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An Attack on Immigrant Workers is an Attack on All Workers
During the recent U.S. presidential elections, both Harris and Trump focused on immigration as a central issue. Now that Trump has been elected president, he is threatening serious measures: mass deportations, ending automatic citizenship for children of immigrants born in the U.S., and rolling back temporary protected status for certain migrants who are escaping unsafe conditions at home.
Trump’s selection as “border czar”, Tom Homan, previously worked in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under Trump, Obama, and four other presidential administrations. He designed Trump’s family separation policy, which took more than 5,500 children away from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2018. Since then, he has worked for Fox News, and joined the Heritage Foundation to help design their Project 2025 blueprint to reshape the government with far-right policies.
Homan has learned a lot since 2018. He’s now suggesting, “families can be deported together,” including children who are U.S. citizens. Rather than addressing the problems migrants face, the Trump administration plans to terrorize families, while blaming our economic and social problems on them.
But it isn’t just Trump and his posse. Democrats were making the same threats. Harris pledged to keep Biden’s extensive asylum restrictions in place and sign a bill promising $20 billion to improve U.S. border security with bipartisan support. Both parties use immigrants as scapegoats and promise to “secure” U.S. borders to keep them out.
Immigrants are not the cause of the economic and social problems we face even if that is what the politicians like to claim. They’ve led us to believe that immigrants, particularly those who have traveled here without legal documentation, are taking social benefits and jobs away from U.S. citizens, or that they are violent criminals. But the truth is thatimmigrants are a crucial part of our communities, and the fragile capitalist economy would collapse without them.
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, 74% of undocumented immigrants were in essential work categories. While immigrants (undocumented and documented) are about 14% of the U.S. population, they make up 20% of food supply chain workers– and over 30% of the most physical of those jobs. They’re a crucial part of our healthcare workforce: making up 38% of home health aides, 29% of physicians, and 22% of nursing assistants. And 30% of construction workers.
Politicians try to it make it seem like immigrants are taking jobs from native-born workers. But there is plenty of work that needs to be done, and immigrants keep communities fed, housed, and healthy. They also pay income and sales taxes to U.S. state and federal governments. In fact, the bosses continue to rely on a growing labor force of immigrants, even while they claim immigrants are a problem.
Immigrants are essential to U.S. society, and they are often forced to come to the U.S. Why? Because of the destruction of their communities and livelihoods by the policies of the same U.S. politicians who blame them for the crises we face here. The economies of much of the world, particularly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, are completely dependent on the economic demands of U.S. corporate interests. This causes economic destabilization around the world. Faced with increasing climate disasters, and the policies of U.S.-backed political regimes that protect U.S. economic interests, many people see no way to have a livable future without migrating.
Politicians and corporate bosses also exploit immigrants to suppress everyone’s wages. Then they scapegoat immigrant workers when the inevitable crises of their economy arise. They blame their economic problems on immigrant workers – the most vulnerable people in society who have no security net.
We cannot let those in power pit us against one another. It’s a calculated distraction by the elites who hoard society’s wealth, while they try to force us to fight over the scraps they leave behind. Our enemies are not other workers, but the politicians and bosses who exploit us all. We cannot fall for their lies. Poor and working immigrants, like all poor and working people, are the backbone of our society. We are weaker when we are divided. Together we can use our power to fight for a future that values people over profit.
The Triangle, North Carolina: The Wilmington Coup of 1898
On Thursday, November 10, 1898, a mob of 2,000 armed whites, led by local businessmen, rampaged through Wilmington, NC, burning Black people’s homes and businesses while killing at least 100 Black people. At gunpoint, the mob’s leaders forced Wilmington’s biracial elected government to resign. Why?
Wilmington’s government was part of a powerful state-wide political coalition of white small farmers with Black sharecroppers. In 1896, when it controlled state government, it made the rich pay more taxes while the poor paid less, increased school funding and expanded the right to vote. To regain their political power and defend their wealth, the richest landowners and businessmen organized a violent racist backlash. PBS’s documentary, “The Wilmington Coup,” offers much to think about if we want to end the rule of the One Percent. Check it out at: bit.ly/40NAbcE.
Bay Area, California: Where Are People Supposed to Go?
Since federal courts essentially legalized the criminalization of homelessness, California officials have ramped up their attacks on the unhoused. Governor Gavin Newsom and local leaders across the state have made it easier to clear encampments, despite shelters being insufficient to house everyone. In response, groups like “Where Do We Go?” have set up protests, with tents filling Berkeley’s City Hall lawn, demanding: Where are people supposed to go?
In Oakland, former Mayor Sheng Thao’s recent executive order has fast-tracked sweeps to remove encampments. Now, authorities can clear sites with as little as 12 hours’ notice, whether or not there are shelter beds available. These sweeps are conducted weekly, displacing countless people. Berkeley has yet to conduct major sweeps but has reportedly issued verbal warnings to smaller camps. The message from both cities is clear: unhoused people don’t belong, but they’re given no place to go. We can’t tolerate this – criminalizing people with nowhere else to go is unacceptable.
Baltimore, Maryland: Politicians Hide Their Real Priorities
Baltimore City recently discovered an unexpected $54 million in the budget because of higher-than-expected revenue from taxes. In just a few minutes, the City Council allocated the money without any questions, comments or public announcement. Most of the money was assigned to categories identified only as “miscellaneous economic development projects,” “multi-year procurement actions,” and “City Council priority projects.”
These descriptions are so vague that it’s obvious the city government does not want residents to understand how our money is spent. How much of that money should go to improve worker safety in the Department of Public Works (DPW), where two sanitation workers have been killed on the job in the last few months? At the very least, we deserve transparency in where this money goes. We should have the power to tell our elected representatives what to do with it.
Newark, New Jersey: NJ Increases Gambling Problems!
In 2018, New Jersey legalized sports betting. Through television, social media, the internet and billboards, advertising for betting apps and companies exploded. Flashing lights, cheering crowds, women’s bodies and retired sports legends front the ads. There’s been a massive push to encourage people to gamble, and phone-based apps make it easier than ever to place bets without thinking about consequences. Since 2021, New Jerseyans have wagered an average of $1 billion per month.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the Council on Compulsive Gambling in New Jersey announced that since 2018 they’ve seen a 277% increase in calls to its gambling helpline. People’s health and financial well-being take second place when companies see the chance for profits!
