Politicians, bosses blame immigrants

To no one’s surprise, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger again joined the immigrant bashing that is growing across the country.

On April 28, Schwarzenegger lavishly praised a vigilante group, the Minutemen, that recently patrolled the U.S./Mexican border in Arizona.

“I think they have done a terrific job,” said Schwarzenegger.

That same week, Schwarzenegger stated that the United States needed to “close the borders,” serving to shore up restrictionist right-wing views.

And Schwarzenegger called on a Spanish language station, KRCA-TV, to take down its new billboards because they were “extremely divisive.” The billboards describe the station’s audience as “Los Angeles, Mexico.”

After a wave of criticism against his remarks, Schwarzenegger clarified that he was a “champion of immigrants.”

But Schwarzenegger would also welcome the Minutemen in California, said an aide.

Rising anti-immigrant tide

California is home to the country’s largest population of undocumented workers. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that is about 2.4 million immigrants.

Inflammatory language from the governor of this state only serves to whip up the anti-immigrant backlash on the rise in the U.S. In addition, California was stolen from Mexico over 150 years ago. For the Mexican community in Los Angeles to manifest this infamous historical event in any way it sees fit is justified.

Schwarzenegger’s remarks are in line with a rising tide of anti-immigrant sentiment. While this sentiment is not new in U.S. history, there are striking new developments.

Many media accounts report that there is an unprecedented nationwide network of anti-immigrant policy institutes and think tanks that are linked with well-organized and well-financed statewide anti-immigrant campaigns.

The first anti-immigrant policy institute—Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)—was founded in 1979 by known racist and virulent anti-immigrant spokesperson John Tanton. FAIR supported the recent vigilante campaign in Arizona, which resulted in a further militarization of the U.S./Mexican border.

Since 1998, many of these anti-immigrant groups have been taking a harder line, reports the Southern Poverty Law Center. That year, many of them began to work with openly white supremacist forces.

“Today, many of their leading officials have joined racist organizations,” writes the Law Center.

Recent media coverage of the Minutemen in Arizona depicted the anti-immigrant sentiment on the border. However, this sentiment is also entrenched inside the beltway in Washington, D.C., and is far more dangerous.

For example, the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus has rapidly grown in the recent period. Before Sept. 11, 2001, the caucus had only 10 legislators; now it has 59. The chair of the CIR Caucus is none other than Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Republican from Colorado.

Colorado is the scene of a bold and racist right wing that manifests itself on many issues, from immigration to gay rights.

The CIR Caucus is unabashedly allied with a who’s who of right-wing die-hards who have no fear of expressing the most racist language.

Tancredo often leads anti-immigrant events in the capital. At a Washington news conference in February 2005, Tancredo warned that other countries, such as China, are pushing immigration in a global plot to destroy the U.S.

A former Republican representative from San Diego, Brian Bilbray, joined him by saying that the U.S. is creating a “slave class that criminal elements breed in.” Bilbray blamed the loss of his 2000 election on undocumented “aliens” who voted against him.

At the event, Barbara Coe, head of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, repeatedly referred to Mexicans as “savages.”

Other anti-immigrant organizations include StopTheInvasion.com, American Border Patrol, the Center for Immigration Studies, NumbersUSA, Save Our State and U.S. Inc.

Some of their web sites display disgusting, racist pictures. One site asks, “If you can shoot home invaders, why can’t you shoot homeland invaders?”

Anti-immigrant sentiment has seeped into environmental groups such as the Sierra Club. Some members attempted to push a resolution for closing the borders against the “tide” of immigrants as a way to curb population growth. Fortunately, they were defeated.

These organizations are not just confined to Washington or states in the Southwest. From North Carolina to New York State to Michigan, their influence has grown.

For example, Lou Dobbs of CNN has recently sought to ratchet up anti-immigrant sentiments with inflammatory coverage. When undocumented Latino immigrants tried to board a plane in North Carolina in order to look for work, they were rounded up on the excuse that they only provided Mexican identification papers. Dobbs tried to use the incident to push the “terrorists can seize planes” card.

The immigrant-bashing campaign has resulted in an increase in racist attacks. Immigration-rights activists state that one of the most vulnerable immigrant sectors is day laborers. Because they are highly visible, gathering for jobs at muster zones throughout the country, they are easy targets for hateful vigilantes.

The National Day Laborers organization reports: “Immigrant day laborers were increasingly targeted and victimized in organized attacks in 2004. Day laborers across the country experienced a sharp rise in violent attacks, civil rights violations and workplace rights abuse.”

Day laborers are sometimes depicted in the media as “invaders,” not as workers forced to come here because of U.S. policies such as NAFTA. Immigrants are blamed for the deterioration of living conditions and for loss of jobs.

Behind the scapegoating

While the organized right wing groups may be small, their sentiment has the backing of the entire capitalist ruling class, not withstanding some tactical differences.

Historically, the capitalist class has mani pulated the immigration issue to serve its interests. When workers are needed in abundance, when cheap labor is easy to control and exploit, anti-immigrant sentiment decreases.

But an economic crisis is looming in the U.S. The huge budget deficit and the ongoing spending for war are leading to cutbacks and eventually mass layoffs. Whenever their policies lead to greater suffering for the workers, they always look for scapegoats.

The immigrant community, on the other hand, is not only growing—it is organizing. More and more, immigrants are coming out of the shadows, with or without documents, demanding their rights. Many are influenced by revolutionary developments in Latin America and the Caribbean. Heightened class- and anti-imperialist consciousness are on the rise.

The right-wing, anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S. may be well-organized and well-financed, but it can be defeated. It does not represent the sentiment of the working class in this country, which is the majority.

The right wing may influence a sector of the working class to take anti-immigrant positions, but those sentiments can be rever sed among many, if not most, workers.

The working-class movement can point out, for example, that it is not immigrants who shut down plants in this country to go abroad where labor is even more exploited. It is the bosses who do that.

In this age of imperialism, capital is free to cross borders in search of tremendous profits. This lays the basis for a worldwide, united, multinational and international response to capitalist profiteers. An example of this unity was May Day 2005 in the U.S. Rallies may have been only in the thousands, but around the world millions joined in.

Right now, it is imperative that U.S.-born workers of all nationalities organize the utmost unconditional solidarity with immigrants—not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it serves their class interests.