Suman Raghunathan

Hello, the Fugitive. Goodbye, the Equalizer

Now that the Senate immigration proposal is officially dead, it looks like there will be a knee-jerk return to an enforcement-only approach to immigration. Arizona's already started with a state law approved last week that targets small businesses that employ undocumented immigrants.

Despite Washington's failure to broker an immigration proposal that granted justice to immigrant workers and families and benefited the American middle class (yes to legalizing the undocumented workers already in the US, no to a guest worker program), the government’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is already tooting its own horn for deporting a record number of immigrants over the past year.

This shortsighted approach is long on rhetoric and short on practicality, and will not, contrary to popular belief, benefit the American middle class in the long run.

Hello, the Fugitive. Goodbye, the Equalizer.

In fact, ICE is ahead of its own game. Over the past year, the agency (NOT a tribute to the hapless 80’s rapper Vanilla Ice – yes, I am dating myself here) deported over 195,000 immigrants – many of them workers contributing to our economy, but let’s not quibble– setting a new record for the number of immigrants yanked out of participating in the US economic system and directly supporting middle class retirements, small businesses, and consumer markets. ICE agents with automatic weapons have raided undocumented immigrants’ homes in New Haven, meatpacking plants in six states, and Wal-Marts across the country in the name of immigration enforcement.

(Mind you, I’m no fan of Wal-Mart. In fact, they’ve been particularly astute about using outside contractors to do their dirty work: namely, locking undocumented cleaning crews in Wal-Mart facilities overnight to clean the all-American discount retailer’s aisles for shamefully low wages.)

No dice, folks. As DMI has said before, focusing on immigration enforcement without giving undocumented workers an incentive and way to emerge from the unregulated economy’s shadows will not only push immigrants further underground; it will also (against that famously wise information source, conventional wisdom) hurt the American middle class.

Allow me to explain.

Punishing immigrants for their lack of immigration status (based on our immigration system, which both the left and right agree is broken) does little to help American middle class workers, and definitely does not honor immigrant economic contributions as workers, entrepreneurs, and consumers.

As a result of their immigration status (or lack thereof), many undocumented immigrant workers are forced to accept substandard working conditions, unfair pay, and harassment from unscrupulous employers.

Granting legal status to undocumented immigrants workers will allow them to unionize,and demand the fair wages and workforce protections they need – a fact borne out by studies that show undocumented immigrants earn higher wages after gaining legal status than they did before. Another recent study found fewer workplace violations in industries with high unionization rates.

Raising wages for immigrant workers will also benefit American middle class workers, who will no longer have to compete with the artificially low wages forced upon immigrants. A White House Council of Economic Advisors report found immigrants actually increase the annual earnings of native-born workers – to the tune of $37 billion a year. The real deal: in the long run, middle class workers (regardless of where they were born) would benefit from this pragmatic and just public policy.

Public opinion backs me up here. A range of polls all found a majority of American voters support giving a second chance for undocumented immigrants to legally stay in the country via some form of legalization. Case in point: a nationwide poll conducted by Fox News (take that, Lou Dobbs!) showed a whopping 67% of registered voters want to allow undocumented immigrants to stay in the US;a majority also supported allowing those undocumented individuals to become legal residents and stay in the country long-term. Doesn’t sound to me like voters think reflexively deporting undocumented immigrants for following the good old American way of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is a winning strategy. News flash: using an immigration dragnet is not a smart or practical solution to address the nations’ flawed immigration system, and is not going to help the squeezed American middle class.

A recent Brennan Center for Justice report outlines the ingredients of a good pro-worker, pro-immigrant agenda:

“The best defense against workplace violations is workers who know their rights, have full status under the law to assert them, have access to legal services, and do not fear retaliation when bringing claims against their employers. Therefore, a guiding principle for national immigration reform must be that immigrant workers have equal protection and equal status in the workplace.”

American middle class workers actually get the long end of the stick when immigrants can earn legal status and are able to build on most have already been doing – working hard in all sectors of the economy,paying taxes, setting up businesses (one in ten small business owners is an immigrant), and (particularly the undocumented) bankrolling the Social Security system’s future with $7 billion in annual contributions adding up to a staggering $421 billion as of July 2003.

Let’s connect the dots: the IRS already estimates three-quarters of undocumented immigrants pay income and other payroll taxes;few can claim a refund, so that money is going straight into the coffers of Social Security, Medicare, and state and local governments(see one of my past posts for a discussion of the $202 million in annual tax revenues and the net economic benefit Latino immigrants bring to Long Island).

Higher wages for immigrant workers also means more money for federal and local safety net programs (such as state hospitals and state universities) that the middle class depends upon, particularly in this age of ballooning health care and education costs.

If immigrant workers can demand fair wages, their middle class American counterparts’ wages would no longer be low-balled, because American workers wouldn’t have to compete with immigrant workers forced to accept low pay because they don’t have other options for fair wages. Speaking of policies to support American workers, here’s a good one: the Employee Free Choice Act. Too bad it failed.

We need the Equalizer back to move us beyond immigration enforcement aimed at a two-tiered class of workers, and help us do right by immigrant and middle class workers.

Suman Raghunathan: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 8:00 AM, Jul 11, 2007 in Immigration
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