If I could ask powerful world leaders a question and get an honest answer the question that interests me the most is "How do you see the future of your country? Who is a part of it? How are they a part of it?"
In the US Republicans are peddling a vision of a white, English-speaking, Christian America. A nation with very few or no non-citizen residents.
America is currently a largely white, overwhelmingly Christian nation with a significant population of non-citizen residents.
1/
11 million people out of 326 million people, who live in the US, aren't citizens and will never be citizens (unless we change something.)
They are here because US companies can pay them lower wages. A non-citizen is less likely to complain. Not because "Americans won't do those jobs."
I hate when people say that. These people are essentially Americans. How can we make *that* argument while also saying they are somehow mysteriously able to do exhausting, work for low wages?
2/
From most Democrats the "vision of the future" is murky, but amounts to "just leave things as they are" far too often.
I think we should be a diverse nation, as we have always been. A nation that both assimilates and is changed by the people who live here.
I don't think we should have a significant portion of the population who lives here indefinitely but will never really be a part of America.
It's OK to visit, but if you live here we need your help with running the government.
3/
The Republican project to eliminate undocumented Americans is either a fake out: that is, we will look around in 10 years and there will still be millions of undocumented people working in the shadows with no path to citizenship.
OR it's the same kind of eliminationism that leads to some of the worse crimes in history.
I want to hear someone say NO. There should be a path to citizenship. Requirements should be reasonable. Become a part of America if you want to stay.
4/
I think a lot of people would agree with "Become a part of America if you want to stay."
A friend of mine works in roofing. He's been doing the job for 20 years which is amazing because it's a very dangerous job. From time to time I've had to talk him down from supporting Republicans because he sees directly how his wages are lower, his job is less safe because most of the other people doing the same job are here illegally.
It's easy to blame immigrants for "not following the law"
5/
Blaming immigrants for "not following the law" is also BS because the US laws have been contradictory. They way the laws are enforced ranges from random to incomprehensible.
This is obviously because there are business owners who want to hire people for lower wages, but don't care about them beyond that. We can all see this happening.
There have even been attempts to make government programs to codify this arrangement.
6/
Things like "guest worker" programs that let people work in the US in agriculture for two years but then they need to return to their home country for a time before they can return to do two more years. Basically an exception just so farm owners can get their field workers without those workers ever becoming a part of the country.
Just keeping a thumb on people pressing them down.
7/
And that downward pressure doesn't just impact immigrant workers, it has an impact on the whole industry.
Everyone acts like it's unthinkable that picking strawberries or roofing could be a job that pays a decent wage. We really need to stop doing that and acknowledge the people who have been doing this work. Show them some respect.
8/8
The Democratic version of "doing something about immigration" can't just be the same thing Republicans have been doing but "less and more polite" --
ICE rounds up people who have been in the country for years. As far as I'm concerned these people are Americans. In the past the same industries just offer more jobs and bring in new people to replace them. That's the choke point no one will talk about, from the "room rental" landlords to the field captains to the contractors.
There is a conservative black youTuber who is pretty obnoxious but he pulled a stunt once where he went to Home Depot here in the Bronx and tried to wait with the construction day laborers to get work. He didn't really understand the system and made a big deal about being rejected and ranted about immigration ruining everything.
But his segment exposed how there are a lot of "understandings" and social infrastructure in place to supply cheap labor to these industries.
All of this because someone wants to pay a little less for their workers.
I was horrified when I heard that ICE was going after people "at Home Depots" but I can also understand how to some people it might sound like "wow finally someone is doing something about this"
Paying a human person $80 a day to lay roofing is unreasonable. That job is too dangerous and requires too much skill for such low pay.
That why we can't talk about immigration without talking about wages and working conditions.
@futurebird I would emphasize that whether or not the pay is unreasonable should be up to the worker. It disempowers them for me or you to impose our idea of reasonable onto them, taking away their ability to choose for themselves based on their own lives.
This is about workers rights. They can choose for themselves. They aren't children that we need to be paternalistic about.
