Racism, A Double Edged Sword

The argument over illegal immigration has been going on for quite some time now, although the real issues of the argument have been carefully sidestepped by the vast majority of the corporate media. As a result, the vast majority of those opposed to illegal immigration approach the problem as a case of ethics, which is to say undocumented workers have broken the law, and therefore need to be punished. (The ones from Mexico at any rate.) The counterargument, on the other hand, consists of a pity plea made on behalf of the workers, whose only goal it is to share in the fairness and equality of opportunity that is the American Dream. The end result of this tug-of-war match is that illegals are kept in a kind of citizenship limbo, in which they aren’t outright deported, yet lack the rights and liberties U.S. citizens enjoy.

It’s in this state of citizenship purgatory the vast majority of corporations, and as a result the politicians whose votes they purchase, want undocumented workers to stay. Those illegals who attempt to gain rights or better wages are immediately arrested and carted off back across the border, and those who offer no resistance live essentially as slaves; surviving but hardly living. What’s more, these exploited workers can and will most probably be turned into an auxiliary workforce useful in breaking what few unions and labor laws remain in the country; whenever legal workers attempt to strike or lobby for better treatment, they’ll be laid off and replaced by their more agreeable counterparts.

This is by no means a new strategy, and was once employed in the south against by taking advantage of the prejudices against African Americans. It was actually a direct result of the south’s racism and bigotry that unions never developed to the degree they were able to in the north; up until the Reagan administration’s dismantling of America’s industrial infrastructure, this caused a noticeable economic divide between the working people of the northern and southern states.

When all is said and done, our nation’s immigration laws will have hurt the average American far more than they'll have helped; the only ones who stand to profit are big businesses, and those corrupt politicians whose ears (and wallets) their agendas find a place in. The only solution to the issues arising from undocumented workers is to cease allowing them to be undocumented, and in so doing take away from Corporate America their work force of second-class citizens. 

By Aaron J Feizet