The Tripod

"There's an obvious solution to the problem of illegal work: You open the front door and you shut the back door." - Former Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff.

For Michael Chertoff "opening the front door" means that he wants people to come to the U.S. as contract workers, recruited by employers using visas that say a worker can only enter the country to work. This is the logic and requirement for every guest worker program, going back to the notorious Bracero program. And to make people come only through this employment-based system, Chertoff would "close the back door" by making walking through the desert across the border, or working outside of this contract labor system, a crime punished, not just by deportation, but by detention and prison.

During the Bracero program from 1942 to 1964, growers recruited workers from Mexico who could only enter under contract and had to leave the country at the end of the harvest. They called the Braceros legal, but what kind of legality do people have living behind barbed wire in camps, traveling and working only where the growers wanted? If Braceros went on strike, they were deported. Part of their wages was withheld, supposedly to guarantee their return to Mexico. Half a century later, they're still fighting to recover the lost money.

People coming as contract labor never become citizens, vote, or hold power. That's very convenient in Mississippi, for instance, where employers need the labor of immigrants, but are afraid of what will happen if they vote. And by no coincidence, that state employs more guest workers per capita than any other. Mississippi recently passed a state employer sanctions law, with a $10,000 fine and five years in jail for working without being "authorized."

But wouldn't guest worker programs be preferable to what we have now? The Southern Poverty Law Center's report, "Close to Slavery," documents that today's Braceros are routinely cheated of wages and overtime. No employer hires guest workers in order to pay more. They hire them to keep wages low - ultimately for everyone. And to police the guest worker system will require E-Verify, the high-tech immigration database endorsed by both the Bush and Obama administrations, is only the latest idea for enforcing this kind of criminalization. The purpose of E-Verify, raids, firings and every other kind of workplace immigration enforcement, is, fundamentally, the criminalization of work - if you have no papers, it is a crime to have a job.

How many criminals like this are there? The Pew Hispanic Trust says there are 12 million people without papers here in the U.S.

Illegal status is created here. All the immigration reform bills in Congress share the assumption that immigrants, even those with visas, shouldn't be the equals of the people in the community around them with the same rights. For those without visas, the exclusion and inequality is even fiercer. And this is not a de facto exclusion or denial of rights. It is de jure denial, written into law.

Today, the U.S. faces a basic choice in direction for its immigration policy. There is a corporate agenda on migration, promoted by powerful voices in Washington, D.C., like the Council on Foreign Relations and the employer lobby known as the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition (its members include Wal-Mart, Marriott, Tyson Foods, etc). These groups propose to manage the flow of migration with new guest worker programs and more severe penalties against those who try to migrate and work outside this system. Some of their proposals also contain a truncated legalization for the undocumented, but one that would disqualify most people or have them wait for years for visas, while removing employer liability for the undocumented workers they've already hired.

If workers do protest, they're put on a blacklist. The Department of Labor under Bush never once decertified a guest-worker contractor for labor violations, and yet declared it legal for an employer to keep a blacklist.

We do not want immigration used as a cheap labor supply system, with workers paying off recruiters, and, once here, frightened that they'll be deported if they lose their jobs. We need to get rid of the laws that make immigrants criminals and working a crime. No more detention centers, no more ankle bracelets, no more firings and no-match letters and no more raids. All people in our communities should have the same rights and status.

It begins with legalization, giving 12 million people residence rights and green cards so they can live like normal human beings. Those people who do choose to come here to work deserve the same things that every other worker does. We all have the same rights, and the same needs - jobs, schools, medical care, a decent place to live and the right to walk the streets or drive our cars without fear.

We can have an immigration system that respects human rights. We can stop deportations. We can win security for working families on both sides of our borders Yes, it's possible. ¡Si se puede!

Special Note: David Bacon, journalist, author and advocate for the rights of immigrants, has worked as a reporter and documentary photographer for the past 18 years for numerous national publications. Bacon covers issues of labor, immigration and international politics. He travels frequently to Mexico, the Philippines, Europe and Iraq. He hosts a half-hour weekly radio show on labor, immigration, and the global economy on KPFA-FM. We feel he has a unique insight into changing conditions in the workforce, the impact of the global economy and migration, and how these factors influence the struggle for workers rights. His previous books include The Children of NAFTA, Communities Without Borders, and Living Under the Trees. He has received numerous awards for both his writing and photography. He will visit campus next Tuesday to present his new book, Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Immigration and Criminalizes Immigrants. His talk will be on Tuesday, Dec. 8 at 7:30 p.m. in Mather Hall, Terrace Room C; a book signing and reception will follow.

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