If you haven't yet found yourself in an argument with Tea Baggin' defenders of AZ's draconian "Stop-&-Search" law, it's bound to happen soon.
What never ceases to amaze me is the fact that folks who cheerlead the law actually seem to believe that the law will ultimately mean more jobs for them.
Which is why, when in an argument, I always lead with: "Establishment Republicans in Arizona and elsewhere have absolutely no intension of ending illegal hiring practices. That's why they employ techniques they are certain won't work."
This appeal to 'Baggers' natural paranoia typically buys me a window of time to explain, before they re-spool their racist rants.
It's in this quick moment that I typically ask them what they imagine AZ law actually accomplishes. That is, I ask:
Does AZ's law address any of the incentives that US employers have for hiring on the "down-low"? No.
Does the law penalize employers (especially the larger ones) that use undocumented hiring practices to skirt labor laws that thousands of US workers fought and died for at the beginning of last century? No.
Does AZ's law address the problems that mom-and-pop businesses face when they are forced to compete with large corporations don't play by the rules? No.
Does AZ's law confront any of the international market conditions that force migrant workers across the border in the first place? For example, does the law urge or require state government and its citizens to buy Fair Trade? Does the law enforce a state boycott of Monsanto products, and fight subsidies to Big Ag, the pair of which systematically dumps grain and corn onto Latino markets, so that small local farmers there can't compete? Nope.
Does AZ's law foster economic conditions under which illegal hiring would be far less likely?
That is, does the law reward citizens for buying from small, local organic farms and dairies, or from Farmers' Markets (where laborers might actually own a piece of the land they farm, or at least get a bigger cut)? Nope.
Does the AZ law impose an economic penalty for corporations that offshore jobs, which exacerbates the labor crisis in this country? Does it require the state to purchase only made-in-America products, from corporations with strong track records for justice for workers? Nope.
Does the AZ law help migrant and citizen laborers to organize together, so there is no "desperation niche" for greedy employers to exploit? Does the AZ law do anything to help erase the economic gap between migrant labor and general labor, so that there is a united labor pool in each sector, competing on a level playing field, from which employers might draw? Nope.
Does the AZ law provide for social services across borders, particularly those that strengthen opportunities for women, that have been proven to fight poverty and diminish the need for migrant workers to seek work under exploitative conditions?
Nope.
Does the law "free up" a single job for "citizen" laborers?
Nope, nope and nope.
So what DOES the AZ law do?
It scares the living crap out of nonwhite people, "documented" and otherwise. It burdens and endangers law enforcement without increasing their protection or resources. It fosters animosity and division among working people--perfect conditions for preventing worker cooperation and organization. It makes workers (documented and otherwise) even less likely to report dangerous or illegal work conditions, abuse of people or animals, or to report product defects that might endanger consumers.
Sound like a right-wing wet dream? A right-wing plan? That's because it is.
The Arizona law does absolutely nothing to put a dent in consumers' addiction to cheap, exploitable labor. All it does is foster more slave labor, where migrant workers are more likely to sleep 8 to a trailer, stay invisible, hide getting sick or hurt (even if exploitative job conditions make injury and illness inevitable), avoid education or social services for their families, avoid driving, avoid voting, and most of all, avoid any effort to organize. (And this, right here, is the whole purpose of the law, in the raw.)
Nothing about this scene will make it more likely that an Arizona Tea Bagger will get a job. Nothing.
If I still have my Tea Bagger audience member (and I usually do), I provide a quick review about why we have a so-called "illegal immigration" problem.
- "Free market" (read: taxpayer subsidized, right wing) elements in both the US and Mexican governments work together to devalue labor at any cost. That is, neither establishes conditions that would cultivate regional nodes of worker-to-resource sustainability. No Fair Trade ethic. No small-farm or organic-farm support or encouragement. Little money for programs that empower women and combat poverty.
Rather, the US regularly dumps subsidized products on Mexican markets, making it impossible for small Latino farmers to competitively sell to their own neighbors.
US corporations also experience no economic penalty for offshoring jobs in search of the cheapest labor, which leaves the remaining workers in the US more desperate, and more resentful of migrant labor.
- US corporations don't want to pay union (or prevailing) wages where they can avoid it. Large US companies don't want to pay payroll taxes or Workmans' Comp where they can avoid it, let alone offer benefits. They don't want their workers whining about overtime or pesticides or faulty machinery or contaminated meat, milk or produce, or sexual abuse. They don't want harassment lawsuits. They don't want to mess with family or medical leave. They don't want workers ratting them out when they pollute rivers or fudge their books.
Small businesses, for their part, don't want (or simply can't afford) to cut their profit margins to the bone trying to compete with big businesses that don't play by the rules.
- US law does not specifically and consistently target corporations (especially the larger ones) that refuse to play by the rules. They target a few, sporadically. Sometimes. Not enough to end the practice.
US law is not doing all it can to help companies to play by the rules, and reward those that do so.
- US consumers don't want to pay up-front for what honest, healthy, dignified labor ACROSS BORDERS actually costs.
The fact is, there isn't a job on earth that American citizens (of whatever ethnic extraction) won't do for the right wage. It's why we have no dearth of oil rig roughnecks, even though it's filthy, godawful work. It pays well.
But when we have an endless supply of desperate labor (and it's economically engineered to be so), we don't ever need to know what a real competitive wage for slaughterhouse work, or orchard work, or end-of-life care actually is.
And we don't want to find out. We want our products and services cheap as possible, whatever the cost to people, the economy, or the environment. End of story.
The above 4 conditions are THE problem. They are OUR problem--OUR fault, OUR choice. Not the migrant workers' problem or fault. OURS.
Until we have ethics and laws that address THOSE issues, the rest is just smoke and mirrors.
There are solutions that can solve the tensions that surround immigration in this country. There are solutions that can benefit workers on both sides of the border. There are solutions that will make it so desperation, starvation and joblessness are not the reasons migrants come to this country. Instead, perhaps, they'll come for the mountainbiking.
But the solutions have to be systemic, and they require sacrifice on the consumers' part. No more finger-pointing. And these solutions sure. As hell. Don't involve voting Republican.
It comes down to this: Tea Baggers, Republicans (and the rest of us) are going to have to choose between our love of the "free market" and cheap products and labor, and our love for economic justice and a healthy job market. The GOP never had any love of the latter. Which makes illegal immigration part of their game plan, not part of their plan for change.
Liberals, however, also need to learn to be consistent. We can still love and welcome our Latino brothers and sisters, and recognize a system of labor-busting and exploitation for what it is. We can open our hearts, learn Spanish (for the love of God, Europeans average three to four languages) and embrace Latino culture and people, while also fighting for economic conditions in the US and in Mexico that lessen the need for desperation-based economic migration.
We also need to look past the fear and racism of our Tea Baggin' neighbors and friends, and let them know that if they depend on a paycheck, or if they struggle to make payroll, then we, they, and Latino migrant workers are all on the same damn side. (Or we should be.) And it would behoove us to organize together, once and for all, for the dignity of labor everywhere.