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Not for the first time White House Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly has slammed his verbal heel into a lit firepie with his recent comments to NPR about undocumented immigrants.
NPR: Are you in favor of this new move announced by the attorney general early this week that if you cross the border illegally even if you're a mother with your children [we're going] to arrest you? We're going to prosecute you, we're going to send your kids to a juvenile shelter?
Kelly: The name of the game to a large degree. Let me step back and tell you that the vast majority of the people that move illegally into United States are not bad people. They're not criminals. They're not MS-13. Some of them are not. But they're also not people that would easily assimilate into the United States into our modern society. They're overwhelmingly rural people in the countries they come from – fourth, fifth, sixth grade educations are kind of the norm. They don't speak English, obviously that's a big thing. They don't speak English. They don't integrate well, they don't have skills. They're not bad people. They're coming here for a reason. And I sympathize with the reason. But the laws are the laws. But a big name of the game is deterrence.
We’ve heard clearly bigoted and sexist comments from Kelly before, but I think it should be noted that Kelly spent quite a bit of the interview complaining about the problems within our immigration laws, and complaining that congress hasn’t acted to erect Trump’s “four pillars” as he calls it which essentially include a path to citizenship for all DACA recipients. Those pillars also, for no good reason, attempt to restrict legal immigration for family reunification and for legitimate refugees from disaster. It’s the “Shithole Countries” issue. Despite what Kelly and Trump claim neither of these programs have shown to be any kind of problem from crime or indigence, and during the interview Kelly made a pretty strong argument that recipients of the TPS programs who’ve been in the U.S. for 20 years or more should, like DACA recipients, get some type of path to legal permanent status and potential citizenship.
In fairness Kelly should get some credit for those fairly humane views.
Still Kelly's comments above have been painted as racist, and that's because when used as a justification for policies they would clearly and demonstrably have a racist outcome. But they're actually something much worse than that — they’re ostensibly classist.
Latino legal scholars have responded pretty strongly to Kelly’s comments.
“It is sad that we have to continue to remind the administration that immigrants founded this country,” Lujan Grisham stated. “Some arrived penniless and without an education but worked to find ways to prosper, revitalize communities and give back to the nation they love. … His comments about immigrants and immigration policy betray this history and our values.”
Kelly view wouldn’t just benefit white people, it would in fact benefit immigrants from India who — due to English colonization — already speak the same language and because of their own economic development have a fairly advanced educational system, as do several other countries in Africa such as Nigeria but If you were to apply Kelly criteria to immigrants from 75 or 100 years ago, most of them particularly those coming from Europe or east Asia such as the Italians, Germans, irish or Russians also “didn’t speak the language, didn’t integrate well, didn't have skills" but then at the time that wasn’t the point. Even Trump’s own immigrant mother and grand-father wouldn't have made the cut as his Scottish mother was a housemaid and his German grandfather was a mere barber.
Back then It wasn’t about what they could quickly and easily do for American corporations — it was about what America, being a free and open society — where the fact that they were ethnically different mostly didn’t matter under the law — could potentially do for them and their future prosperity.
The fact that they were basically poor had meager skills or may have been indigent didn’t matter. I think we need to counter the premise brought by Kelly not with immediate charges of racism however justified, but with a simple question: Why should we ignore the increased growth potential of these people once they’re exposed to the freedom an opportunities of America and instead now only accept the already affluent, moneyed and educated? What are we, all full at the Inn now? Only the people who don’t really need to come to America because they have everything they want should apply?
Kelly claims there are many problems in our immigration system but he fails to address the biggest one: it’s biased against the poor.
Kelly’s comments clearly show a bias for affluent, English speaking high-skilled workers. He didn’t specify any particular nation or nationality which is was talking about but it’s pretty clear he meant people who are not from the “Shit Hole” countries. Not Poor people, people who are educationally and financially challenged need not apply, America doesn't want you. We should be outraged at the racial implications here but what’s even more problematic is that this is a clear agenda against class mobility. It’s an argument against the potential of poor people and blue collar workers who form much of the backbone of our labor force and their ability to provide future prosperity and educational opportunity for their children.
This is a sentiment that actually goes completely against the perspective one would see from Republican Mike Row and his show Dirty Jobs, which celebrates those who work hard and do the work that no one else is willing to do.
It’s an argument against the core of the American Dream, claiming that America pretty much doesn’t need people who may be the most in need of America. This is Class War, where the rich and the affluent hold all the cards and set all the rules in their own favor.
Let me give you a comparison.
If you are unfortunately enough to enter the U.S. Justice system as a defendant and you can not afford representation, an attorney is provided for you by the state free of charge. This system is not perfect, but it has been establish under constitutional principles including the right of all persons within the jurisdiction of the states being afford the “equal protection of the laws.” This is interpreted to mean that even the indigent should get representation.
Now for the record as I’ve stated previously at length, I think that we should go much further than we have with the public defenders system as they are often understaffed, under-resourced tragically overworked leading to many cases of ineffectual counsel and wrongful convictions. We should for example require that PD offices have budget and staffing parity with District Attorney offices. They should have their own investigate staff and equal access to forensic and evidence testing that is equal to that of prosecutors.
A review of convictions overturned by DNA testing reveals a trail of sleeping, drunk, incompetent and overburdened defense attorneys, at the trial level and on appeal.
The failure of overworked lawyers to investigate, call witnesses or prepare for trial has led to the conviction of innocent people. When a defense lawyer doesn’t do his or her job, the defendant suffers. Shrinking funding and access to resources for public defenders and court-appointed attorneys is only making the problem worse.
As weak as our public defender system is, our system of support for those who wish to legally immigrate in order to work and live within the freedom of America is even more atrophied. There is in fact, no real legitimate path to legal immigration for blue collar workers who wish to come to America to work or to become independent entrepreneurs exists unless they are subsidized and supported by corporate visas.
Many Americans wonder why all immigrants do not just come to the United States legally or simply “get in line” if they are unauthorized. These suggestions miss the point: There is no line available for unauthorized immigrants and the “regular channels” do not include them.
Immigration to the United States on a temporary or permanent basis is generally limited to three different routes: employment, family reunification, or humanitarian protection. While the U.S. immigration system is generous, each of these possibilities is highly regulated and subject to numerical limitations and eligibility requirements. Most unauthorized immigrants do not have the necessary family or employment relationships and often cannot access humanitarian protection, such as refugee or asylum status.
To come to the United States for employment purposes—either temporarily or permanently—foreign workers must generally have a job lined up with an eligible employer who will sponsor them. An employer can request permission to bring in specific qualified foreign workers, but only if they meet the requirements, such as job skills and education level, and if the employer cannot find a qualified U.S. worker to take the job first. Most of the qualifying professions for permanent immigration require high levels of education and professional experience, such as scientists, professors, and multinational executives. There is a limited number of temporary visas for highly skilled or internationally recognized workers. There are also temporary, seasonal opportunities for agricultural workers and certain other “less skilled” workers. In most of these cases, an employer must petition for the worker.
If you’re affluent you can apply and pay for the fees for a student visa or a visitor visa but those don’t authorize you to get a job. Perhaps while here you might be able to talk a company into sponsoring you for a work visa as Melania claims she did — although the timing seems somewhat muddled on that — before she married Donald, but you literally can’t just come to America and start then looking for a job. The normal process is that an employer has to have already picked you for a job before you can get a legal visa to enter at all. There are also very strict limits on how many visas employers can request for skilled workers (H-1B Visa) and with blue collar workers (H-2B Visas).
And of course these programs have their detractors.
It is H-1B visa season, and American companies seeking high-skilled foreign workers have been rushing to submit applications for visas since the government started accepting them on Monday. For the sixth consecutive year, the federal government was flooded with so many petitions that it announced Friday that it had already reached its annual cap of 85,000 of these visas in just five days.
Hailed by proponents as vital to American innovation, the program has also been criticized for displacing United States workers with cheaper foreign labor.
The same is true for the “non-skilled” H-2B program.
The H-2B program allows U.S. employers or U.S. agents who meet specific regulatory requirements to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary nonagricultural jobs. A U.S. employer, or U.S. agent as described in the regulations, must file Form I-129, Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker, on a prospective worker’s behalf.
Alert: After Sept. 15, USCIS is no longer accepting petitions filed under the joint final rule that increased the H-2B cap limit for fiscal year 2017. For more information, visit our One-Time Increase in H-2B Nonimmigrant Visas for Fiscal Year 2017 page.
A foreign person can not “get in line” anywhere to initiate this process on their own. That line just simply doesn't exist.
U.S. companies are in charge of who gets into the U.S. to work and who doesn’t. in theory they are supposed first look for an American worker, but or course that isn’t always the case. They are also not supposed to lowball compensation for these foreign workers, but of course — they still do.
Industry lobbyists with Microsoft’s Bill Gates at the forefront have tried to convince Congress that there is a shortage of specialty occupation workers and American competitiveness will suffer if they are not able to hire more foreign workers. They have tried to convince Congress and the public that they only hire the ‘best and brightest’ foreign workers and do so only when comparable U.S. workers are unavailable. This propaganda campaign ignores the fact that there is no requirement in the H-1B visa program that employers have to hire available U.S. workers first. It also ignores the fact that nearly half of the foreign workers that they seek visas for have no more than an undergraduate degree.
Because H-1B visas allow employment for up to six years, the number of H-1B foreign workers in the country at any point is the sum of those who have been admitted and remained within the last six years. In 2002, there were an estimated 710,000 H-1B holders in the United States. Although the H-1B program is meant to provide companies with labor unavailable in this country, no evidence exists of a worker shortage; to the contrary, there are many laid off, unemployed and underemployed American high tech workers.
Why are universities and corporations like Microsoft clamoring and lobbying the government to raise or eliminate the H-1B visa cap? So that they can save on their bottom line since they know they can offer these workers lower compensation and get away with it. It's not rocket surgery.
As we know Trump has specifically attacked the only other to methods to legally enter America besides the H-1B and H-2B visa programs such as family reunification — which he derisively calls “chain migration” giving the impression that it is an unlimited flood of immigrants even though it already only affect direct relatives after someone has spent years gaining permanent status or a green card — or refugees for humanitarian crises as we’ve repeated seen him attack the migrant asylum caravan as an “unlawful invasion” of America.
HERMOSILLO, Mexico (Reuters) - Hundreds of Central American migrants traveling in a “caravan” were in limbo in the northern Mexican city of Hermosillo on Monday on the final stretch of a journey to the United States where President Donald Trump ordered officials to repel them.
…
On Monday he again lashed out, threatening that failure to stop the caravan could stall the already tense renegotiation of NAFTA. [nL1N1S00QK]
“I have instructed the Secretary of Homeland Security not to let these large Caravans of people into our Country,” Trump tweeted Monday morning. “It’s a disgrace. We are the only Country in the World so Naive! WALL”
Kelly might express some sympathy for these people as they are attempting to enter legally for legitimate reasons, yet his replacement at DHS Kirstjen Neilsen has been highly hostile to the caravan by threatening those volunteer organizations that are helping them fill out their paperwork saying that they will be prosecuted for “lying” about their humanitarian refugee status.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Monday warned the “caravan” of Central American migrants arriving at the southern U.S. border that they could face prosecution, detention and deportation — and that those who “aid and abet” them making a false asylum claim will also be prosecuted.
So Trump is against the legal migration of asylum seekers, and he’s against legal migration of families trying to reunify (chain migration) but you know what he’s not against?
He's not against foreign workers who may be legally taking away American Jobs because his administration specifically increased the cap on both the H-1B and H-2B visa programs from ~60,000 to 85,000 workers each.
The Department of Homeland Security on Monday announced a one-time increase of 15,000 additional visas for low-wage seasonal workers for the remainder of this fiscal year, a seeming about-face from President Trump's "Hire American" rhetoric, following heavy lobbying from fisheries, hospitality and other industries that rely on temporary foreign workers.
The increase represents a 45 percent bump from the number of H-2B visas normally issued for the second half of the fiscal year, said senior Homeland Security officials in a call with reporters.
The visas are for workers taking temporary jobs in the seafood, tourism, landscaping, construction and other seasonal industries — but not farm laborers
Trump himself has specifically benefited from the increase by requesting more H-2B workers at his own properties such as Mar-A-Lago.
While President Donald Trump rails at American companies that hire foreign workers, he’s not following his own advice. Of 144 openings at three of his properties, including Mar-a-Lago, only a single one went to an American, according to Department of Labor records. The rest went to seasonal foreign workers in the U.S. on special visas requested by the Trump Organization, reports Vox.
An examination of filings by the Trump Organization with the Labor Department from 2016 to 2017 reveals that a lone American worker, a cook, was hired in August 2016 among 144 open positions for servers, cooks, housekeepers and bartenders, Vox found. Most of the jobs were at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump’s favorite weekend getaway. The others were the National Golf Club in Briarcliff Manor, in New York, and Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida. The jobs generally pay $10 to $13 an hour.
Under the H-2B rules companies such as Mar-A-Lago are supposed to first try and find local workers for these jobs so as not to displace Americans, and they did — kind of.
President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club needs to hire 35 waiters for this winter’s social season in Palm Beach, Florida.
Late last month, the club placed an ad on page C8 of the Palm Beach Post, crammed full of tiny print laying out the job experience requirements in classified ad shorthand. ‘‘3 mos recent & verifiable exp in fine dining/country club,’’ the ad said. ‘‘No tips.’’
The ad gave no email address or phone number. ‘‘Apply by fax,’’ it said. The ad also provided a mailing address. It ran twice, then never again.
At the same time Trump has been making the requirements for skilled workers through the H-1B program even more strict.
The Trump administration is increasing federal scrutiny on the employment-visa application process, a move that will make it even more difficult for companies to hire foreign workers.
While President Donald Trump campaigned on promises to reduce illegal immigration, these measures are affecting the legal ways people come to the country. For example, the administration is targeting the high-skilled visa program known as H-1B, sending back more than one in four applications between January and August, according to The Wall Street Journal. Under Obama, fewer than one in five were sent back, according to data from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which manages the H-1B program.
"The goal of the administration seems to be to grind the process to a halt or slow it down so much that they achieve a reduction in legal immigration through implementation rather than legislation," Ben Johnson, the executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, which typically takes a pro-immigration stance, told the Journal.
Lastly the actual number of people deported under the Trump during first year via DHS which was initially run by Kelly and is now being run by Neilsen is actually lower than the deportation numbers reported by President Obama during his final two years in office.
Deportations FY2015-2017
In FY2016 DHS had a total of 240,255 deportations which went down 10% to 226,119 in FY2016 despite the Trump administration claims that they are making the border “safer”. Why? Because arrests at the border by CBP are down massively from 67,493 in FY2016 to just 59,540 in FY2017. This could be because potential border crossers have been intimidated by Trump, or it could be because they’ve increased their use of coyotes and smugglers to cross the border and completely avoid CBP and the wall which has put them in debt and made them vulnerable to the drug trade and human trafficking.
While that’s been going on DHS has indeed increased their deportation of “criminal aliens” by about 6% they also increased their deportation of those who may be undocumented by have no criminal record by 173% going from 5,014 to 13,744.
The priority here is not criminals.
As much as they talk about this not being racist because it's only about “illegals” that clearly isn't true as they try to choke off access to legal immigration by people who are already fully vetted based on their affluence which everyone knows will have a direct racial impact benefiting those from richer nations over the more desperate and destitute. They also attack legal immigration via family reunification and the diversity lottery program — who are also fully vetted — as some type of scourge, while increasing limits and restrictions for the exactly the “skilled workers” that Kelly seems to claim we need more of.
But when it comes to the "unskilled” and poor who Kelly seems to want to say are somehow undeserving of migration, Trump has actually increased their migration to the direct benefits of his own companies and distinctly failed to be protective of U.S. workers in that same market.
What’s going on his is clearly a bait and switch. Our immigration systems do have problems, we do need consistent vetting and more immigration judges to help clear the backlog, but we also need more immigration lawyers and advocates to make sure that those without massive funds still receive equal protection, equal access and equal justice before the law.
American workers challenged by foreign migrants do deserve protection from anti-competitive compensation, but at the same time those foreign workers deserve protection from being exploited and manipulated by these employers in the way that Trump manipulated and exploited the foreign women who worked illegally for his modelling agency.
Trump’s modeling agency was a virtual sweatshop that hired undocumented immigrants.
Trump likes to surround himself with models; indeed, his wife is a former model. Questions have been raised about whether Melania Trump was an undocumented immigrant when she first worked in the United States, but Mother Jones has smartly decided to focus on Trump’s hypocrisy on this issue. In a blockbuster article, Mother Jones documents that Trump Model Management employed undocumented immigrants who were encouraged to come to the United States on promises of work visas that were only infrequently met.
With no secure documentation, Trump’s firm exploited these models, whose wages were eaten up by the exorbitant fees they had to pay for rent and other amenities. The conditions in the barrack-like residences the models lived in were the opposite of chic.
Trump, Kelly and Neilsen are using rhetoric and policies that are intended to make them seem tough on “foreign immigrant crime” which really isn’t a thing, but in reality they are attacking and forcibly separating families of law abiding immigrants, using them as a scapegoat for the irrational and bigoted economic fears of his supporters while not actually doing anything substantive to release the pressure for those people to circumvent immigration laws by overstaying their student or visitor visas — which is the primary source of undocumented migrants, not people taking a run at the border — all the while ramping up phony chest beating about the border. In reality they are actually welcoming even more "low skilled" workers into the country and further allowing greedy corporations to exploit these people for greater profit, just as they continue to exploit the desperation of the undocumented with under-the-table wages, without benefits, health care or workers compensation insurance.
This is a plan intended for corporate America to get exactly what they want: to pad their share-holder profits with a permanent indentured slave class of underground low cost workers who are without the protection of the law because they have been demonized as a scourge of ignorant, non-English speaking criminal scum. It’s not a new plan, they’ve done it before starting about 400 years ago.
If an undocumented worker is underpaid or mistreated by an employer, who are they to complain too? If they are assaulted, brutalized, harrassed or even raped on the job — what authorities are they to call to seek justice as Trump cracks down on so-called "Sanctuary Cities”?
We can’t fix the immigration system just because Congress is weak, we can’t fix it because corporate America depends on it being just as broken as it is. They profit from it being broken and at the end of the day Trump while pandering to the haters and the paranoid among us is really just fulfilling the greed of those interests.
None of this is getting fixed until we put away our fear anxiety, stop demonizing immigrants, recognize the humanity of all persons, citizens or not, and begin to humanely address not just Americas short term economic needs but also the needs of who are most vulnerable who may in time provide benefits to America that we can't yet even imagine.
Yes, what John Kelly said is racist, but it’s actually much much worse than just that.
