The article reports that the Democrats' plan "includes a slew of new immigration enforcement measures aimed at U.S. borders and workplaces. It would further expand the 20,000-member Border Patrol; triple fines against U.S. employers that hire illegal immigrants; and, most controversially, require all American workers -- citizens and non-citizens alike -- to get new Social Security cards linked to their fingerprints to ease work eligibility checks." (May 1, 2010).
And:
"Critics of the [Democrats'] law" said its enforcement will open a window on the huge social, economic and government costs of removing 11 million people, as well as the constitutional challenges of doing so without racial profiling or expanding police powers. Most Americans do not want that, they say, but firm and fair policies that uphold the law, bolster U.S. workers and the economy, and respect the nation's immigrant heritage."
Obama and the Democrats have again betrayed another key constituency. Their shift to the right is the outcome of a crumbling economy that cannot be corrected without directly confronting the gigantic wealth and power of U.S. corporations. These corporations control the Democratic Party, who can only respond by the same immigrant scapegoating that the Republicans advocate.
To shield themselves from popular anger, the U.S. corporate elite is promoting the most right-wing ideas to millions of people, so that social passions can be channeled towards society's victims: immigrants, minorities, homosexuals, women who choose to get an abortion, etc. Workers organized in unions are also being targeted.
If the fragile U.S. economy crashes again, these dangerous ideas will find more receptive ears. At the height of the Great Depression, when working-class Americans started to fight back against corporate interests, the US government intervened to shift the countries focus: thousands of Latino immigrants and citizens were rounded up on trains and shipped to Mexico.
To combat immigrant scapegoating, immigrants, all workers and progressive people must demand and fight that corporations and the rich shareholders pay for the economic crisis through progressive income and corporate taxes, while also demanding that ICE workplace raids, detentions and deportations be stopped immediately!
Shamus Cooke is a social service worker, trade unionist, and writer for Workers Action (www.workerscompass.org). He can be reached at shamuscook@yahoo.com
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