The U.S. presidential election is just three weeks away, and one issue has dominated this race: immigration. A bipartisan war against immigrants is raging, and the U.S.-Mexico border has been a central part of Donald Trump’s, Joe Biden’s, and Kamala Harris’s campaigns. 

　　Trump famously announced his candidacy in 2015 by calling migrants coming from Mexico “drug dealers, criminals, and rapists.” He made “building the wall” a central part of both his platform and his presidency. While president, he also heavily increased militarization and surveillance at the border, separated families, and instituted the “Remain in Mexico” policy, while denying tens of thousands of refugees the right to asylum. Since then, Trump’s rhetoric and proposals have gotten even more extreme. He has said that, “Immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country,” and is promising the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history.” He also said he’ll end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented parents, and restore all his immigration policies from his first term. 

　　Meanwhile, the Democrats are increasingly trying to outflank Republicans from the right. Last spring, Biden bragged that he was trying to pass the toughest immigration bill in history, and blamed Republicans for blocking it. In fact, the Biden administration abandoned any pretense of even tepid reforms for immigrants, and instead continued to build Trump’s border wall, kept the “Remain in Mexico” policy until last year, and has put even more restrictions on migrants attempting to enter the United States. In 2022, under Biden, the U.S.-Mexico border was the world’s deadliest land route for migration. And President Biden is on track to deport more people than Trump did during his presidential term.  

　　While Biden has since withdrawn from the presidential race, his vice president and the current Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris, promises continuity with the current administration. In speeches, interviews, and her debate with Trump, she has doubled down on the war on immigrants, promising to secure the border and further toughen immigration restrictions. Harris, like Biden, is trying to run to the right of Republicans on immigration.  

　　So, why are both parties waging a war on immigrants? 

　　Firstly, capitalism relies on the division of the working class along racial and national lines. By dividing workers and the oppressed—for example, by encouraging US workers to view immigrants as their enemies—it keeps us, as workers, from uniting and using our full power in a shared fight against exploitation. This division also helps capitalists generate more profit by hyper-exploiting certain workers who endure extremely precarious conditions — like undocumented workers who are paid less, have fewer rights in the workplace, and do more dangerous work due to the fear that they could be deported if they organized against this exploitation. This is why neither Democrats nor Republicans — two capitalist sides of the same coin — will fight for immigrants, and are basically locked in a battle over who can embrace and enact more violent border policies.  

　　There’s another reason for this war on immigrants. The U.S. is facing economic and political crises and declining hegemony, especially in the growing competition with China. Latin America has an important role to play in shoring up the United States’ economic and political interests. Namely, the U.S. needs to subordinate Latin American countries, like Mexico, to the interests of U.S. capital, extracting more resources and exploiting these countries’ huge working classes. In other words, the U.S. needs to strongarm neighboring countries to act in the service of imperialist interests.  

　　The result of this bipartisan war is a crisis for migrants, who are facing declining economic and political conditions in their home countries, as well as environmental destruction due to climate change, which disproportionately ravages the Global South. To this, we can add imperialist domination through, for example, financial austerity imposed by the International Monetary Fund. The war on drugs also keeps Mexico and Central America violent and highly militarized. 

　　A note before we start: This interview was recorded before Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race and Kamala Harris took over as the Democratic nominee. So, you’ll notice us talking about Biden and the Biden administration’s policies. But here’s the thing: the war against immigrants isn’t about Joe Biden and Donald Trump. It’s not about Kamala Harris — who, by the way, full-throatedly support’s Biden’s policies and border militarization. It’s not about any individual at all — because it’s about the bipartisan political system. As we’ll discuss today, it’s about capitalism. It’s about imperialism. 

　　So, what’s the solution? Neither Democrats nor Republicans will fight for immigrants or provide a solution to growing numbers of refugees. This is because the war against immigrants isn’t about the beliefs or actions of any individual, whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris. Rather, it’s about the bipartisan political system. As this podcast episode will describe, the war on immigrants is fundamentally about capitalism and imperialism. 

　　We need to fight back against the capitalist system that props itself up on xenophobia, division of workers, and exploitation. We need to organize across borders with our international class siblings to fight capital’s use of precarious labor. And we need to work to build a working-class party with a socialist program, independent of capitalists, that organizes all workers — including the undocumented — to demand better economic conditions for all. Of course, we shouldn’t just stop there — we need to fight for a world with open borders that puts the world’s resources towards meeting all workers’ needs.  

　　On this episode, we interview Sam Carliner about how this bipartisan war on immigration, its causes, and its effects on migrants. We also discuss the need for a working-class party, with a socialist perspective, that can provide a real solution to the growing crises and violence facing migrants.  

　　Editor: Zhong Yao  Wei Xiaoxue 

　　From:https://www.leftvoice.org/allthatsleftpod-the-bipartisan-war-on-immigration/(2024-10-21)