The immigration issue has two sides, one is political, and the other economic. Both Republicans and Democrats, especially Republicans use it to gain political power. The other side is economic: the corporations profit from having a two- or three-tier wage system.
On the political side, as the U.S. economy flounders, no matter what the economists say that it’s getting better, all we have to do is go and buy groceries or fill our tanks with gas, and our pocketbook tells us differently. Today, poverty is the fourth leading cause of death nationwide. This affects 140 million Americans and is increasing.
The U.S. ruling elite needs to give the poor and desperate workers a target to direct their anger and a scapegoat to blame. In 2016, Donald Trump provided them with an answer and a target: the migrant, the immigrant, and the undocumented. These workers became the scapegoats he used to scare desperate workers into believing his lies and further consolidating his base. Fast forward to 2023 and we see immigration has become even more weaponized with governors Ron DeSantis (Florida), Greg Abbott (Texas), and Doug Ducey (Arizona) exploiting it to fuel their hatred and racism as manifested in draconian ideas and policies.
Fortunately, the majority of workers aren’t duped by such hateful lies. The Cato Institute took a poll and of those polled 91% welcome immigration.
On the economic side, the issue of immigration has served the corporations well.
Employers gain from a divided workforce. They use the undocumented and H2-A workers, a controlled and underpaid workforce, to lower the wages of the rest of the U.S. workers.
The issue of immigration has served both the U.S. and Mexican governments and their elites. Immigration provides an escape from the poverty and lack of jobs in Mexico, where most of the H2-A workers and undocumented come from.
In 2022, Mexican nationals in the United States sent $60 billion in remittances to support their families in Mexico, totaling 10 million families. Without this support, the Mexican government would have a harder time keeping its workers from breaking out in protest. Likewise, without the immigrant, the migrant, and the undocumented as scapegoats, the U.S. government would also have a harder time controlling its workers.
So, it’s not surprising that neither the U.S. nor Mexican governments want to fix the broken immigration system. They need the migrant, immigrant, and undocumented workers to keep their working classes from breaking out into revolution to demand what they deserve from their sweat and labor.
The question is whether the people of the United States will follow the path put forth by Trump and his sidekicks and do away with democracy, although faulty, and turn the United States into an autocracy. Or whether the people of the United States will choose to take the path dictated by our humanity and fight like hell to strengthen democracy by upholding the democratic rights and human rights of everyone, regardless of one’s status.
We the people decide.
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