House Passes Cruel Anti-Immigrant Bill

Revolution #030, January 15, 2006, posted at revcom.us

On December 16 the House of Representatives passed a draconian new
bill that, if it becomes law, would further criminalize undocumented
immigrants--along with anyone that helps them--and intensify the
militarization of the border and the overall repressive offensive
against immigrants.

Key features of the House bill include the following:

* Making it a felony crime--instead of a civil violation as it is
now--to be in the U.S. without legal documents. Millions of people now
in the U.S. would be classified as "felons." Immigrants arrested
without papers would be subject to immediate detention and
deportation--and would be permanently ineligible for U.S. citizenship.
* The building of five double-layer border fences--totaling 698
miles--in California and Arizona. This is seen as a "setback" by some
backers of the bill who wanted a fortified fence along the entire
2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border.
* Making it a federal crime to assist undocumented immigrants.
This would target, for example, people who leave water in the deserts,
trying to save the lives of immigrants who cross the border through
those dangerous areas--where hundreds die each year. Social workers,
doctors and nurses, teachers, priests, and others who give any help or
services to undocumented people could face five years in prison and
have their assets seized by the government.
* Requiring employers to collect and submit Social Security
numbers and other information on each worker to the Department of
Homeland Security to verify their "legal status." The information
would be stored on government databases. The ACLU notes that this
measure would create "a federally mandated requirement for citizens as
well as immigrants to get a permission slip from the federal
government before they can take a job."
* Expanding the police manhunt of immigrants. The bill would give
local law authorities--specifically sheriffs in 29 counties along the
U.S. border region--greater power to check an individual's legal
status. The bill also calls for paying local law enforcement when they
detain undocumented immigrants and turn them over to federal
custody--in other words, bounty for hunting down immigrants.

One measure that did not make it into the final House bill is the
idea--pushed by those like fascistic House Republican Tom Tancredo--to
overturn the long-established principle that every child born in this
country, regardless of their parents' status, is a citizen. This is
known as "birthright citizenship." Tancredo said last November,
"Citizenship in this country should not be bestowed on people who are
children of folks who come into this country illegally." This is, in
effect, an argument for repealing the 14th Amendment--passed after the
Civil War to give former slaves citizenship--which says, "All persons
born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."

While the denial of birthright citizenship for children of
undocumented immigrants was not included in the House bill, the fact
that this far-reaching idea was seriously under consideration in the
Congress shows that the government's anti-immigrant offensive--which
is already bringing intense misery and suffering to millions--is
heading in an even more extreme direction. And as Michele Waslin of
National Council of La Raza points out about the push to revoke
birthright citizenship, "This was always seen in the past as some
extreme, wacko proposal that never goes anywhere. But these so-called
wacko proposals are becoming more and more mainstream--it's becoming
more acceptable to have a discussion about it."

What is the effect when the House passes a bill to classify millions
of immigrants as "felons" and when reactionary politicians in the
national news call for changing the Constitution to strip citizenship
from children of the undocumented? These types of actions further
embolden and whip up fascist anti-immigrant movements like the
Minutemen, the armed vigilantes who hunt down immigrants on the
border. The Minutemen and other extremist forces act as the leading
edge of a bigger reactionary offensive that aims to whip up and draw
in people broadly, including proletarians and oppressed people of
other nationalities, into this whole pogromist anti-immigrant
atmosphere that scapegoats immigrants as the cause of unemployment and
other problems in this society.

There are some differences within the capitalist power structure,
including within the Republican Party, over the question of how to
deal with immigrants. This is part of divisions over the strategic
interests of their class as they move to enforce a whole new social
compact in this country and calculate the impact of that here and
across their empire. Those like Tancredo are especially and intensely
opposed to proposals for a "temporary worker" program (raised by Bush
as well as other Republicans and Democrats) which would give temporary
work permits to undocumented immigrants. Even though Bush's "temporary
worker" program is intended as a way to give the government more
ability to identify and keep track of immigrants, those like Tancredo
advocate driving the undocumented even more into the shadows.

But even as there is struggle at the top over this question, clearly
the government is overall moving quickly to ramp up the war on
immigrants. Bush praised the House bill, saying, "This bill will help
us protect our borders and crack down on illegal entry into the United
States... Securing our borders is essential to securing the homeland."

Note how Bush puts the question of immigration in the context of
"homeland security"--the Bush regime's post-9/11 program of fascistic
repression. Under this logic, "illegal immigrants" don't just "take
American jobs"--they are part of the "enemy" in the "war on terror."
And, as Bush has declared, "You're either with us or you're with the
enemy." Tancredo put it even more blatantly when he said last June
that undocumented immigrants "need to be found before it is too late.
They're coming here to kill you, and you, and me, and my grandchildren."

The House legislation is not yet a law. The Senate is going to come up
with its version of a new immigration bill, and George Bush has his
own proposals for man-hunts, mass deportation, and concentration camps
(see "Bush's Intensified War on Immigrants," Revolution 26, at
revcom.us). But various provisions in the House bill could become part
of an actual law--and the bill as a whole gives a picture of the
chilling and intolerable future for immigrants, if this cruel war on
immigrants is not resisted and stopped.