[ Republicans have figured out how to have it both ways. They get
cheap labor for their big business buddies, while stoking the hate and
fear of their white racist base]
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THE GOP’S GRAND IMMIGRATION CON JOB  
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Thom Hartmann
February 23, 2023
The Hartmann Report
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_ Republicans have figured out how to have it both ways. They get
cheap labor for their big business buddies, while stoking the hate and
fear of their white racist base _

, Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

 

Kevin McCarthy just came back
[[link removed]] from
a press trip to our southern border, full of talk about how bad the
Biden administration is doing with asylum and immigration. Today,
another group of House Republicans are “holding a hearing
[[link removed]]”
at the Mexican border. If you watch
[[link removed]] Fox
“News” you know all about it.

REPUBLICANS HAVE FIGURED OUT HOW TO HAVE IT BOTH WAYS. THEY GET CHEAP
LABOR FOR THEIR BIG BUSINESS BUDDIES, WHILE STOKING THE HATE AND FEAR
OF THEIR WHITE RACIST BASE, CLAIMING THAT DEMOCRATS ARE RESPONSIBLE
FOR INCREASING NUMBERS OF UNDOCUMENTED OR “ILLEGAL” IMMIGRANTS
LIVING AND WORKING IN THE UNITED STATES.

While it’s true that two factors have driven a lot of migration over
the past few decades (climate change wiping out farmland, and
political dysfunction and gangs caused by the Reagan administration
devastating the governments of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala)
the main driver of would-be immigrants and refugees into the US over
the past 40 years has been the Republican Party itself.

“But,” you may say, “Republicans have been screaming about
‘illegal immigration’ for as long as I can remember! How can they
be responsible for it?”

THERE ARE TWO PARTS TO THIS NEFARIOUS SCHEME.

THE FIRST PART HAS BEEN RUNNING CONTINUOUSLY FOR 40 YEARS; THE SECOND
PART IS MORE RECENT, HAVING STARTED IN THE EARLY 1990S. HERE ARE THE
DETAILS.

First up was the GOP’s longest con regarding immigration. While they
claim they don’t want “illegals” in the US, that’s the
opposite of the situation the Reagan administration and Republicans in
Congress set up back in the day.

Most countries don’t demagogue immigration: they _regulate_ it
with real laws that have real teeth against employers who hire
non-citizens to exploit them for cheap labor. The logic, which
generally works out all around the world, is that when the jobs dry
up, the immigrants just stop coming.

I lived and worked in Germany for a year, and it took me almost four
months to get a work-permit from that government to do so. I also
worked in Australia (although I didn’t live there), and the process
of getting that work-permit, just like with Germany, also took a
couple of months.

In both cases, it was my _employers_ who were most worried about my
successfully getting the work permits and did most of the work to make
it happen.

I wasn’t personally so worried about it, though: there’s an
important reason why my employers took on the responsibility and did
the work to make sure my work permits were in order.

THE WAY THAT MOST COUNTRIES PREVENT UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS FROM
DISRUPTING THEIR ECONOMIES AND CAUSING CHEAP LABOR COMPETITION WITH
THEIR CITIZENS IS BY PUTTING _EMPLOYERS_ IN JAIL OR HITTING THEM
WITH HUGE FINES WHEN THEY HIRE PEOPLE WHO DON’T HAVE THE RIGHT TO
WORK IN THAT COUNTRY. 

We used to do this in the United States. 

In the 1920s, the US began regulating immigration and similarly put
into place laws regulating who could legally work in this country and
who couldn’t. 

Because there was so much demand for low-wage immigrant labor in the
food belt of California during harvest season, President Dwight
Eisenhower experimented with a program in the 1950s that granted
season-long passes to workers from Mexico.

Millions took him up on it, but his _bracero_ program failed because
employers — not government — controlled the permits, and far too
many unscrupulous employers used the threat of canceling people’s
work permits to silence workers who objected to having their wages
stolen, or to intimidate workers who objected to physical or sexual
abuse.

A SIMILAR DYNAMIC IS AT WORK TODAY BECAUSE OF AN “INNOVATION”
REAGAN PUT INTO PLACE.

Employers get cheap labor from undocumented immigrants in the United
States, using — like they did with the Bracero program back in the
day — the threat of deportation and the violence of ICE as a cudgel.
Undocumented immigrants working here even end up afraid to call the
police when they’re the victims of, or witnesses to, crime. 

The result is unsafe communities, a terrorized undocumented immigrant
workforce, and easy pickings for predators who regularly rob, rape,
and inflict violence on immigrants and asylum seekers.

EVERYBODY LOSES EXCEPT THE EMPLOYERS, WHO HAVE A CHEAP, PLIABLE,
EASILY-THREATENED SOURCE OF LABOR THAT IS AFRAID TO TALK BACK OR
REPORT ABUSES. 

WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT THE GOP WANTED. THE SYSTEM IS WORKING JUST THE
WAY REAGAN ENVISIONED IT.

It started in 1986, when Ronald Reagan decided to stop enforcing the
laws against wealthy white employers hiring undocumented people.

It wasn’t that Reagan had suddenly discovered he liked nonwhite
people. He’d opposed both the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the
Voting Rights Act of 1965. In 1966, running for California governor,
he supported a ballot initiative to end “Fair Housing” laws in the
state, saying
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“If an individual wants to discriminate against Negroes or others in
selling or renting his house, it is his right to do so.”

Similarly, when running for president in 1980, Reagan’s biographer
Lou Cannon notes
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page 520 of his book that Reagan called the 1965 Voting Rights Act
“a humiliation of the South.”

BUT BY 1986 PRESIDENT REAGAN WAS DEEP INTO A CAMPAIGN TO DE-FUND THE
DEMOCRATIC PARTY, AND THE DEMOCRATS’ MAIN DONOR WAS ORGANIZED LABOR.
WHAT BETTER WAY TO CRUSH UNIONS THAN TO REPLACE THEIR MEMBERS WITH
NON-UNION WORKERS WHO WERE LEGALLY INVISIBLE?

For example, prior to the Reagan administration two of the most
heavily unionized industries in America were construction and
meatpacking. These were tough jobs, but in both cases provided people
who just had a high school education with a solid entry card into the
American Dream.

They were well-paid jobs that allowed construction and meatpacking
workers to buy a home, take vacations, raise their kids and live a
good, middle-class life with a pension for retirement. The meat
packers in Wisconsin were doing so well that they sponsored
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became the only non-billionaire-owned NFL football team — the Green
Bay Packers — from day one.

REAGAN AND HIS REPUBLICAN ALLIES — WITH UNIONIZED COMPANIES ACROSS
THE COUNTRY MAKING HEALTHY “DONATIONS” LEGALIZED BY THE 1978 
[[link removed]]_BELLOTTI
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COURT DECISION
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WROTE THE 1986 IMMIGRATION REFORM ACT IN A WAY THAT MADE
IT _HARDER_ TO PROSECUTE EMPLOYERS WHO INVITED UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS
INTO THEIR WORKPLACES.

They abandoned systems like I had to engage so I could work in Germany
and Australia in 1986/87 and the early 2000s, or like Canada and other
developed countries have had in place for decades.

Instead, under Reagan’s new law, employers could easily avoid
sanctions by simply having undocumented immigrants give them paperwork
(often supplied by the employers themselves) that met the new
requirement that it
[[link removed]] “reasonably
appears on its face to be genuine.”

Further reducing the “burden” on employers, an amendment
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the law under the guise of preventing discrimination “penalized
employers for conducting overly aggressive scrutiny of workers’
legal status on the basis of their nationality or national origin.”

The law also held companies harmless
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they simply fired all their unionized American workers and replaced
them with undocumented immigrants who were employed by a
subcontractor.

THIS LED TO AN EXPLOSION OF FLY-BY-NIGHT AND IMMIGRATION-LAW-SKIRTING
SUBCONTRACTORS PROVIDING CHEAP UNDOCUMENTED LABOR FOR EVERYTHING FROM
CONSTRUCTION TO FIELD WORK TO CLEANING FACTORIES (LIKE THE MOST
RECENT CHARGE
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CHILD LABOR VIOLATIONS IN NEBRASKA).

As Brad Plumer noted in 
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Washington Post
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Reagan’s 1986 immigration “reform”: 

_“_[T]he bill's sponsors ended up watering down the sanctions on
employers to attract support from the business community,
explains Wayne Cornelius of the Center for Comparative Immigration
Studies at U.C. San Diego. ‘The end result was that they essentially
gutted the employer sanctions,’ he says.”

AFTER REAGAN STOPPED ENFORCING OUR LABOR AND IMMIGRATION LAWS WITH
RESPECT TO WEALTHY WHITE EMPLOYERS, THE NEXT 20 YEARS SAW A COLLAPSE
OF AMERICAN CITIZENS WORKING IN BOTH THE MEATPACKING AND CONSTRUCTION
INDUSTRIES, AMONG OTHERS. 

Forty-dollar-an-hour American-citizen unionized workers were replaced
with seven-dollar-an-hour undocumented workers desperate for a chance
at a life in America for themselves and their children.

FROM THE REPUBLICAN POINT OF VIEW, AN ADDED BONUS WAS THAT LEVELS OF
UNIONIZATION IN BOTH INDUSTRIES UTTERLY COLLAPSED, INCREASING PROFITS
AND EXECUTIVES’ SALARIES WHILE GUTTING THE ABILITY OF UNIONS TO
FINANCE DEMOCRATS’ POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS.

REAGAN PULLED OFF A DOUBLE: HE SUCCEEDED IN TRANSFORMING THE AMERICAN
WORKPLACE AND SIMULTANEOUSLY SET UP DECADES OF POTENTIAL ANTI-HISPANIC
HYSTERIA THAT REPUBLICANS LIKE TRUMP AND MCCARTHY COULD USE AS A
POLITICAL WEDGE.

Without acknowledging that it was Reagan himself who set up the
“crisis,” Republicans today hold serious-sounding conferences and
press availabilities about how “illegals” are “trying to steal
Americans jobs!” They’re all over rightwing hate radio and in the
conservative media on a near-daily basis. 

BUT IT’S NOT POOR PEOPLE COMING HERE IN SEARCH OF SAFETY OR A BETTER
LIFE WHO ARE IMPACTING OUR LABOR MARKETS (AND, FRANKLY, IT’S A SMALL
IMPACT): _IT’S THE COMPANIES THAT HIRE THEM_. 

And those same companies then fund Republican politicians who pushed
under-the-radar social media ads at African Americans and blue-collar
whites in 2016 and the last election saying that Democrats wanted
Hispanic “illegals” to come in to “replace them” and take
their jobs. 

AMERICA, IT TURNS OUT, DOESN’T HAVE AN “ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT”
PROBLEM: WE HAVE AN “ILLEGAL EMPLOYER” PROBLEM.

Which is why every single effort by Democrats to engage Republicans on
“comprehensive immigration reform” runs into a brick wall: the GOP
wants things just as they are.

WHICH BRINGS US TO THE GOP’S SECOND GRAND IMMIGRATION CON JOB.

When Marjorie Taylor Greene was on Tucker Carlson’s show this week
to pitch her “divorce” between red and blue states (another grand
distraction from the GOP’s plans to gut Social Security and
Medicare), he said, speaking
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the alleged differences between Republicans and Democrats:

“How do you reconcile secure borders and wide-open borders?”

WE SHOULDN’T BE SURPRISED BY LIES ABOUT “OPEN BORDERS” COMING
OUT OF FOX “NEWS” AFTER THE _DOMINION_ REVELATIONS, BUT THIS IS
PART OF A MUCH LARGER STORY THAT’S WORTH EXAMINING.

As I detailed here on HartmannReport
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length back on December 20th, whenever a Democrat takes up residence
in the White House literally hundreds of Republican politicians step
up to the microphone or tell their local newspapers and radio stations
how the Democratic president has suddenly “opened up America’s
southern border!!!”

THEY DID IT TO CLINTON, THEY DID IT TO OBAMA, AND THEY’RE DOING IT
TO BIDEN NOW. AND EVERY TIME THEY DO, WORD TRAVELS FROM THESE GOP
POLITICIANS AND PUBLICATIONS TO DESPERATE PEOPLE SOUTH OF OUR BORDER.

As any Republican will proudly tell you, there were huge surges of
desperate would-be immigrants and asylum seekers during each of the
last three Democratic presidents’ administrations.

What they won’t tell you is that none of those Democratic presidents
“invited” anybody or “loosened” border restrictions: people
showed up because _Republican_ politicians had told them the border
was now open.

DEMOCRATS DON’T SAY OUR BORDERS ARE OPEN, AND, AS FAR AS I CAN TELL,
NEVER HAVE.

IN MARCH OF 2021 THE RIGHTWING _WASHINGTON EXAMINER
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WENT ON A SEARCH FOR DEMOCRATS PROCLAIMING THAT WE’D “OPENED!”
THE SOUTHERN BORDER IN THE FIRST MONTHS OF JOE BIDEN’S PRESIDENCY.

They found nothing. (Well, they found that both Joe Manchin and
Kyrsten Sinema had called the situation on our southern border “a
crisis,” as well as a Democratic congresswoman from Michigan who was
merely acknowledging the surge of immigrants. And a single Democratic
mayor in Texas who also said it was a crisis. But that’s it.)

BUT LITERALLY HUNDREDS OF _REPUBLICAN_ POLITICIANS, JUST LIKE THEY
DO EVERY TWO YEARS, HAVE SPENT THE TWO-PLUS YEARS SINCE BIDEN’S
INAUGURATION PROCLAIMING TO EVERY DESPAIRING POTENTIAL REFUGEE SOUTH
OF OUR BORDER THAT THE DOOR IS WIDE OPEN.

Just google “open border” and “congressman,”
“congresswoman,” or “senator” and you’ll get a list too long
to print.

AT THE TOP OF THAT LIST JUST FROM THE PAST FEW MONTHS, OF COURSE,
YOU’LL FIND THE MOST CONTEMPTIBLE REPUBLICAN DEMAGOGUES:

— Ted Cruz wants everybody south of our border to know that the
“Biden Open Border Policy [is] A Very Craven Political Decision
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— Rick Scott wants everybody to know that “Americans Don’t Want
[Biden’s] Open Borders
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— Marco Rubio says there’s “Nothing Compassionate About
Biden’s Open Border Policies
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— Rand Paul is so extreme he tells us Senator Rubio “is the one
for an open border
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— Josh Hawley says “Biden’s Open Border Policy Has Created a
Moral Crisis
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— Tom Cotton “Insists the Border is Wide Open
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— Ron Johnson wants the world to know that “Our National Security
is at Risk Because Democrats have Turned Border Security into a
Partisan Issue
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— Marjorie Taylor Greene “BLASTS Open Border Hypocrites
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— Mo Brooks opposes “Socialist Democrats’ Open Border Policies
for Helping Kill Americans
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— Lauren Boebert says the “Root Cause” of the open border
crisis “is in the White House”
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— Matt Gaetz “revealed a complex and deceitful agenda by Joe
Biden’s Democrat administration to evade our Southern Border law
enforcement
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— Gym Jordan says “Biden’s Deliberate Support of Illegal
Immigration Could Lead to Impeachment
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— Kevin McCarthy says the Biden Administration has “Utterly
Failed” to secure the “open border
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— Elise Stefanik proclaims “Biden’s Open Border Policies have
been a Complete Disaster
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— Tom Cole’s website features “Biden’s Open Border America
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— Bob Goode brags about introducing legislation named the “Close
Biden’s Open Border Act
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— John Rose “Calls Out Biden’s Open Border Policies
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— Paul Gosar claims Biden is “Destroying America with His Open
Border Policies
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— Roger Williams complains about the “Democrats’ Open Border
Problem
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— Tom Cole wants the world to know that Biden’s “open border
policies have given the green light to migrants and bad actors from
around the world
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— Gus Bilirakis “Denounces Dangerous Open Border Policies on the
House Floor
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THE LIST GOES ON AND ON, AND THESE MESSAGES HAVE SPREAD ALL ACROSS
CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA, JUST AS REPUBLICANS HOPED THEY WOULD. BASED
ON A LIE.

AND THE SMALL PERCENTAGE OF MIGRANTS WHO ACTUALLY GET THROUGH OUR
BORDER AND SURVIVE THE TREK ACROSS DEADLY DESERTS PROVIDE MORE CHEAP
LABOR FOR REPUBLICANS’ BIG DONORS’ FACTORIES AND CONSTRUCTION
SITES, ALONG WITH MORE BROWN-SKINNED PEOPLE THEY CAN DEMONIZE AS
“REPLACING” WHITE AMERICANS ON FOX “NEWS.” WIN-WIN.  

The tragedy is in the lives of the desperate people who listen to
these Republican lies and try to make it here.

They pack all their belongings into a single backpack, bid tearful
goodbyes to friends and family, and begin a grueling journey facing
dangers of death, kidnapping, rape, and violence. They are fathers,
mothers, and children.

QUITE LITERALLY TAKING THEIR LIVES IN THEIR HANDS BECAUSE THEY
BELIEVED CYNICAL, UNFEELING, UNCARING, SOCIOPATHIC REPUBLICAN
POLITICIANS WHO ARE LYING FOR POLITICAL GAIN.

Now, in response to the most recent surge caused by all the
politicians listed above, the Biden administration may revive a rule
turning away asylum seekers who didn’t first pre-register with our
immigration system in another country before showing up here.

Predictably, he’s being slammed
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“too little, too late” by Republicans and sued
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immigration advocates who are frustrated with almost 40 years of
unsuccessful attempts to reform our immigration laws.

Immigration issues are riling the entire developed world, as refugees
flee war and climate change looking for safety and better lives. And
it’s turning the politics of developed countries upside-down,
ushering in hardcore rightwing governments from Sweden to Hungary to
Italy.

IMMIGRATION THAT’S TOO RAPID OR COMES IN WAVES INVARIABLY PRODUCES A
LOCAL AND TYPICALLY RACIST/XENOPHOBIC BACKLASH.

We saw that here in the US with Irish immigrants in the 1840s
following the potato famine that set the stage for Leonardo
DiCaprio’s _Gangs of New York_ story; with Chinese in the
mid-1800s, leading to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882; and the wave
of Italian immigrants starting in the 1880s leading to “No Dogs, No
Italians” signs [[link removed]] here,
as northern Europe also saw.

IMMIGRATION HAS HISTORICALLY BEEN A POWERFUL POSITIVE FORCE FOR
AMERICA, BUT IT MUST BE REGULATED IN A WAY THAT’S BOTH FAIR TO
IMMIGRANTS/ASYLUM SEEKERS AND NOT DISRUPTIVE OF CITIZENS’ WORK AND
LIVES.

It’s way past time for our media to call out Republican exploitation
and demagoguery of this issue so we can finally and comprehensively
reform our immigration laws.

While once again jailing employers who break our immigration laws —
instead of the desperate people they invited here — so they have to
exclusively hire American citizens and Green Card holders may cut into
big business’ profits (which they can easily afford), everybody else
in our society will be the better for it.

_Thom Hartmann is a NY Times bestselling author 34 books in 17
languages & nation's #1 progressive radio host. Psychotherapist,
international relief worker. Politics, history, spirituality,
psychology, science, anthropology, pre-history, culture, and the
natural world._

* Immigration
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* GOP
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* political strategy
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* Con Job
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