Workplace enforcement and Guest-worker programs

A few days ago the New York Times had an article about a change in immigration enforcement under the Obama administration.  Like the Bush administration before it, the Obama administration has put more emphasis on “workplace enforcement” than had been done in the recent past.  But, the methods used have been quite different.  Under Bush, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided workplaces in large-scale raids, arresting undocumented workers, holding mass-hearings, and deporting large numbers of undocumented immigrants.  Employers were often not fined, and there is good reason to think that employers annoyed by workers seeking improved conditions were often involved in setting up the raids.  The most well known such raid took place in Postville Iowa, [fixed] but there were many others.  The Obama administration has taken a different path, having ICE agents look at employment records, searching for employees who do not match known social security numbers.  When many such non-matches are found, the company is notified and fined.  The workers are then dismissed by the company, but so far there have not been raids or active attempts to arrest and deport the fired workers.  It is possible that many will “self-deport” if they are unable to find new work. 

 Although the Obama administration’s policy is certainly more human than that of the Bush administration, it has not found much favor.  Immigration activists decry the fact that the undocumented workers are fired.  (It is quite unclear what they think should happen, assuming that immigration law should be enforced at all.)  Conservative politicians and anti-immigration activists decry the fact that the fired workers are not arrested and deported.  And employers, even those who do not seem to be exploiting the undocumented workers to any great degree, are hurt by the instability the program brings to their labor supply.  The best solution to this problem, at least the best one that is at all feasible, would be a well-crafted and sensible guest-worker program.  Unfortunately, such plans have very few supporters at the present time.  The Comprehensive Immigration Reform proposals put forward during the Bush administration between 2005 and 2007 tended to contain fairly reasonable package of reforms to the current guest-worker programs in the U.S.  But, those plans went nowhere, and in particular were not supported by conservatives in Bush’s own party.  The Immigration reforms proposed by the Obama administration lack any significant reforms in relation to guest-workers, not even including visa-portability, a reform that would go a long way to prevent exploitation of guest-workers by employers.  But, without a sensible guest-worker program, the situation discussed above will continue, as will the cycle of illegal migration and amnesty/legalization, a cycle started by Ronald Reagan . 

Many people who are, in most ways, pro-immigrant oppose guest-worker programs, often because they have in mind the worst excesses of the German experience with Turkish guest-workers.  These fears are largely misplaced.  A sensible guest-worker program can and would include a path to eventual permanent residence for long-term guest-workers, and the 14^th Amendment prevents the development of a permanent non-citizen class in the U.S. of the sort that developed in Germany.  Furthermore, there is reason to believe that, given the chance, many, perhaps most, foreigners who come to the U.S. do not wish to stay permanently, but only wish to work for some time, to earn some money, and then return home.  When they have a chance to do so under reasonably terms, they often do this.  Though the situation is therefore a win-win one, there is currently very little hope of a sensible guest-worker program being put in place.  One thing that might help that situation would be for pro-immigrant forces to accept that they have nothing to fear from a sensible program.  (Those looking to learn more about guest-worker programs can benefit greatly from this article by Howard Chang , and from a popular article by Kerry Howley .  Though I disagree with parts of each article, both are very useful, especially Chang’s typically careful and insightful work.)  

Comments

[anon]

It's Postville, not Pottsville.

[Matt Lister]

gah! Thanks- that was silly. I've fixed it.

[anon]

"Many people who are, in most ways, pro-immigrant oppose guest-worker programs, often because they have in mind the worst excesses of the German experience with Turkish guest-workers. These fears are largely misplaced."

I think you fundamentally misunderstand the position of most immigrants' rights advocates who are against guest-worker programs as a matter of policy. Having worked extensively with guest-workers for more than a decade, I can tell you from first-hand experience that opposition has very little to do with fear of German/Turk relations. That may be your interpretation of the situation, or Prof. Chang's supposition, but since I'm pretty sure neither of you has actually spent any time in the fields or the farms with guest-workers, I'll take it upon myself to correct you since I have.

Guest-workers are exploited. They are brought here for their labor, they are given hollow "rights" under the federal program that their employers participate in to bring them here, and if they are injured they are often shipped back immediately to their country of origin (despite being eligible to file workers comp claims). The workers are told from the outset not to speak to legal aid lawyers, and fear retaliation if they do so. They cannot change employers, because their visas are only good for work with one employer, and if god forbid they are injured and sent back home, they (and potentially their entire family in their hometown) will be blackballed from future work as guestworkers because they "made trouble." And even when workers do this for years and years, coming back every season to cut trees and pick produce, they get no credit toward any kind of legal status for their non-immigrant work. It's not, in my opinion and in the opinion of many people who work in favor of immigrant integration, a good system by any stretch of the imagination.

I'm not sure what your idea of a "sensible guest-worker program" is, but I think it's myopic and inaccurate of you to couch opposition to guest-worker programs by immigrant advocates as some failure of reasonableness or some unfounded fear based on a troublesome European guest-worker model. I agree that reasonable people can disagree about the wisdom of guest-worker programs, but your overly broad assertion that immigrant advocates "have nothing to fear" from a reformed guest-worker program is, in my estimation, a statement borne out of ignorance of the reality of the situation guest-workers face. It really is more complex than you try to make it seem here.

I also find it interesting that you would post this today and make no mention of the big report that was just released this afternoon regarding exploitation of H2B crabpickers in Maryland. I can only assume you weren't aware of it, so I'm posting the link for you here:

http://www.wcl.american.edu/clinical/documents/20100714_auwcl_ihrlc_picked_apart.pdf?rd=1

[Matt Lister]

anon- Your criticism of current guest-worker programs are perfectly right. The current programs we have, especially for agricultural workers, are very bad and lead to a lot of abuse. But that's a reason to _reform_ guest-worker programs, isn't it? You'll note that I don't defend current programs. (I do tend to think that claims that most H2B visa holders are exploited is hard to make out, though some are.) In fact, man of the problems you mention have been addressed in proposes reforms- reforms the Obama administration is, sadly enough, not supporting. So, for example, visa portability (which you'll note I called for above) was included in some of the proposed reforms during the Bush administration, as was credit towards eventual permanent residence under certain circumstances. A slightly more charitable reading of the post would show that this is the sort of thing I called for, and that I'm not supporting the things you oppose, nor suggesting that many current guest-workers, including especially agricultural guest-workers, are not exploited. In fact, I think we are likely on the same side. And we should push to Obama administration to make common-sense and human reforms to guest-worker program part of his immigration reform package.

Thanks also for the link. I hadn't seen that. (I'd been thinking of the post since I read the NYT article a few days ago but only now had time to do it, so I'm not sure there's much "interesting" about it.) Again, it's strong evidence for what I call for in this post- a sensible guest-worker program- and not evidence against it.