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Democrats are going to have to talk about illegal immigration. It may be true that “we’re not offering amnesty”, but that isn't going to change a single mind or vote. Fortunately, there is time for Democrats to get ahead of the issue and turn the discussion in their favor.All too often "Illegal Immigration" is just a nice way of saying "Slave Labor". Men and women alike are often forced to work for little more than substandard room and board. Women are particularly at risk for being forced into prostitution. In other words, a modern-day slave trade is alive and flourishing because America isn’t patrolling its borders and ports properly.
Even those who willingly pay smugglers to get them into the country are at risk for exploitation. Long hours and low pay are the best they can hope for – with the constant threat of deportation for the slightest hint of “trouble-making”. In the slave-labor market, “trouble-making” is anything other than being a lick-spittle for whatever meager food and shelter is passed along.
Slavery is enforced as it has always been – with threats and beatings and the institutionalizing of fear. It is the ultimate human rights abuse. If you kill someone, you just take away their life. If you enslave them, you force them to bear witness to how worthless they are. Only their work gives their life any value. At least a murdered victim can lay claim to potential greatness. A slave not only forfeits greatness, but even basic human dignity. They are only worthy of their master’s castoffs as long as their labor pleases him.
This is the reality hiding behind the Great Brown Scare that is sweeping the country. Behind “taking our jobs” lies the truth that the only person who really benefits from paying sub-standard wages is the one who actually pays those wages. Behind “breaking the law” lies the truth that they are, ultimately, victims – and even a victim that carelessly rushed towards their pain is still a victim.
It isn’t wrong to want to protect our country. It isn’t wrong to want laws to be enforced. It surely isn’t wrong to want the people who work for a living in this country to earn a fair wage. What’s wrong is to scapegoat the victim in the equation. We've tried that before - with disastrous results.
Some Americans once thought the answer to slavery was to “send Blacks back to Africa”. No one was “sent back”, but enough were “sent away” that a new country was founded. This ignored the reality that most of the people sent to Liberia were born in this country. The problem wasn’t that it was impossible for blacks to live in peace and equality with whites – the problem was that one group of people used their position and power to enslave another.
We can actually make great strides towards protecting our borders and our citizens; in fighting for a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work; and in making our society one where “justice for all” is more than a catch phrase. A path to citizenship should include cooperation in exposing and prosecuting the smugglers that brought them here. By agreeing to testify against the scum that prey on the dreams of a million men and women, they will be earning their citizenship and proving their fealty by helping make this country safer. They will also be providing a very real service to their fellow workers – immigrant and native born – by exposing those who are willing to nod and wink at our labor laws in order to turn a few bucks worth of profit. The problem isn't that people are willing to risk their lives to come here - the problem is that people are willing to enslave those that do so.
In short, it will accomplish many of the policy objectives that rabid conservatism rightly identifies as problems: porous borders, non-existent enforcement of labor laws, and the cheapening of citizenship. But it will do so without scapegoating the immigrants who are involved in doing little more than trying to make an honest living. That it will steal the Republican's issue upon which to demagogue is only icing on the cake.
But the reason Democrats should take this issue is that it is the right thing to do. Just as no moral justification can be made for modern day slavery, no justification can be made to stand idly by and allow it to continue. Democrats are busy trying to convince us that they can change Washington – they can heal what divides America and make politics a path for improving society. This is their chance to prove it won’t be found in “triangulation”, but in hard-nosed Progressive values that see “liberty and justice for all” as a promise, not a pander.
