Journalist, Author, Educator
Krauze writes in the WashPost:
The novel coronavirus has been particularly harsh on immigrants. After facing years of harassment and persecution from the Trump administration, the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States have now been left unprotected, unable to receive aid from the government’s historic stimulus package, even though they pay billions of dollars in taxes every year
Local and state officials, especially those in immigrant-friendly states such as California, are scrambling to find a way to help their undocumented communities, but it might not be enough. Without appropriate federal support, prompt access to more effective unemployment benefits or paid sick leave for those in need, many communities could be devastated. Left with the agonizing decision of going to work in the midst of a pandemic that requires strict limits on public movement or see their livelihood disappear, many undocumented people are already risking their health.
[Full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic]
This is a travesty. Undocumented immigrants are productive members of society who deserve all the care afforded to others.Even this administration has deemed workers who harvest and process the country’s food supply as essential, asking them to keep their “normal work schedule” during the crisis. “It’s like suddenly they realized we are here contributing,” Nancy Silva, an immigrant from Mexico who works in the fields of Southern California, told the New York Times. “Contributing” is an understatement. The immigrant workforce is critical for a significant number of industries in the United States.
In June, I interviewed John Rosenow, a Wisconsin dairy farmer who has relied on Mexican immigrants for years. “Our industry doesn’t exist without immigrant labor,” he told me. “Eighty percent of the milk in Wisconsin is harvested by immigrants. If you took the immigrants away, way over half of the farms would go out of business.” Wisconsin’s dairy industry is not alone in its dependence on immigrant labor. Indeed, almost 20 percent of food processing workers and more than 36 percent of agricultural workers are undocumented. The health-care industry relies heavily on immigrants as well,as do the country’s construction and service businesses.
. . . .
Martínez worries that a protracted economic crisis could worsen the nativist backlash against immigration. “If things continue this way,” he said, “we could see further restrictions on work or entrepreneur visas, no matter the obvious contributions we all make to the economy.”
The United States will be worse for it, both morally and economically.
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Read the complete op-ed at the link.
The well-being of the United States as a whole has never been a part of the Trump agenda. Nor is it for the White Nationalist restrictionists who promote his immigration agenda. Their agenda is based largely on racist myths and preconceived false narratives about the dangers of the “other.”
But, in any emergency creating an economic downturn there will be a race to find “scapegoats.” Indeed, essentially “caught red-handed and in full view in failure,” Trump is desperately looking to shift the blame elsewhere for his Administration’s poor initial response and lack of planning. “With great power comes no responsibility” could be his motto.
The nativists are already toting out their shopworn arguments that the pandemic should be an excuse and justification for yet harsher and more restrictive immigration measures. The rest of us need to fight back against their counterproductive nonsense.
PWS
04-14-20