Socialism, Not Deportation

8 Apr 2024

Conservative rhetoric about illegal immigrants – particularly Trump’s recent remarks calling them “animals” – requires a response based in empathy and class consciousness. There are a number of problems with the general conservative talking points on this issue. First, immigrants – legal or otherwise – are human beings who deserve a life of dignity. Any rhetoric or law that seeks to treat them as any less is evil. Second, the immigrant population in the US has remained fairly stable for nearly a decade, and according to every study on the matter, illegal immigrants commit less crime than native born citizens. 

There is a larger issue. Neither conservatives or liberals seem to acknowledge the fact that the American worker and the illegal immigrant are both members of the same exploited working class. While the immigrant population is subject to more acute exploitation, these two groups have common interests and common enemies: the corporations that prey on immigrants – both at home and abroad – and the governments that enable them.

It is crucial to understand that the currently proposed “solutions” to the so-called border crisis are nothing more than band-aid solutions. A wall and a beefed-up ICE will only ever treat symptoms of the underlying illness and never the illness itself. Illegal immigration from Latin America to the United States did not appear in a vacuum; it arose from centuries of brutal colonial oppression at the hands of European powers followed by roughly a century of the same from the United States. 

At every turn, the people of Latin America have been denied sovereignty for the sake of profit. If one were to close their eyes and throw a dart at a map of the region, the dart would hit a country where the United States has overthrown or attempted to overthrow a democratically elected government, typically at the behest of some American corporation – for example, the 1954 CIA-backed coup in Guatemala clamored for by United Fruit Company, now known as Chiquita. Illegal immigration from this region is a direct result of the US government making life in this region worse for millions of people.

The exploitation of the people of Latin America does not end when they emigrate to the United States. Here, due to their legal status, illegal immigrants form an underclass of workers that are subject to abysmal pay and inhumane working conditions. They cannot organize or fight for improvements here because their employers can simply have them deported and replaced with more desperate people. 

“Immigrants do jobs that Americans would never do,” is almost axiomatic, but it’s not because immigrants naturally gravitate to those jobs. They often do not have a choice. Many child migrants are put to work in dangerous jobs despite child labor laws, where they sometimes die. That illegal immigrants are pushed into this underclass means lower wages and worse treatment for them and for everyone else.

This state of affairs is incredibly profitable for the capitalist elites who control the corporations that exploit laborers both abroad and at home. This same group of elites largely determines what actions the United States government takes, meaning that neither of the two political parties wants to actually solve illegal immigration, despite their posturing. The interests that control them have far too large a stake in things continuing as they are or getting worse. The US government is not the only one to blame. Throughout the last century, the United States has installed and propped up countless dictatorships that let American corporations – like Coca Cola and Chevron – have free reign over the minds and bodies of the Latin American working class.

Any effective solution to the problem of illegal immigration must strike at its roots. The imperialist subjugation of Latin America must end, and migrants must be made less exploitable by predatory corporations in the United States. As for the first solution, the only way to completely eradicate imperialist domination is socialism; the companies that exploit Latin American workers must be controlled by Latin American workers to the benefit of Latin American workers. The profits from these companies should contribute to the development of the areas they work in rather than to the net worth of some executives thousands of miles away. Anything short of a total cession of control to the workers is a band-aid solution.

As for the second, there are a number of ways to make migrants less exploitable in this country. The root cause of their exploitability is their status as illegal immigrants. In order for this underclass to no longer exist, the status of illegal immigrant must cease to exist; without the leverage of deportation, employers cannot as easily subject immigrants to the hellish conditions they currently do. 

However, easing immigration is only a half-measure; even as full citizens immigrants would still be subject to racism and the same exploitation that the rest of the American working class experiences. Again, the only surefire solution to this problem is socialism. It is highly unlikely that a worker would underpay himself or threaten himself with deportation. The only way to eliminate exploitation is to put the working class at the helm.

The answer to illegal immigration is not a border wall, not more funding for ICE, and not more deportations but socialism and solidarity. It is to put workers in control so that we can dismantle the conditions that cause us to suffer, regardless of our race or country of origin. If conservatives actually wanted to prevent illegal immigration, they would be socialists.