the politics behind the bushgang's open borders

[donsu]

http://www.counterpunch.com/moses05122005.html


A Too Convenient Crisis
Neo-Con Logic at the Border


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Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but this whipped up border crisis when viewed in light of "spontaneous" suggestions coming from "concerned citizens" is beginning to look like a PR pincer, easing us all in the direction of a militarized and "secure" (get the word right Arnold!) interface between USA and global South. Not only do we have Bracero on steroids for Mexicans, but we also get new reasons to draft Yankees into military defense.

A November review of immigration politics written by David Bacon connects dots of a steady political drive toward the "guest worker" idea. It is the policy most favored by corporate players, and they have worked for five years at getting the program ready for Congress to approve.

Paradoxically, says Bacon, the experience of immigrants suggests that a Bracero program of guest permits would actually disempower migrants by making them more exploitable than even today's undocumented workers. Yet critics who argue that illegal immigration serves corporate interests don't go on to say that legalizing this immigration through a system of guest permits would be even better for the corporate interests involved.

Under a work-permit program, immigrants would be attached to designated corporate sponsors and not be allowed to place their labor into competition with other employers. A troublesome worker under Bracero supervision is not only fired, but deported. And with corporate power unified over work permits, the rogue companies who try to freelance with undocumented workers will be more likely to face eager immigration raids.
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the article ends with this warning:

In the end, the lesson is old as dirt. If we do not insist on treating migrating workers as free companions who deserve human rights, then soon enough the corporations will have made Braceros of us all. Deportee or draftee? Never say you didn't have a choice.