USA IMMIGRATION: Myths vs Facts

Immigration: myths vs. facts

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Archive Modern archive back to Oct. 2001 2008 Editions Jan. 19, 2008
Author: Joelle Fishman, Rosalío Muñoz and Emile Schepers
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 01/17/08 13:10

A look behind the anti-immigrant furor In the buildup to the 2008 elections, the right-wing Republicans have decided to make immigrants the scapegoat for the failure of the Bush administration and the shortcomings of the capitalist system.

Right-wing personalities on cable TV, on talk radio and in newspapers are fueling this process. Vicious lies are being told about immigrants.

The questions and answers here are designed to provide you with accurate information about the impact of immigrant workers and their families, with or without papers, on the United States today.

Why are so many immigrants coming to the United States?
• Working people in Mexico and other poor countries have been devastated by the practices of U.S. and other international corporations. So-called free trade pacts like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are imposed with conditions that prevent poor countries from meeting their people’s needs. • After NAFTA came into force, more than 1.3 million Mexican farmers were driven out of business. U.S. agribusiness, subsidized by our tax dollars, sold corn in Mexico at lower prices than farmers there could produce. Undocumented Mexican immigration to U.S. rose 60 percent.

• Big corporations in the United States have been glad to take advantage of the cheap labor, and have sent labor recruiters into economically depressed areas of Mexico, Central America and elsewhere. So why don’t people in those countries fix their situation at home instead of coming here?

• U.S.-based multinational corporations have put heavy pressure on other countries, including Mexico, to keep their economies open to penetration by U.S. corporations.

• When these countries resist this pressure, the U.S. government and corporations intervene with threats, bribery and even military force to stop union organizing and political change from taking place.

• With this pro-business, anti-worker foreign policy, the U.S. government has sponsored coups, civil wars and dictators in Haiti, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras. My grandparents came from Europe legally.

Why can’t people from Mexico and other countries do the same? Why do they butt ahead in line?

• It is not a matter of “butting in line.” There is no line for them to get in! In 2005, the U.S. government gave out only 5,000 permanent legal resident visas for low-skilled workers.

• Even people married to U.S. citizens or permanent legal residents sometimes have to wait years to join their spouses. This is a different situation from the one our grandparents faced.

• Today it is nearly impossible for most people who don’t have relatives here or specialized skills to come at all.

Do immigrants cause unemployment?

• There are not a fixed number of jobs in our economy. The truth is immigrant workers and their families, like all other workers, create jobs at a rate corresponding to those they fill.

• The real causes of unemployment are rooted in the decreasing wages being paid to all workers. Our country’s workers can no longer afford to buy the products they produce. • Immigrant workers are not responsible for the millions of jobs wiped out by the shutting down of plants across the nation. They are not the cause of massive job loss which occurs when employers increase the workloads of some employees while laying off others.

Do immigrants drive down U.S. wages?

• It’s true that today U.S. workers are seeing their wages drop. This is especially true for young workers and people of color. But more than anything, this is due to a Congress and a president who refuse to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. It is due to right-wing policies that deny workers the right to form unions.

• Employers will always take advantage of workers who don’t have the right to defend themselves, using one group of vulnerable workers against the rest.

• Immigrants are not the cause of higher unemployment rates of African Americans and other U.S. minorities. The continued toleration of racial discrimination in hiring, the dismantling of affirmative action, and weak labor laws are to blame.

• The only effective response is to fight for equal treatment and equal rights for all workers. That is why the legalization of immigrant workers, with full labor and civil rights, is in the interest of us all.

Do immigrants join labor unions?

• Immigrant workers, even those without documents, have been at the forefront of many recent labor actions including organizing drives and strikes.

• One example is immigrant workers at Smithfield Foods’ meat-packing plant in North Carolina, who struck for safe working conditions alongside their African American and white co-workers.

• The roofers’ union reports huge organizing successes among immigrant workers in New Mexico.

• Immigrant workers are at the core of organizing efforts of laundry workers across the nation.

• Employers regularly use the threat of arrest and deportation to break up union actions where immigrant workers are involved. Nevertheless, union membership is growing even faster among immigrant workers than among others.

Do immigrants pay their fair share of taxes?

• Like other workers, most undocumented and documented immigrant workers have both federal and state income taxes deducted from their paychecks. An undocumented worker picking tomatoes in Florida pays more income taxes proportionally than many corporate executives.

• Undocumented workers pay $7 billion a year into Social Security. However, they are ineligible to collect any benefits. • Immigrants, like the rest of us, pay sales taxes every time they buy something. They pay property taxes too, either on property they own or through their rent.

What about the crime rate among immigrants?

• Numerous studies show that the rate of violent and property crime among immigrants, with or without documents, is lower than that of comparable sectors of the U.S. population, even though anti-immigrant agitators try to give the opposite impression by highlighting isolated cases of shocking crimes.

What about terrorism?

• Undocumented immigrant workers were not linked to 9/11 or any other recent terrorist attack. Every one of the 9/11 terrorists came here on a legal visa issued by the United States government.
• The vast majority of undocumented and documented immigrants have nothing whatever to do with terrorism, and come here only to work and be with family.

• If hard-working immigrants could have a legal way of coming here, the danger of terrorists entering secretly would be lessened.

What is the impact of immigrants on social, health care and educational services? • Immigrant workers are not getting a free ride. Like other workers, most immigrants pay the same federal, state and local taxes which finance our schools, health clinics and other public services.

• Immigrant workers, alongside their native-born co-workers, generate fortunes for their employers in industries such as agribusiness, meatpacking, hotels, restaurants and construction.

• However, Republican administrations since Reagan have given the super-rich huge tax cuts. If these were rolled back, there would be enough money to finance needed services for everybody: immigrant and U.S.-born.

• There is no evidence that new immigrants pose a public health danger to their neighbors. Indeed, studies show that they are on the whole healthier than comparable sectors of the U.S.-born population.

Do immigrants threaten the English language and American culture?

• There have always been other languages spoken alongside English in the United States, including Native American (Indian) languages, Spanish in the Southwest and Florida, French in Louisiana and German dialects in Pennsylvania.

• Our country’s experience has been that while new immigrants may struggle a bit with the language, the second generation always speaks English fluently. This is just as true of Latino immigrants today as it was of other immigrants in the past.

• All over the country, classes to teach English to non-English speakers are jammed full.

• The vast majority of new immigrants believe fervently in democracy, family, freedom and social justice, and thus are a boon to our values, not a menace.

What is really behind the anti-immigrant furor?

• Right-wing politicians and their media supporters want to distract the public’s attention from the scandals of the Bush administration, the war in Iraq, the health care crisis, the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs and the home foreclosures disaster. They are using the “illegal immigrant” scare to do this.

• Big business interests want cheap labor but do not want low-paid workers to have rights. So they whip up scare campaigns against immigrant workers. Their aim is to keep them quiet and underpaid, and the workers divided.

• Hard-core racist forces are using the immigration issue to whip up hate and fear against Mexicans, other Latinos, Africans, Middle Easterners and South Asians. Their strategy is to give legitimacy to racist attitudes and policies in this country. This works to the detriment not only of immigrants but of all U.S. minorities and the rest of us.

What is the solution?

The solution is not to hang a “keep out” sign on the Statue of Liberty’s torch. The solution is not to waste vast amounts of taxpayer money on a useless and environmentally destructive fence.

The solution is to carry out a comprehensive, worker-friendly immigration reform including:

• Legalization of the current undocumented immigrants, as quickly and cheaply as possible, with full labor and civil rights and a clear path to citizenship.

• Changes in U.S. visa policies so that ordinary working people who want to come here and live and work can do so without violating laws or risking their lives.

• Avoidance of guest worker schemes that keep foreign workers in conditions of serfdom without the right to defend themselves or integrate themselves into our society.

• Giving immigrant workers the same rights on the job and in the community that other workers have, so they can join unions and fight together for better wages and working conditions.

• Changes in U.S. trade and foreign policy so that the development of the economies of poorer countries is no longer undermined by multinational corporate interests or U.S. government interference.

For more information and sources:
• “They Take Our Jobs! and 20 Other Myths About Immigration” http://www.beacon.org/.
• “The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers” http://www.monthlyreview.org/.
• The Pew Hispanic Center http://www.pewhispanic.org/.
• Migration Policy Institute http://www.immigrationinformation.org/.
• Immigration Policy Center http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/.
• The People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo http://www.pww.org/,
and Political Affairs http://www.politicalaffairs.net/.

Emile Schepers, Rosalio Muñoz and Joelle Fishman serve on the Communist Party USA’s immigration legislative subcommittee. For more information contact: politicalaction @cpusa.org
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La inmigración: hechos y mitos

Search WWW Search pww.org Archive Modern archive back to Oct. 2001 2008 Editions Jan. 19, 2008
Author: Joelle Fishman, Rosalío Muñoz and Emile Schepers
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 01/17/08 13:21
Detrás del furor antiinmigrante, en realidad En las preparativas para las elecciones de 2008, los republicanos derechistas han decidido convertir a los inmigrantes en el chivo expiatorio para las catástrofes de la administración de Bush y las deficiencias del capitalismo. Personajes de la ultra derecha en televisión de cable, programas radiales y los periódicos impulsan este proceso. Las mentiras cada vez más ofensivas y racistas acerca de los inmigrantes siguen en circulación. Esta campaña derechista en contra de los inmigrantes es parte de un plan amplio de fomentar el racismo en contra de los afro americanos, latinos y otros pueblos oprimidos.

El propósito de este folleto es el de proporcionarle información verídica sobre el impacto que tienen los obreros inmigrantes y sus familias, con o sin papeles, en la sociedad estadounidense.

Por favor, comparta esta información con sus compañeros de trabajo, parientes y vecinos. Invitamos sus comentarios.

Escríbanos por correo electrónico a politicalaction@cpusa.org.

¿Por qué están llegando tantos inmigrantes a los estados unidos?

• Gente de clase obrera en México y otros países pobres han sido destrozados por las prácticas de las grandes corporaciones norteamericanas e internacionales. Pactos de libre comercio como el Tratado de Libre Comercio Norteamericano se imponen con condiciones que previenen que los países pobres satisfagan a las necesidades de sus pueblos.

• Después de que el TLC entre los Estados Unidos, Canadá y México empezó a funcionar, y especialmente después de las condiciones duras impuestas como condiciones del préstamo a México en 1995, más de 1.3 millones de campesinos mexicanos con sus familias se encontraron forzados a abandonar a la agricultura, pues corporaciones agrícolas norteamericanas, gozando de grandes subsidios proporcionados por los contribuyentes estadounidenses, empezaron a vender al maíz en México a precios mas bajos que los que podrían cobrar los agricultores mexicanos. La inmigración desde México y a los Estados Unidos disparó, subiendo más de 60%.

• Las grandes corporaciones norteamericanas han aprovechado muy felizmente de la mano de obra barata, y han enviado sus agentes al interior de México y Centroamérica para reclutar obreros. Los pueblos de esos países

¿Por qué no arreglan la situación en casa en vez de venir para acá?

• Las corporaciones multinacionales basadas en los Estados Unidos han presionado mucho a otros países, inclusive a México, para que mantengan sus economías abiertas a la penetración norteamericana.

• Cuando estos países resisten esta presión, el gobierno estadounidense y las corporaciones intervienen con amenazas, sobornos y hasta fuerza militar para poner alto a la sindicalización y el cambio político.

• Con esta política exterior que favorece a las corporaciones y perjudica a los trabajadores, el gobierno de los Estados Unidos ha auspiciado golpes de estado, guerras civiles y dictadores en Haití, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua y Honduras. Mis abuelos vinieron desde Europa en forma legal.

¿Por qué es que las personas de México y esos otros países no pueden hacer lo mismo? ¿Por qué se cuelan en frente de la cola?

• No es asunto de “meterse en frente de la cola”. No existe tal cola para que ellos se cuelen. En 2005, el gobierno norteamericano otorgó solo 5,000 visas de residencia permanente (micas) para trabajadores con capacitación limitada.

• Hasta personas casadas con ciudadanos norteamericanos o residentes permanentes legales a veces tienen que esperar años para que el gobierno permita entrar a sus esposos o esposas de otros países. Esta es una situación distinta a la que nuestros abuelos tuvieron que superar.

• Ahora es casi imposible que la mayoría de las personas que no tienen ni parientes en este país, ni capacidades especiales para el trabajo, venir a radicar en este país.

¿Son los inmigrantes la causa del desempleo?

• No hay cierto número fijo de empleos en la economía. Los trabajadores inmigrantes y sus familias, al igual como todos trabajadores, crean un número de trabajos igual a los que ocupan.

• Las verdaderas causas del desempleo se encuentran en la rebaja de los salarios de los trabajadores. Ya no pueden comprar los productos que ellos mismos producen.

• Los trabajadores inmigrantes no tienen la culpa por la pérdida de millones de trabajos eliminados por el cierre de fábricas en todo el país. No tienen la culpa por la pérdida masiva de empleos que resultan del hecho que los patronos aumentan el cargo de tra- bajo para algunos empleados mientras que dan descanso a otros.

¿Son los inmigrantes la causa de que los salarios vayan bajando?

• Es cierto que hoy en día, los trabajadores ven que sus salarios van bajando. Esto es el caso especialmente para trabajadores jóvenes y minoritarios. Pero mas que nada, el desempleo debe achacarse a un congreso y a un presidente que niegan aumentar el salario mínimo a un nivel decente, a políticas reaccionarias que les niegan a los trabajadores el derecho de sindicalizarse.

• Los patronos siempre se aprovecharán de aquellos trabajadores que carecen del derecho de defenderse, utilizando un grupo de trabajadores vulnerables en contra de los demás.

• Los inmigrantes tampoco tienen la culpa para las tasas elevadas de desempleo entre los afro americanos y otras minorías norteamericanas. Esto debe achacarse al hecho de que en este país se tolera a la discriminación racial en el trabajo, de que prácticamente se ha deshecho a la acción afirmativa, y que tenemos leyes laborales demasiado débiles.

• La única respuesta a tales tácticas es de luchar a favor de trato igual y plenos derechos para todos los trabajadores. Por eso es que la legalización de los trabajadores inmigrantes, con plenos derechos laborales y civiles, representa el interés legítimo de todos los trabajadores.

¿Se afilian con los sindicatos los inmigrantes?

• Los trabajadores inmigrantes, inclusive los que no tienen papeles, han sido tenaz en la lucha en muchas acciones laborales recientes inclusive campañas de sindicalización y huelgas, donde se encuentran concentrados.

• Un ejemplo es el de los trabajadores inmigrantes en la empacadora de carne “Smithfield” en Carolina del Norte, quienes salieron en huelga en contra de las condiciones peligrosas de trabajo, al lado de sus compañeros afro americanos y blancos. El sindicato que organiza personas que construyen techos dice que tiene tremendo éxito en organizar a los trabajadores inmigrantes en Nuevo México. Los trabajadores inmigrantes se encuentran en el mero corazón del esfuerzo de organizar a las lavanderías industriales en todo el país.

• Los patronos en forma regular utilizan la amenaza de detención y deportación para parar las actividades sindicales cuando hay trabajadores inmigrantes involucrados. Sin embargo, la afiliación en los sindicatos va creciendo más rápidamente entre obreros inmigrantes que entre los nacidos en los Estados Unidos.

¿Pagan sus impuestos los inmigrantes?

• Como otros trabajadores, la mayoría de los trabajadores inmigrantes, con o sin documentos, ven sus impuestos federales y estatales sustraídos de sus cheques. Un indocumentado cosechando tomates en la Florida paga mas impuestos sobre su ingreso, proporcionalmente, que muchos ejecutivos de corporaciones.

• Los trabajadores indocumentados pagan $7 mil millones de dólares cada año al fondo de Seguro Social, y no pueden cobrar ningún beneficio cuando se jubilan o se enferman.

• Los inmigrantes, como todos los demás, pagan impuestos de ventas cada vez que compran algo. Además pagan impuestos de bienes raíces (propiedad) o por propiedades de que ellos mismos son los dueños, o por el alquiler que pagan. ¿Cuál es la tasa de crímenes entre los inmigrantes? • Varios estudios muestran que la taza de delincuencia violenta y de propiedad entre los inmigrantes con o sin papeles, es menos que entre sectores parecidas de la población no inmigrante, a pesar de que los demagogos antiinmigrantes pretenden dar la impresión contraria por medio de destacar caso aislados de crímenes espantosos. ¿Y el terrorismo? • Los trabajadores inmigrantes indocumentados no tuvieron nada que ver con el 9-11 o cualquier otro ataque terrorista reciente. Cada uno de los terroristas que atacaron a las torres gemelas y el Pentágono entró legalmente en los Estados Unidos con una visa otorgada por nuestro gobierno. • La inmensa mayoría de los inmigrantes, con o sin documentos, no tienen nada en absoluto que ver con el terrorismo; simplemente vienen a trabajar y estar con sus familias. • Si los trabajadores inmigrantes tuvieran una manera de entrar legalmente, el peligro de que terroristas puedan infiltrarse ilegalmente disminuiría. ¿Qué impacto tienen los inmigrantes sobre los servicios sociales, el cuidado de salud y las escuelas? • Los trabajadores inmigrantes no están recibiendo un trato especial “gratis”. Como los otros trabajadores, la mayoría de los trabajadores inmigrantes pagan los mismos impuestos federales, estatales y municipales que proveen los fondos para nuestras escuelas y clínicas de salud. • Los trabajadores inmigrantes, al lado de sus compañeros de trabajo nacidos en este país, generan fortunas para los empleadores en industrias como agricultura, empacadoras de carne, hoteles, restaurantes y construcción. Pero, las administraciones republicanas desde la presidencia de Ronald Reagan han regalado tremendas rebajas de impuestos a los súper ricos. Al eliminar estas rebajas, habría suficiente dinero para apoyar a los servicios para todos, inmigrantes y nacidos acá. • No hay evidencia de que los inmigrantes representan una amenaza a la salud pública de sus vecinos. De hecho, las investigaciones que se han hecho muestran que los inmigrantes en general son más sanos que los no inmigrantes. ¿Representan los inmigrantes una amenaza al idioma Ingles y la cultura Norteamericana? • En este país siempre ha habido otros idiomas que se hablan al lado del inglés. Estos incluyen idiomas indígenas norteamericanas, castellano en el suroeste y la Florida, francés en Loisiana, y versiones de alemán en Pensilvana. • La experiencia de este país ha sido de que aunque los inmigrantes recién llegados a veces tienen que luchar un poco para aprender inglés, sus hijos y nietos siempre dominan perfectamente bien al inglés. Esto es el caso también con los inmigrantes latinoamericanos hoy en día. • En todo el país las clases de “ingles como segundo idioma” para los adultos se encuentran rellenas de gente. • La inmensa mayoría de los inmigrantes nuevos creen fervientemente en la democracia, la familia, la libertad y la justicia social, de modo son beneficiosos para nuestros valores y no representan ninguna amenaza. ¿Qué hay detrás del furor antiinmigrante, en realidad? • Políticos derechistas y sus cómplices en los medios masivos pretenden distraer la atención del publico de los escándalos de la administración de George Bush—la guerra en Irak, la crisis de seguro de salud, el problema de las hipotecas de casas. Para lograr eso, pretenden asustar al público con “la amenaza de la inmigración ilegal”. • Las grandes corporaciones desean mano de obra barata pero no quieren que estos trabajadores mal pagados tengan derechos. De modo que se confabulan con campañas de terror en contra de los inmigrantes que tienen el impacto de mantenerlos callados, mal pagados y la clase obrera dividida. • Fuerzas racistas intransigentes buscan utilizar al tema de inmigración para fomentar campañas de odio en contra de los mexicanos, otros latinos, africanos, gente del medio oriente y de Asia como parte de una estrategia de restaurar legitimidad a las ideas y actividades racistas en este país, cosa que perjudica no solo a los inmigrantes sino también a las minorías norteamericanas y todos los demás. ¿Cuál será la solución? La solución no es colocar una pancarta declarando “manténganse fuera” a la antorcha en la mano de la estatua de libertad, ni tampoco de desperdiciar millones de dólares de los contribuyentes en una valla en la frontera que es tan dañina al medio ambiente como es inútil. Más bien, la solución es de llevar a cabo una reforma integral de las leyes de inmigración, favorable a los trabajadores, con los siguientes componentes. • Legalización de los actuales inmigrantes indocumentados, tan rápidamente como sea posible y con cuotas mínimas, y con plenos derechos laborales y civiles y un camino abierto a la ciudadanía. • Cambios en el sistema de visas del gobierno norteamericano para que gente de la clase obrera que desean venir y vivir y trabajar aquí, puedan hacerlo sin violar las leyes y sin arriesgar sus vidas. • Se debe evitar el uso de programas de trabajadores temporales que mantengan a los trabajadores extranjeros en una situación de peonaje sin derecho alguno de defenderse o integrarse en nuestra sociedad. • Otorgarles a los obreros inmigrantes los mismos derechos en el trabajo y en la comunidad que tienen otros trabajadores, para que pueden luchar unidos para mejores salarios y condiciones de trabajo. • Una transformación de las políticas extranjeras y comerciales de los Estados Unidos para que ni los intereses de las corporaciones norteamericanas ni la intervención del gobierno de este país impidan el desarrollo de los países pobres. Para mas información, aquí tiene algunas sugerencias • “They Take Our Jobs! And 20 Other Myths About Immigration,” www.beacon.org. • “The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers,” www.monthlyreview.org.. Y para hallar más información en el Internet: • El Pew Hispanic Center. www.pewhispanic.org. • Immigration Policy Center, a www.immigrationpolicy.org. • People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo, www.pww.org, and Political Affairs www.politicalaffairs.net. Este folleto fue preparado por el Subcomité sobre Legislación de Inmigración de la Comisión de Acción Política del Partido Comunista de los Estados Unidos. Visítenos en Internet a www.cpusa.org. Contáctenos por correo electrónico en politicalaction @cpusa.org.

Search WWW Search pww.org
Archive Modern archive back to Oct. 2001 2008 Editions Jan. 19, 2008
Author: Joelle Fishman, Rosalío Muñoz and Emile Schepers
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 01/17/08 13:10

A look behind the anti-immigrant furor In the buildup to the 2008 elections, the right-wing Republicans have decided to make immigrants the scapegoat for the failure of the Bush administration and the shortcomings of the capitalist system. Right-wing personalities on cable TV, on talk radio and in newspapers are fueling this process. Vicious lies are being told about immigrants. The questions and answers here are designed to provide you with accurate information about the impact of immigrant workers and their families, with or without papers, on the United States today. Why are so many immigrants coming to the United States? • Working people in Mexico and other poor countries have been devastated by the practices of U.S. and other international corporations. So-called free trade pacts like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are imposed with conditions that prevent poor countries from meeting their people’s needs. • After NAFTA came into force, more than 1.3 million Mexican farmers were driven out of business. U.S. agribusiness, subsidized by our tax dollars, sold corn in Mexico at lower prices than farmers there could produce. Undocumented Mexican immigration to U.S. rose 60 percent. • Big corporations in the United States have been glad to take advantage of the cheap labor, and have sent labor recruiters into economically depressed areas of Mexico, Central America and elsewhere. So why don’t people in those countries fix their situation at home instead of coming here? • U.S.-based multinational corporations have put heavy pressure on other countries, including Mexico, to keep their economies open to penetration by U.S. corporations. • When these countries resist this pressure, the U.S. government and corporations intervene with threats, bribery and even military force to stop union organizing and political change from taking place. • With this pro-business, anti-worker foreign policy, the U.S. government has sponsored coups, civil wars and dictators in Haiti, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras. My grandparents came from Europe legally. Why can’t people from Mexico and other countries do the same? Why do they butt ahead in line? • It is not a matter of “butting in line.” There is no line for them to get in! In 2005, the U.S. government gave out only 5,000 permanent legal resident visas for low-skilled workers. • Even people married to U.S. citizens or permanent legal residents sometimes have to wait years to join their spouses. This is a different situation from the one our grandparents faced. • Today it is nearly impossible for most people who don’t have relatives here or specialized skills to come at all. Do immigrants cause unemployment? • There are not a fixed number of jobs in our economy. The truth is immigrant workers and their families, like all other workers, create jobs at a rate corresponding to those they fill. • The real causes of unemployment are rooted in the decreasing wages being paid to all workers. Our country’s workers can no longer afford to buy the products they produce. • Immigrant workers are not responsible for the millions of jobs wiped out by the shutting down of plants across the nation. They are not the cause of massive job loss which occurs when employers increase the workloads of some employees while laying off others. Do immigrants drive down U.S. wages? • It’s true that today U.S. workers are seeing their wages drop. This is especially true for young workers and people of color. But more than anything, this is due to a Congress and a president who refuse to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. It is due to right-wing policies that deny workers the right to form unions. • Employers will always take advantage of workers who don’t have the right to defend themselves, using one group of vulnerable workers against the rest. • Immigrants are not the cause of higher unemployment rates of African Americans and other U.S. minorities. The continued toleration of racial discrimination in hiring, the dismantling of affirmative action, and weak labor laws are to blame. • The only effective response is to fight for equal treatment and equal rights for all workers. That is why the legalization of immigrant workers, with full labor and civil rights, is in the interest of us all. Do immigrants join labor unions? • Immigrant workers, even those without documents, have been at the forefront of many recent labor actions including organizing drives and strikes. • One example is immigrant workers at Smithfield Foods’ meat-packing plant in North Carolina, who struck for safe working conditions alongside their African American and white co-workers. • The roofers’ union reports huge organizing successes among immigrant workers in New Mexico. • Immigrant workers are at the core of organizing efforts of laundry workers across the nation. • Employers regularly use the threat of arrest and deportation to break up union actions where immigrant workers are involved. Nevertheless, union membership is growing even faster among immigrant workers than among others. Do immigrants pay their fair share of taxes? • Like other workers, most undocumented and documented immigrant workers have both federal and state income taxes deducted from their paychecks. An undocumented worker picking tomatoes in Florida pays more income taxes proportionally than many corporate executives. • Undocumented workers pay $7 billion a year into Social Security. However, they are ineligible to collect any benefits. • Immigrants, like the rest of us, pay sales taxes every time they buy something. They pay property taxes too, either on property they own or through their rent. What about the crime rate among immigrants? • Numerous studies show that the rate of violent and property crime among immigrants, with or without documents, is lower than that of comparable sectors of the U.S. population, even though anti-immigrant agitators try to give the opposite impression by highlighting isolated cases of shocking crimes. What about terrorism? • Undocumented immigrant workers were not linked to 9/11 or any other recent terrorist attack. Every one of the 9/11 terrorists came here on a legal visa issued by the United States government. • The vast majority of undocumented and documented immigrants have nothing whatever to do with terrorism, and come here only to work and be with family. • If hard-working immigrants could have a legal way of coming here, the danger of terrorists entering secretly would be lessened. What is the impact of immigrants on social, health care and educational services? • Immigrant workers are not getting a free ride. Like other workers, most immigrants pay the same federal, state and local taxes which finance our schools, health clinics and other public services. • Immigrant workers, alongside their native-born co-workers, generate fortunes for their employers in industries such as agribusiness, meatpacking, hotels, restaurants and construction. • However, Republican administrations since Reagan have given the super-rich huge tax cuts. If these were rolled back, there would be enough money to finance needed services for everybody: immigrant and U.S.-born. • There is no evidence that new immigrants pose a public health danger to their neighbors. Indeed, studies show that they are on the whole healthier than comparable sectors of the U.S.-born population. Do immigrants threaten the English language and American culture? • There have always been other languages spoken alongside English in the United States, including Native American (Indian) languages, Spanish in the Southwest and Florida, French in Louisiana and German dialects in Pennsylvania. • Our country’s experience has been that while new immigrants may struggle a bit with the language, the second generation always speaks English fluently. This is just as true of Latino immigrants today as it was of other immigrants in the past. • All over the country, classes to teach English to non-English speakers are jammed full. • The vast majority of new immigrants believe fervently in democracy, family, freedom and social justice, and thus are a boon to our values, not a menace. What is really behind the anti-immigrant furor? • Right-wing politicians and their media supporters want to distract the public’s attention from the scandals of the Bush administration, the war in Iraq, the health care crisis, the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs and the home foreclosures disaster. They are using the “illegal immigrant” scare to do this. • Big business interests want cheap labor but do not want low-paid workers to have rights. So they whip up scare campaigns against immigrant workers. Their aim is to keep them quiet and underpaid, and the workers divided. • Hard-core racist forces are using the immigration issue to whip up hate and fear against Mexicans, other Latinos, Africans, Middle Easterners and South Asians. Their strategy is to give legitimacy to racist attitudes and policies in this country. This works to the detriment not only of immigrants but of all U.S. minorities and the rest of us. What is the solution? The solution is not to hang a “keep out” sign on the Statue of Liberty’s torch. The solution is not to waste vast amounts of taxpayer money on a useless and environmentally destructive fence. The solution is to carry out a comprehensive, worker-friendly immigration reform including: • Legalization of the current undocumented immigrants, as quickly and cheaply as possible, with full labor and civil rights and a clear path to citizenship. • Changes in U.S. visa policies so that ordinary working people who want to come here and live and work can do so without violating laws or risking their lives. • Avoidance of guest worker schemes that keep foreign workers in conditions of serfdom without the right to defend themselves or integrate themselves into our society. • Giving immigrant workers the same rights on the job and in the community that other workers have, so they can join unions and fight together for better wages and working conditions. • Changes in U.S. trade and foreign policy so that the development of the economies of poorer countries is no longer undermined by multinational corporate interests or U.S. government interference. For more information and sources: • “They Take Our Jobs! and 20 Other Myths About Immigration” www.beacon.org. • “The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers” www.monthlyreview.org. • The Pew Hispanic Center www.pewhispanic.org. • Migration Policy Institute www.immigrationinformation.org. • Immigration Policy Center www.immigrationpolicy.org. • The People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo www.pww.org, and Political Affairs www.politicalaffairs.net. Emile Schepers, Rosalio Muñoz and Joelle Fishman serve on the Communist Party USA’s immigration legislative subcommittee. For more information contact politicalaction @cpusa.org.
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