Along with the better angels of our nature there is the dark side. Sometimes we deal with our problems by beating up on folks we perceive as weaker than U.S. It’s an unpleasant law of politics that you can go far by appealing to people’s ‘bullying instinct.’

The current version of ‘bully politics’ is the orchestrated anti-immigration campaign being rolled-out across the country from a series of unsavory public-relations assembly lines. The great innovation of American ‘conservatism’ is to fully understand that political issues can be ‘launched’ like any other commodity — a new car, a drug for erectile dysfunction, a new war. Notice how many times you see the term ‘illegal immigrant’ printed as a headline or cartoon caption or showing up on national news media. That’s how an issue-product is launched.

To learn in detail where seemingly ‘grassroots’ anti-immigration groups like The Minutemen, FAIR (Federation of Americans for Immigration Reform), or Oregonians for Immigration Reform come from, and about their ties to established white supremacist groups and racist foundations like the Pioneer Fund, go to the Web site of the Center for New Community at www.newcomm.org.

Groups like FAIR provide the sober, so-called ‘factual’ face of the anti-immigrant movement, and groups like the border-patrolling Minutemen provide the festive ‘moron’ face that the media loves to cover. But the immediate danger to everyone’s civil liberties is coming, as usual, from Congress.

On Dec. 15, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 4437, sponsored by Congressman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI). Billed as an anti-terror ‘border enforcement act,’ HR 4437 takes a giant step toward creating the hybrid Big Brother/1984/apartheid state so near to the hearts of some Americans. Some aspects of Sensenbrenner’s bill:

1. Mandates a massive Big Brother-style computerized employment verification system for everyone employed in the U.S.A. You will be required to prove that you are a U.S. citizen in order to enjoy the privilege of cleaning the bathrooms at Home Depot, or any other gig capitalism throws your way.
2. Makes being in the U.S. without documents an ‘aggravated felony.’ Anyone in the U.S. illegally would be subject not only to deportation but imprisonment. Would uncontrollably swell the U.S. prison population — already the largest on the planet. Would make the children of undocumented workers subject to imprisonment and deportation.
3. Greatly expands the definition of smuggling in a way that could severely penalize innocent acts of kindness and daily, casual contacts that many U.S. citizens have with undocumented immigrants. U.S. citizens married to undocumented immigrants could be convicted of aiding aliens. Persons driving their friends or employees to an appointment could be convicted of transporting aliens.
4. Deputizes local law enforcement officials to enforce federal immigration laws. Local police have long objected to acting as immigration cops for the simple reason that it makes local law enforcement impossibly difficult. If every undocumented person is a potential felon, and police are mandated to enforce deportation laws, millions of people will refuse to report break-ins, rape, extortion and other criminal activities that endanger the whole community.
5. Severely reduces due process rights for legal immigrants.

The Rural Organizing Project (ROP) and CAUSA, Oregon’s immigrant-rights coalition, are working with many others to stop legislation like HR 4437. Similar legislation is expected in the Senate once Congress returns to DC in February. ROP has made understanding this legislation and the movement behind it, and taking action to stop it, a priority for its member groups across the state. ROP has a history of fighting the right and confronting ‘wedge issues’ — issues that are floated to divide one’s opponents. In the early 1990s, wedge issue politics emerged with anti-gay initiatives that ROP and others defeated in struggles around the state of Oregon. Today, many of the same forces are behind the anti-immigrant movement. We know that progressives cannot win by sweeping uncomfortable issues under the rug; they must be confronted. Unfortunately, some of our liberal political allies have not learned this lesson, or are happy to engage in a little no-cost (to them) demagoguery. Case in point: Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio.

Despite coordinated actions by CAUSA, ROP and others, DeFazio was the only Oregon Democrat to vote in favor of HR 4437. A staunch liberal anti-war critic and NAFTA opponent, DeFazio nonetheless felt it in his interest to support this stinker. Why? Much of the anti-immigration rhetoric is cloaking itself in ‘pro-U.S. worker’ garb. The myth is that undocumented workers take jobs from U.S. citizens. This is a gross simplification for the following reasons:

1. Immigration from Mexico and Central America is caused in part by massive dumping of U.S. taxpayer subsidized corn and wheat. A half a million Mexican farmers and agricultural workers are going bust each year due to U.S. agricultural exports.
2. U.S. financial institutions have long been getting rich on the deposits of wealthy Mexican elites looking for secure investments. These deposits are not being re-invested in the Mexican economy. However, you do not hear anti-immigrant groups saying a peep about this issue.
3. The activities of corporations like Wal Mart, trade agreements like NAFTA and GATT, and long-term U.S. anti-union laws have turned our economy toward the low-wage service sector. No amount of deportations, border wall-building, or big-brother registration systems will do anything to stop this trend.

If we want to stop the race to the bottom, here’s what progressives should fight for:

1. Strict enforcement of all wage and hour laws. Serious penalties for violating the minimum wage. Make the minimum wage a livable wage.
2. Increase and enforce workplace safety laws.
3. Reduce the hurdles to forming unions and the right to strike.
4. Replace so-called ‘free trade’ laws with Fair Trade agreements.
5. Cross-border solidarity.
6. Comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship for immigrant workers and support for family reunification and other principles for fair, realistic, and humane solutions to the broken immigration system in the U.S.

For more information, go to www.cirnow.org.

None of this is possible if we let politicians and bigots divide the working class. Anyone who must work under conditions imposed by corporate capitalism is an ally in struggle. This is an elementary principle our grandparents understood.

Act Now! Contact Senators Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith. Tell them to reject harsh enforcement-only proposals, such as HR 4437, that hurt communities and do nothing to make us more secure. Instead, urge your senators to support realistic, comprehensive immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for hardworking immigrant workers.

Sen. Wyden: 516 Hart Sen. Bldg. Wash. DC 20510 (p) 202-224-5244 (f) 202-228-2717
Sen. Smith: 404 Russell Bldg. Wash. DC 20510 (p)202-224-3753 (f) 202-228-3997
A hand-written letter works best! For a sample letter that you can mail or e-mail today, go to http://capwiz.com/aila2/dbq/officials/.

Mike Edera is a landscaper by day and a local human dignity activist with Washington County Council for Human Dignity, a member group of the Rural Organizing Project. For more information or to schedule a conversation on immigrant rights in your community, go to www.rop.org or call 503-543-8417.