This is the third in a six-part series on how to talk-back to Trump’s lies about immigrants. We’ll start with his stated agenda for mass deportations, then counter his claims about open borders, why they come, jobs and the economy, crime and welfare and ask why Trump scapegoats immigrants and what are the real solutions.
Last week Trump made an off-hand suggestion to start a sports league for hand-to-hand combat by immigrants, whom he has previously called animals. What will come next from this wannabe Caesar’s mind? Lions vs. Immigrants? Actually, despite Trump’s job offer, there’s no shortage of real jobs for our immigrant population. Indeed, they are a cornerstone of our economy and always have been.
“Nation of immigrants” is no exaggeration. From the earliest settlers to today, the prosperity of this land and economy has been increased immeasurably by immigrants and children of immigrants. Sadly, starting, less than a decade after the US Constitution was ratified, eruptions of anti-immigrant fervor occurred every few decades. In 1798 it was against refugees from the French Revolution. In the 1840’s it was against the Irish. Then came the anti-Chinese hysteria in the 1880s, followed by lies about Italians and Jews, and on-and-on until today. In addition, our immigration policies have been racist from the start, barring people of color altogether through most of our history, except for Mexicans who we let in through the back door when we needed them and then deported them in hate campaigns like the 1950’s Operation Wetback, which Trump says he wants to emulate if reelected.
Through it all, immigrants built our country. Most joined the working class, organized unions or pushed their way into them, built highways and railroads, mined coal, silver, and lead, grew and harvested crops, and slaved in steel mills. They filled labor shortages, which were perpetual and created jobs with their mom-and-pop businesses, inventions, and ambition. At the same time, nativists, racists, the KKK, and ambitious, politicians all learned that bashing immigrants, blaming them for problems created mostly by the rich, could distract people and win elections.
Since the surge of new immigrants, which began with the era of globalization, “free” trade, and Reaganomics (see last issue), anti-immigrant propaganda has been rising. The claim that immigrants are stealing our jobs has resonated among workers victimized by off-shoring, downsizing and even union busting. But did that Latino fixing your neighbor’s roof really steal some citizen’s job? Shouldn’t we be asking who hired that worker without a safety harness and why his boss fails to pay him overtime when he’s up on that roof for twelve hours straight? Shouldn’t we ask what happened to labor law enforcement, the minimum wage, an immigration system that gives people a path to citizenship? Who really benefits from exporting jobs or putting that undocumented worker on a roof, and why don’t our politicians who want to bash the immigrant talk about strengthening OSHA enforcement, passing the PRO Act and giving us comprehensive immigration reform?
The fact is: immigrants don’t steal jobs. The rich profit off of a deregulated system that exploits them, and they finance candidates like Trump to bash immigrants, distracting us from our real enemies.
The folks who said 150 years ago, “No Irish need apply” are the same types who today want to win elections by promising to deport millions of immigrants. Let’s look at what would happen to our economy if Trump wins and starts rounding up immigrants and putting them in concentration camps along the border, as he’s promised to do: To put it bluntly, the US economy would crash or at least be in deep crisis. Here’s why:
- Almost one in five workers in our economy is an immigrant
- Many immigrants have service jobs. That’s restaurants, clerks and cashiers, janitors, etc.
- They are significant and increasing in construction, production, transportation, and material moving.
- The food chain from the fields and ranches to packing houses and canneries to many of the factories that process our food depend heavily on immigrant labor.
While the labor shortage may be abating, we in the KC area have an acute shortage of workers in construction and healthcare, and many building trades officials have said, “If immigrants without papers could just get work permits, they’d be welcomed into our unions.” In fact, President Biden has set up a program for undocumented immigrants who have been victims of labor law violations to obtain two-year work permits and deferred action from deportation.
There is no evidence that immigrant workers are displacing Americans. Millions of baby boomers are retiring over the next decade, and there aren’t enough younger workers to replace them. Unemployment is at record lows, and workforce participation among citizens is at record highs. So no, if anything our hope for economic growth depends now and in the future on a steady flow of immigrants.
