[News] Obama's Dirty War on Immigrants

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.counterpunch.org/cooke10262009.html
October 26, 2009


Enforcement First on the Border


Obama's Dirty War on Immigrants

By SHAMUS COOKE

Under Bush, immigrant communities lived in a 
constant state of fear ­ terrorized by “Homeland 
Security” agents arresting anyone who appeared 
Latino and lacked ID. Families were separated, 
children left parentless, property abandoned, and 
long-lasting relationships severed.

This scenario ­ highly reminiscent of the NAZI 
Gestapo ­ has changed only slightly under Obama. 
Some say for the worst. Obama’s campaign promise 
of undoing Bush’s immigration strategy was, like 
nearly every other promise he’s made, a blatant 
lie. Instead, he’s adopted the “enforcement 
first” immigration approach -- the style of John 
McCain that Obama once mocked.

The Obama Administration is taking immigration 
policies created under Bush and expanding them, 
much like he’s done with Bush’s war policies, 
bank bailouts, civil right restrictions (the 
Patriot Act, torture, unlimited/unchallengeable imprisonment, etc.).

Obama’s head of Homeland Security, Janet 
Napolitano, admits: “We are expanding 
enforcement, but I think in the right way.” In 
this case the “right way” is Bush’s way, though 
modified for public consumption.

While ending the large, media-attracting factory 
raids that Bush endorsed, Obama is intensifying 
“
a shift in federal law enforcement that began 
under George W. Bush and now has taken a 
particularly callous turn under President Obama.” 
(Los Angles Times, Oct 3, 2009).
The Los Angles Times refers specifically to the 
recent firing of 1,800 mostly immigrant workers 
in Los Angeles, who suffered the same fate as 
thousands of others around the country victimized by the Obama administration.

Companies that are suspected of hiring immigrants 
are targeted and closely monitored, “
but instead 
of concluding with a raid, Immigration and 
Customs Enforcement simply compels the employers 
to fire anybody whose papers aren't in order 
under pain of ruinous civil penalties.” The Los 
Angles Times concluded, “
the most appalling 
aspect of the Obama administration's wretched 
conduct of this affair is its studied 
indifference to the fate of the men and women it has thrown out of work.”

Well said.

When immigrants are fired from their jobs, they 
receive no unemployment insurance. Thus, the 
heavy burden of being jobless during a severe 
recession is multiplied, and families who’ve 
lived in the U.S. for years suffer terribly. 
Obama’s merciless attitude to immigrants was 
displayed nationally when he proudly declared 
that, under his health care plan, “illegal 
immigrants will not qualify.” When asked later 
about the health care of immigrant children, 
Obama seemed to show a moment of compassion. 
Exceptions may be granted, he said, "partly 
because if you've got children who may be here 
illegally but are still in playgrounds or at 
schools, and potentially are passing on illnesses 
and communicable diseases, that aren't getting 
vaccinated, that I think is a situation where you 
may have to make an exception." The President is 
astonishingly clear: caring for the basic 
well-being of immigrants or their children is of zero concern.

This coldness is reflected in all aspects of 
Obama’s immigration approach ­ programs born from 
the Bush administration. The New York Times explains:

“
 Ms. Napolitano has expanded a program that 
runs immigration checks on every person booked 
into local jails in some cities. And she recently 
announced the expansion of another program
that 
allows for cooperation between federal 
immigration agents and state and local police agencies.” (Oct. 18, 2009).

The first policy means that any immigrant that 
lands in jail for whatever reason faces potential 
deportation. And although the law was created by 
Bush to deal with immigrants who committed 
“serious crimes,” Latino communities have long 
known this claim to be a fraud. Officers instead 
arrest immigrants on minor or manufactured 
charges and alter their lives forever.

The second mentioned program will greatly 
increase these injustices. Before Bush, 
immigration laws were enforced by the 
nationally-run immigration department, with the 
rationale being that local police were meant to 
protect and serve communities. Now, local police 
are being enlisted to hunt down immigrants, most 
of whom are no danger to anybody and productive members of their communities.

The dangerous result is that immigrant and Latino 
families will be pushed further into society’s 
shadows: they will be less willing to call police 
if they witness or fall victim to serious crimes, 
suffer from domestic violence, or are victims of 
hate crimes. If they are not paid by their 
employer ­ a very regular occurrence ­ no one will be held accountable.

These types of crimes will be greatly encouraged 
with Obama’s new policy, alongside another form 
of abuse. Many Latino communities have become 
familiar with police picking up suspected 
immigrants off the street and sending them to 
deportation facilities ­ with no crime committed. 
Knowing that these racial profiling abuses would 
likely increase with local police becoming 
immigration enforcers, the Obama Administration 
gave lip-service to the increased “oversight” of 
the expanded policy, but little action is likely 
to follow, and civil rights violations will almost certainly increase.

Another Bush policy being expanded under Obama is 
the controversial E-verify system, which gives 
governmental access to employers' employment 
records, with the intention of verifying the 
legitimate documents of employees. Aside from the 
above-mentioned hardships this is already 
creating for thousands of families, the system is 
accused of being highly dysfunctional and 
error-ridden, like its predecessor the “no match" letter.

"No match" letters were mailed to workers and 
employers alike to notify them that a worker’s 
social security number didn’t match ­ implying 
that the worker was using a fake number to gain 
employment. The "no match" system was recently 
scrapped, likely due to the enormous errors being 
committed and consequent outcry (this writer can 
personally attest that the system was flawed, 
since my Caucasian, Indiana-born domestic partner 
had such a letter addressed to her).

These policies of Obama’s represent a drastic 
swerving to the right over immigration. But he’s 
just following the Democratic Party line, itself 
becoming hysterically anti-immigrant. High 
ranking Democrat Charles Schumer is leading the 
Democrat offensive, helping create a highly 
punitive “immigration reform” bill that includes 
Bush-era border militarization.

So far, this bill consists only of “general 
principles" -- polices agreed upon to appease the 
section of big business that benefits from 
immigrant labor. Highly skilled immigrants will 
be favored, lower skilled deported; some 
immigrants will be allowed to stay and work, 
while others are hunted down like animals. This 
divide and conquer strategy has already won over 
some immigrant and labor groups, who wrongly view 
the bill as “a step in the right direction.” The 
Democrats have spoken at length about their 
immigration philosophy; they want to provide 
corporations with sufficient cheap labor while 
demonizing “undesirable” immigrants.

Why the right turn? Since having taken power of 
both Congress and the Presidency, the Democrats 
have proven to be a very proficient tool for the 
corporate elite, following much of the same polices created by Bush.

The enormous public anger over these policies 
creates in the Democrats an urgent need for 
distraction. Rather than focus on the super-rich 
that are profiting from the recession and the 
politicians feeding them trillions in tax 
dollars, the Democrats would rather have our 
scorn funneled toward society’s most vulnerable population.

Always left out in the immigration discussion is 
why immigrants enter the U.S. at all. U.S. 
corporate-controlled foreign policy ­ under NAFTA 
and CAFTA ­ forced cheaply produced U.S. goods 
into the markets of poor countries to the south. 
Impoverished farmers and others were forced out 
of their country (where they would rather have 
stayed) to feed themselves and their families. 
U.S. corporations took further advantage of the 
situation by paying slave wages across the border 
and by paying immigrants in the U.S. 
below-poverty wages with no benefits. Speaking 
out against these injustices equals deportation.

Consequently, wages for both U.S. and Latin 
American workers are lowered by this divide and 
conquer tactic. Scapegoating immigrants is 
absolutely crucial to this strategy working.

Therefore, the only progressive solution to 
immigration is to unite all workers against the 
planned corporate offensive: CAFTA and NAFTA must 
be eliminated, and all workers in the U.S. must 
be given not only equal rights, but a livable 
wage. To achieve this, unions must fight harder 
to organize not only immigrants, but the millions 
of other workers who have little or no rights on 
the job. By doing so, corporations will be unable 
to exploit any worker so as to lower the wages of 
all workers. These lofty goals would be easier to 
accomplish if immigrant and labor groups diverted 
their energy and resources away from the 
Democratic Party, so that they could be used instead for real social change.

Shamus Cooke is a social service worker, trade 
unionist, and writer for Workers Action 
(<http://www.workerscompass.org/>www.workerscompass.org). 
He can be reached at <mailto:shamuscook at yahoo.com>shamuscook at yahoo.com




Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20091026/7cda9ad4/attachment.htm>