-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Feb. 15, 1996
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------

CLINTON STEPS UP CAMPAIGN AGAINST IMMIGRANTS

By Andy McInerney

Don't blame the bosses for throwing hundreds of thousands of workers onto the streets to increase profits. Blame immigrant workers.

So say workers' worst enemies. The capitalist class has always used that ploy to distract workers from its crimes.

Now President Bill Clinton is trying to whip up an anti-immigrant panic. He's joined the Republicans in scapegoating immigrant workers while slashing much-needed social programs.

The White House is preparing an executive order banning federal contracts to companies that hire undocumented immigrants. Federal contracts and subcontracts account for about one-fifth of the entire civilian economy.

The plan, currently being circulated among agencies responsible for targeting immigrants, is part of a wider campaign. "Border deterrence cannot succeed if the lure of jobs in the United States remains," Clinton said in a speech last year.

Clinton should have no trouble pushing his plan in Congress. Both Democrats and Republicans are clamoring for tougher measures against immigrants.

Amid bipartisan calls to cut just about every social program like Medicaid and welfare, Congress recently passed a bill increasing the Immigration and Naturalization Service's budget by 24 percent--up to $2.6 billion.

Clinton signed that bill on Jan. 6. But with an executive order, he will be able to bypass Congress and take exclusive credit as he caters to the right wing in the upcoming elections.

The plan would in effect make bosses around the country into border cops.

The move is against workers, not bosses, despite Clinton's talk of "employer sanctions." That approach is already evident in a wave of repression against undocumented workers.

TARGETING THE MOST OPPRESSED

In a series of immigration raids New York during the last week of January, INS agents arrested 110 immigrant workers at five garment sweatshops.

Seventy-four of those arrested were women. Most were from Mexico; the others were from Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru and the Dominican Republic. They all face imprisonment and deportation.

Incredibly, INS District Director Edward McElroy told reporters the arrests "ensure that employers adhere to and are responsible to the regulations defined in the Immigration Act."

The bosses were not charged with any violation--and certainly not with exploiting the immigrant workers. The workers were treated as criminals.

The biggest penalty employers face is a $2,000 fine for each undocumented worker. That is far less than the profit generated by one worker in a single month.

While Clinton tries to enlist the bosses to do their share in the war against immigrant workers, the prisons serve as concentration camps for more and more immigrants.

Last year, a record 31,500 immigrants were deported directly from prisons. Most had been arrested for minor legal violations.

Another 37,000 immigrants languish in state prisons around the country. The Clinton administration has requested $300 million in federal funds to help pay for these prisons.

U.S. military troops now patrol the U.S.-Mexican border. They operate side by side with local cops, Border Patrol agents--and racist private militias.

The moves against immigrants are a sure sign that the bosses have more cuts in store for the working and oppressed people of all nationalities. The fact that Democrats and Republicans alike embrace the campaign shows that there is consensus within the ruling class to use this racist tactic cover up their crimes.

Most of all, it should sound the alarm for the labor and progressive movements against the ruling class's divide-and-conquer tactics of the U.S. ruling class. The communist slogan "workers and oppressed of all countries, unite" is more relevant than ever.

- END -

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@wwpublish.com. For subscription info send message to: ww-info@wwpublish.com. Web: http://www.workers.org)