million in bail,
but now it appears that there may have been 4 slaves in that household alone. The princess confiscated their
passports and required 12-hour days for 7 days each week while paying them only
a pittance and not what they contracted for before coming to America. The de
facto slavery is equally onerous and yet it has become so common that we
are becoming inured. Given the
relentless threat of disclosure and deportation, when men and women can only
work “under the table” where they are usually paid less than minimum wage, they
are afraid to complain or to notify authorities. Strangely, the overt slave in Irvine clutched a pamphlet on
worker rights that she had saved from before her travel to the US. She had that in her hand when she met
police. She was less afraid than
the typical immigrant who is forced to live in the shadows. The conservative House of
Representatives wants no part of the “liberal” senate bill. Their only exception to any bill is to
spend more money for privatizing the border security. Strangely, they also
attack their hero Ronald Reagan for his “amnesty” for immigrants and they
accuse the Senate of the same.
What does the current policy of keeping the status quo or
reinforcing the border do? For
one, it maintains a sub minimum wage structure that is akin to black-marketing
goods. It is the black-marketing
or gray-marketing labor services.
Have you noticed that the usual entry jobs in fast foods and personal
services like landscaping have gone from white teens to older whites and
Hispanics? Is there a restaurant
in your area that does not employ Hispanics in the kitchen? Historical
protections of labor unions have been systematically removed by “right to work”
laws and targeted removal by those such as the Governor of Wisconsin. Average wages have actually fallen in
the past 11 years; in states like Wisconsin, total employment has shrunk even
as wages have been forced down.
Wisconsin’s economic activity is on the decline since the election of
Scott Walker who has taken his economic lessons from Europe where austerity is
king in a post royal era. Europe
and Wisconsin are on the decline.
Ironically, Europeans have gotten tough on immigration, and they are
losing the foreign labor they depended upon.
We need to look at all the reasons for immigration and the
damage that our current ad hoc
cheapening of labor is doing to our economy as well as our social
structures. Farmers are unable to
harvest many crops that still use hand labor unless they employ migrant
workers, many of whom are undocumented.
Would documentation of working aliens be that difficult? We could then monitor the working
conditions and see that workers are paid and wages are taxed properly. Instead of building a bigger and better
wall, we could have processing centers at the border to match migration to
labor needs. We must have photo ID
that identifies the worker, and states the purpose and length of the visa with
simplified reporting by scanning ID.
It is feasible and cheaper than building a $46 Billion dollar wall. Now if the purpose of immigration is to
maintain a black-market labor pool to undercut the American worker and destroy
unions, then our current non-system is perfect. The House of Representatives is correct in building walls
and privatizing our non-system.
What is wrong with privatizing greed anyway? The rich will not only get richer, but they will do so
faster and with legal protection to create new victims and get cheaper labor. Maybe Lincoln did not end American
slavery, after all; it has simply morphed into a new era of economic immigrants
without rights. Would you like
some fries with that?
The Senate legislation deals with the estimated 11 million
current undocumented immigrants unrealistically and unreasonably, but at least immigrants
are recognized as existing. That
is better than the House that seems to ignore them entirely. Thirteen years of additional hidden
living for our current immigrants is excessive and subject to the whims of
future bureaucrats and bigots who will trade rights for votes and onions for
apples in future negotiations. Must we force immigrants to live in the shadows? They feed us in restaurants; care for
our children; harvest our crops; landscape our yards and give example for
families. Cannot this be done in
three years? Do we need three
presidential elections plus a year to determine their stability here? Most immigrants pay wage taxes
now. What will forcing fines and
longer indenture prove? They have
shown their desire to be Americans by the difficulty of their passage and the
sacrifices of their labor.
Peace,
George Giacoppe
17 July 2013
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