By George Gregoriou
Remember those words “give me your poor, your huddled masses…” and all that jazz, that the US is a welcoming country for those suffering oppression and religious persecution? This was proclaimed in the spirit of the War of Independence (1776) or when the capitalist economy needed cheap labor. Waves of immigrants did flood the US, due to famines (the potato famine in Ireland), wars (the Balkans), millions of immigrants escaping economic hardship, war, the collapse of the socialist systems, or the effects of neo-liberal policies in an age of globalization. Latinos have been moving north to the US, to improve their lives for a long time. It is these waves of immigrants who build this colossal economic empire. It is time to put an end to this legacy.

Enough is enough.

We should start by proclaiming to those who want to immigrate to the US our new motto: “give me your rich, the narco-trafficers, third world dictators, and outsourced torturers on the payroll of the CIA. The Latinos are now about 11 million illegal immigrants. If these trends continue, the Latinos could be the largest ethnic group in the US by the 2050s. The WASPS are having anxiety attacks. Not that they are the majority. It is the WASP culture which dominated since colonial times. Each ethnic group migrating to the US was forced to become WASPicized, whether one is Italian, Polish, German, Latino, or Greek. By the second generation the “mother tongue” was all gone, with only the name, religion, and food determining one’s ethnic background. We often hear “that must be a Greek name.” Or, if you listen to a Greek or Italian radio or TV program, they are all defending their ethnic culture, with pastichio or pasta, going to church, or fighting ethnic causes. You never hear anyone defending the WASP culture. Immigrants are engaged in a lost war to defend their Italianess, Greekness, Jewishness, or Chineseness. It never occurred to us that if the first settlers/colonizers from Europe were “Indianized” we would all be Indians. The pressure on the native Indians was to be “Americanized,” even adopt the capitalist ways to survive the hopelessness of the reservations with its highest suicide and alcoholic rates in the world. These first inhabitants have been reduced to selling cigarettes (tax free) and providing casinos for the non-Indians to roll the dice, and yes low-paying jobs for those who live on the reservations.

How dare these Latinos and other immigrants sneak into the US across the Rio Grande or through Canada. There are many who do not mind the illegals. They work for very low wages, doing menial jobs, cutting grass (with noisy machines and leaf blowers!). They are the gofers at construction sites and big department stores (Wal-Mart and Home Depot), without health benefits or union rights. Many are just day laborers, picked up at railroad stations or the highways. Not only they provide cheap labor, they weaken unions, even forced black laborers and other poor ethnic groups to accept even lower wages. There is always someone waiting to grab even these low paying jobs. So, the beneficiaries of these undocumented immigrants are the business sector trying to counteract the flooding of the US market with cheap goods from China and other countries where low wages and millions of workers will do anything in order to eat.

NAFTA was supposed to reverse this tide. The economies of Mexico were expected to develop, thanks to the free trade agreement between the US, Canada, and Mexico. The opposite occurred. Development in South America means the elimination of sustained farming communities, with concentration of land into big agribusiness. Peasants are forced to move to cities for work, and as consumer. With the rise of big urban communities and mass unemployment people are forced to move north to find jobs, to sustain themselves, feed their families. The jingoists in America want to put an end to this, with walls and the national guard. The result would be military rule to keep the masses down or an explosive situation, even moving to the left.

This development is not unique to South America. Every community/country is subjected to these laws of capitalist development. Waves of immigrants are now flooding Europe and north America. That is where the money and jobs are. Notice the Russians and East Europeans on the train or shopping malls, and a lot of Latinos everywhere. A Russian taxi driver in LA told me that Cyprus is considered the “New Russia,” where a lot of wealthy Russians have migrated.

If this has been going on for such a long time, why did this immigrant issue take center stage in American politics, with Congress legislating English to be the official language. When was it not? Even the National Guard is being sent to guard the US borders with Mexico, and Canada! This reminds me of a strict mother with two children. When one gets into mischief the mother slaps the child on the face. But to show that all children are treated equally, the mother slaps the other child on the face too. The wrath is against Latinos, but the White House and the right-wing Republicans will slap the Canadians in the face as well! Terrorists have no need to sneak into the US through Mexico or Canada. They can come here legally, with proper documentation or student visa.

The immigration controversy is a distraction from real issues, just as abortion and gay marriage in 2004. Bush’s ratings are going down, big time. The economy is good for those who have. The war in Iraq is going nowhere. The image of the US in the world is plummeting. Billions of dollars to construct this new security on the north and south of the US are needed. The bidders are (all with billions of $ in revenue): Boeing ($54.8); Lockheed Martin ($37.2); Northrop Grumman ($36.7); Raytheon ($21.9); and Ericsson ($20.3) (NYTimes, 5/18/06). Military solutions everywhere, in Iraq, New Orleans, the borders, with Haliburton doing great business. Now its another pack of needy corporations. The billions of $ come from us (taxpayers), for the corporate giants. What is being done is to turn on the fear factor and the “promise” that something is being done! Don’t hold your breath. Maybe it is cheaper to pay these illegals to leave. Even cheaper to give them documents to stay, work, and pay taxes. Better yet, level the playing field so the economies in the south will develop and the people will free themselves from the claws of American corporatism and their allies, the petty caudillos, still ruling in South America. Latinos will stay home, or come here to do business or as tourists. It is poor people who move on, from place to place, to survive.

*** George Gregoriou
Professor, Critical Theory and Geopolitics
The Wm Paterson University
Wayne, New Jersey