the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Jul 1, 2024
With great fanfare, the Biden administration announced “new actions to keep families together.”
He ordered that the Department of Homeland Security put in place a new process for undocumented spouses or children of citizens to apply for lawful permanent resident status—also known as a green card. He also ordered that some undocumented people brought here as young children—those the Obama Administration gave some very limited protections to under DACA—can more easily apply for work permits.
Both Fox News and The New York Times called this move “sweeping.” But it is about the very least the administration could possibly do. Undocumented spouses must have lived in the U.S. for ten years to qualify. And they are already eligible for green cards—this order just promises to reduce the number of hoops they must jump through.
As for the young people under DACA: they can only get a work visa if they have completed a college education in the U.S. and have a job offer in their field of study. How many young people does that happen for these days, immigrant or not?!?
On top of that, Spanish-language TV and radio are full of warnings that no one should apply yet, because it’s not clear how—or if—these announced changes will really be put in place. They warn of scammers offering to help people through the process who will instead steal their money.
In other words, Biden barely pretended to offer the slimmest olive branch to immigrants, after his announcement that he was closing the border a few weeks ago.
Instead, his policies continue to slice up the 50 million immigrants in the U.S. into a hundred different categories, with second, third, fourth, and fifth class “Americans”, each more under threat, and thereby vulnerable to exploitation, than the next.