Deportation drive expanded as courts OK factory raids

Scan page 16

After an orgy of self-adulation during the Statue of Liberty festivities last summer, the U.S. government returned to its program of tightening up the immigration statutes to conform more closely to the present needs of the capitalist class.

Although the Simpson-Rodino bill failed to pass the House of Representatives on Sept. 25, the government is still pressing hard to obtain a comprehensive "immigra -tion reform" bill.

But to do this the government must be able to come up with a bill that is acceptable to all the conflicting ruling-class interests. So far, this has not been possible.

Corporate farmers, for example, want a "guest worker" or "bracero" program to supply them with temporary labor at harvest time. Restaurants, hotels, and the garment industry prefer to recruit undocumented workers, who are believed to have absolutely no legal rights and will work for sub-minimum wages, limited benefits, and substandard working conditions.

Racists and others want all immigration of non-white people stopped. The U.S. government is caught between those who mistakenly view undocumented workers as taking jobs from U.S. workers and employers who rely heavily on undocumented immigrants as their labor pool.

But virtually every recent study of the immigration issue-from the Rand Corpo -ration's study of Mexican immigration to the recent report by Beryl Sprinkel, President Reagan's chief economic adviser—has concluded that immigration creates jobs.

Moreover, the widespread belief that immigrants receive more in public services than they pay in taxes is not supported by the facts. "The average immigrant family pays more in taxes and receives less than the average native family," said Julian Simon, demographer at the University of Maryland.

War on the Mexican border The United States is unique among major industrial nations in sharing a 2000-mile border with an impoverished country. Mexico's standard of living has been exacerbated to the point of desperation by ignore the minimum wage, social security taxes, and union contracts.

The system has been so profitable in the Los Angeles area that employers will turn down applicants who can demonstrate a legal right to be in the country. The restaurant, hotel, and garment industries has a Spanish accent or an Hispanic appearance. Thus, Simpson-Rodino puts the jobs of all Latino workers in this country at risk, even those who are U.S. citizens.

Three hundred and fifty thousand temporary farm workers could be brought Impact Visuals/Philip Decker increase" in immigration operations in the next few years.

A federal judge has given the INS the green light to conduct lightning raids on work places to round up workers who have no papers, and bus them directly to the border.

Atter the three years are up, only those workers who have been in the United States continuously since Jan. 1, 1980, (1982 in the Rodino version) will be eligible to apply for legal status as residents. To qualify the applicant must prove he or she never left the country even for a brief visit, never received public welfare, and can meet about 33 other requirements for immigrant status.

It is estimated that as few as 10 percent of the undocumented will gain legal status under this bill.

Meanwhile, many who come forward as candidates for legalization could be summarily deported. Those who finally qualified as legal residents could not claim any federal welfare benefits for a further six years. For workers who toil in the subbasement of the economy, this could be a sentence of starvation.

Some liberals are calling for support to the bill because a clause gives some Haitian immigrants legal status. However, a separate bill (H.R. 23) that includes these same provisions has been introduced. It is not necessary to support the SimpsonRodino bill in order to gain justice for Haitian refugees.

Political refugees excluded

No provision is made in SimpsonRodino for the Salvadorans, Guatemalans, and others who have fled from death squads in their countries. The INS insists they are only refugees from a poor economy.

At hasty hearings, often held at isolated detention camps where the refugees have no legal aid, immigration officials summarily deport them. This often results in persecution or death upon their arrival in their home country. Rarely are the refugees informed of their right to appeal.

Another bill before Congress, the Moakley-Deconcini Bill would grant the status of "extended voluntary departure" to refugees from political persecution. This would give them the right to stay here until it is safe to go home.

But it will ultimately only be safe for