By Magally Miranda Alcázar, DSA Los Angeles
Anyone who works with immigrant populations today will note that one thing has not been missing since Trump's inauguration last November: fear. Trump’s xenophobic campaign rhetoric and his promises to amp up deportations, unfortunately, have not been an empty threat, with estimates showing upwards of 30% increases in deportations to that of Obama (who already held the record for most deportations under any president).
Scholars have coined the term “deportability” to refer to this looming threat of deportation which acts as an invisible force, like racism or sexism, to control immigrant behavior and enable the hyper-exploitation of immigrant workers. This regime of labor characterized by deportability is anything but arbitrary. It is a deliberate and tactical tool employed by states to control labor markets. Often, deportability enables employers to depress their workers’ wages far below market values either by employing the age-old threat of bringing in the “reserve army of labor” composed of eager or desperate workers, or with the threat of ICE. Important work has been done to debunk the myth that immigrants - especially undocumented workers - pose a threat to native workers. In the janitorial industry in California, for instance, immigrant workers have re-introduced new forms of labor militancy to an SEIU in decades of decline. For these reasons we must also talk about deportability as the performative or real threat of punitive measures such as raids, immigrant detention, and deportation.
A closer look at the Trumpian narrative on immigration reveals a blatant paradox. A study conducted by the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment showed that not only was there no correlation between counties that largely voted for Trump and counties with large Mexican immigrant populations; rather, there was a negative correlation between the two. On surveying the 2016 election results, they found that 60% of counties were “high Trump/low Mexican” or “low Trump/high Mexican” and only 2% fit the model of high Trump/high Mexican population. They found that “high Trump” voting counties not only lack large Mexican immigrant populations, but share higher than average rates of poverty, unemployment and low education. In short, the driving force behind Trumpism is not its ability to pinpoint the culprit (Mexican immigrants or immigrants in general), but its ability to capture the grievances of the “white working class” and channel it into misinformed xenophobic vitriol. After all, scapegoating immigrants is one way to displace the culpability of crisis from capitalism.
Nevertheless, what we are left with is a regime of deportability which can claim a mandate, and an immigrant population in the United States that is living in fear of a perceived and real threat.
A number of stories about mass raids have populated the news cycle. Mass immigrant deportations, especially but not exclusively in workplaces of people with no criminal records, have become one of the liberal media’s favorite spectacles. In many ways this most recent wave of mass deportations begs us to remember Operation Wetback, the 1950’s US policy that deported approximately 1.3 Mexican immigrants many of whom were employed by invitation to do degraded manual labor until they were no longer necessary. Operation Wetback, a blatantly racist policy in name and in deed, also sanctioned white backlash and discrimination against Mexican immigrants.
Thanks to these news stories we have become intimately acquainted with the industries that employ this hyper-exploitable and deportable population, and importantly with some of the impacts this has had on those communities. In the central valley of California in March, a truck full of workers on their way to pick tomatoes became the targets of an ICE raid as part of a sweep in the agricultural heartland of the state. 232 people were arrested in February at least 26 of whom were farm workers according to the United Farmworkers. Similarly in April a meatpacking plant in east Tennessee was raided and 100 people arrested. The story headline noted that 500 students went missing from class the next day which is a fact that should not be ignored. In addition to the workplace, deportability also functions to deter immigrants from accessing basic social services like schools, hospitals, and places of worship which has major ramifications for the well-being of immigrant communities.
As socialist organizers, it is more important than ever that we take these matters seriously and try to learn from organizations successfully working within and through the confines of this new age of increased deportability and immigrant fear. In their current campaign, the Los Angeles-based popular education institute, IDEPSCA, is conducting a watchdog operation over a new, more aggressively punitive security company being employed by various Home Depots in the city. IDEPSCA organizers are confronting deportability head on and trying to protect and empower their constituents: immigrant day laborers.
Interview with Daniel Chavez IDEPSCA
Q: Tell me a little bit about IDEPSCA and how it fits into the broader political landscape. I know IDEPSCA either began or gained steam after the large immigrant rights marches in Los Angeles in 2006. So, it can be described as one among a number of organizations that go by a number of names depending on who you’re asking: immigrant labor, economic justice, low-wage worker rights, “alt-labor,” the Los Angeles model of organizing, etc.
A: IDEPSCA runs four day-labor centers across LA.We help coordinate a space with shade, restrooms, safety, and services to mostly the most economically struggling people. We are largely funded by the city and state, initially to help ‘control’ the day labor ‘problem,’ inviting all low-income workers to register at the center.
