Immigration Politics in 2008: Exploitation, Charges of Latino Voter Suppression
One great relief about the 2008 presidential race is that the White House under any of the three remaining contenders... Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain... won't be searching for hate-based, nativist solutions to reform U.S. immigration laws. To his credit, neither has President George W. Bush.
Like the raging controversy over free trade agreements, though, I'm uncertain whether John McCain, and to a lesser extent, free trader Hillary Clinton, will continue Bush pro-business programs to exploit Latino guest workers for pittance wages in service of U.S. corporate profits. And to undercut U.S. wages in the process.
One curiousity of the Democratic race for the 2008 presidential nomination: although Latino voters are playing a powerful role in selecting the party nominee, they've been remarkably passive in asking the candidates about their intentions to:
- Help undocumented workers now laboring for U.S. corporations to establish legal residency, and to end lives spent fearfully hiding in the shadows.
- Establish an accessible path to citizenship for the millions of undocumented workers and their families who are long-term U.S. residents and who meet reasonable criteria;
- Reform guest worker programs to pay more than grossly exploitive wages and to provide safe working and sanitary living conditions.
And there's a lot to reform.
Bush Loosens Guest Worker Program Minimums
Without consulting Congress, the Bush administration quietly moved earlier this month to radically loosen regulations for farmers to hire seasonal laborers just in time for the 2008 picking season. Reported the New York Times on February 7, 2008:
"Growers cautiously welcomed the proposed changes, saying they would be helpful... Advocates for farm workers warned that the measures would lower wages for those who are already in the United States."
Among stealth Bush changes to the guest worker program are:
- Wage rates that are less than the under-market wages now paid to guest workers;
- Farmers bypass all state agencies and requirements, and apply directly at federal centers;
- Farmers no longer need provide the names of the guest workers, merely quantity hired;
- Farmers are no longer required to prove, with evidence of any kind, that they tried to recruit U.S. workers, but found none qualified and willing to work.
Lamented Bruce Goldstein, director of Farmworker Justice:
"We’re concerned this proposal will allow thousands of agricultural employers to bring in cheap foreign labor from poor countries and undermine the standards of farm workers in this country, which already are too low."
Growing Backlog for Green Cards
The waiting time for permanent residency cards (i.e. green cards) has increased to 12 months (or longer if there's a hitch) in 2008 from 11 months in 2005, despite the unconscionable tripling of requisite green card fees in 2007 instituted to :
- "end chronic delays,
- move offices in run-down buildings to comfortable new facilities,
- replace paper applications that must be mailed with electronic forms that can be filed online, and
- turn rude or inattentive employees into well-trained customer-friendly staffers."
Source - Emilio Gonzalez - Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Green cards, which are now an exorbitant cost for many who earn poverty-level wages, are required for non-U.S. citizens to legally live and work in the United States. Another roadblock of the present system is for family members accompanying workers given green cards. USAToday explained in 2005:
"... lengthy security checks as part of the war on terrorism, the yearly cap on visas and a backlog of applications have forced many immigrant families to wait years to be reunited with relatives abroad..." 'Legal permanent residents often wait up to 20 years to reunite with their spouses and children,' said Judy Golub, a spokeswoman for the American Immigration Lawyers Association... 'Such long separations make no sense in our pro-family nation and reflect poorly on us.' "
On February 11, 2008, the INS-successor, federal Citizenship and Immigration Services agency (See the Washington Post's Agency Could Hinder Immigration Reform) announced a small change in green card application processing procedures that could help reduce the wait time.
But given the rich history of incompetency and inefficiency at U.S. federal immigration agencies since the early 1980s, don't bet on it.
Lengthy Wait for Citizenship Application Processing
Like permanent residency "green" cards, the wait for processing a U.S. citizenship application is now about 18 months, a huge increase from seven months several years ago... and again, despite a huge increase in required fees.
And critics detect political motives in this delay which was "predicted" in June 2007 by Citizenship and Immigration Services. Wrote the Dallas Morning News on January 30, 2008:
"Mr. Gonzalez and his agency have been assailed by critics who charge that the Republican administration wants to suppress the votes of new citizens likely to vote for a Democrat..."Some 57 percent of Hispanic registered voters call themselves Democrats or say they lean toward the Democratic Party, while 23 percent align with the Republican Party, according to a recent Pew Hispanic Center survey."
And the Sacramento Bee reported on January 15, 2008:
" 'These are going to be battleground states with significant increases in Latino votes. With the increase in naturalization rates, it's going to be an interesting year,' said Evan Bacalao, research associate with the National Association of Latino Appointed and Elected Officials..."Bacalao said new citizens could help provide a critical 'margin of victory' in some states. Labor and voting rights advocates say they're bracing for a possible fight to make sure citizenship processing keeps on pace."
Immigration Politics in 2008
Immigration politics should play a major role in determining the 2008 presidential nominees, as well as in selecting the next President of the United States.
But don't look for the presidential candidates to voluntarily bring up this hot-potato issue of morality and human rights that's acutely intertwined with economics, education, healthcare and national security.
The urgent task of pushing John McCain and either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton to confront immigration policies and plans will be up to Latino voters.
And to the press...
As the New York Times noted on December 30, 2007:
"The next president will still face the tricky task of negotiating not just the politics of the issue, but also some concrete realities." While border fences and immigration raids have discouraged some illegal immigrants from coming and encouraged some who are here to go home, millions of illegal workers have had families here and put down roots, and are not going to disappear."
(Photo of Latino farmworkers picking strawberries in 2006 in San Diego county: Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)
Related Reading
Pros & Cons of the Immigration Reform Act of 2007
Illegal Immigration Explained - Profits & Poverty, Social Security & Starvation
Obama's Courageous Speech on Immigration Reform
New York Times, Feb 7, 2008: White House Moves to Ease Guest Worker Program
New York Times, Dec 30, 2007: Immigration Is Defying Easy Answers
Dalls Morning News, Jan 30, 2008: Citizenship Backlog to Curb Latino Vote
Comments
Illegal Aliens and Immigration is NOT the same thing. Immigrant is a legal status granted by a sovereign country. We have to many folks who do not know and are ignorant or outright deceivers, confusing illegal alien workers calling them illegal immigrants with immigrants. Criminals did NOT build America; Citizens and LEGAL immigrants built it. American’s want an end to anarchy! This is NOT a Democrat, Republican, Independent issue. It’s an American Issue.
Illegal aliens are criminals, those who hire them are criminals and those who aid-and-abet them are criminals.
Illegal aliens in America have NO rights. We are required by law to arrest and prosecute, deport them. (Title 8 U.S. Code)
No, matter your political party affiliation, and setting aside your thoughts on issues. We all need to remember what it is to be an American Citizen. We need to make sure our elected representatives obey their Oath of Office and keep their Oath of Allegiance.
Speaking as a descendant of a Mexican immigrant, those illegal aliens you speak of ARE immigrants, and they have every right to come here. I don’t buy any of this “I’m not against immigrants, just illegal aliens” crap. This is a cover for what you and many others really harbor: hatred for Mexicans. That’s what it really is. So don’t try to make yourselves out like you don’t hate Mexican immigrants. We Hispanics know hatred when we see it.
Veronica, you sound foolish.
You do, Veronica. I can’t stand it when the pro-illegal immigration nutjobs automatically accuse their opponents of racism; it’s so childish.
To all the haters. A comprehensive immigration reform with path to citizenship is INEVITABLE: it is a matter of when, not if. Hatred has never worked as a successfull political tool in our country’s history. The racist/KKK wing of the GOP is fighting a losing battle: they are on the losing side of both hisory and demographics! And even they know it.
Indeed, A comprehensive plan is inevitable. And few are saying it’s not…However, what most fail to realize is that it went into effect about a year ago. You see, the government never planned, nor dared pass a proposal that would give tens of millions of illegal aliens citizenship, the right to work, or any other kickback after the absolute fiasco of the 1986 “amnesty” that resulted in the illegal population increasing tenfold….It just looks good for the democrats and republicans to talk about it from time to time…anyway, whats happening now, is the government at the local level is passing laws that will, without question be passed state by state that will tighten the screws of immigration law to the point that it will be more of a hassle to remain in the states than it would be to return to ones homeland…Now, of course, many illegal aliens will tough it out. But many will decide not to leave. knowing this, the government will refrain from enacting anything that would interfear with this process until the illegal population is at a level deemed reasonable…in the meantime, a fence will be constructed across most of the entry points to ensure that there won’t be a “reverse” effect if, or when any immigration policy is allowed to go into effect.
why call them illegal aliens if they don’t harms others they are immigrants but they are also human being like us look i mixed black, hispanic, and mexican am legal but half of family isn’t basically most of them i don’teven because there no here with me the immigrants are usually here to be with there family not to hurt anyone. life it’s hard for me and i haven’t seen my uncle for 6 years and now he calls on saying they have him in a camp and just getting pay 5 dollars a day. he is somewhere else and he could of been with my cousins well his children but he got pulled away. thats my life no think how others are suffering for a son or wife or brother, sister, or even a father. life shouldn’t end up like that. think about it.