Divide-and-rule is an age-old tool by the ruling elite to keep those at the bottom from uniting against our common enemies at the top. Trump and the right-wing have used undocumented immigrants as a scapegoat for the many real problems facing working class people today, from a lack of affordable housing to the opioid crisis to low wages. These problems are real, but the blame should be placed squarely on billionaires like Trump and his new best friend Elon Musk, not immigrants. 

61% of voters ranked immigration as a top issue this election and voters in eight states passed ballot measures banning non-citizens from voting, despite the fact that it’s already illegal. In Arizona, a referendum essentially allowing local police to act as immigration enforcement was also adopted. Donald Trump was elected on a viciously anti-immigrant program calling to “seal the border and stop the migrant invasion” and “carry out the largest deportation operation in American history.”

The right-wing shift in attitudes about immigration in US society is glaring when looking at the election results. This is part of a global phenomenon with the ramping up of attacks on immigrants by establishment parties on both “sides” of the political spectrum. 

Trump will be entering the White House this January, but the success of his dangerous anti-immigrant, pro-corporate agenda is not a foregone conclusion. Millions in the US and around the world are horrified by the election results and the prospect of an emboldened right-wing. We can fight back and we need to start getting organized now, even before Inauguration Day.

Democrats Open The Door

Working-class communities are deprived of essential resources, struggling to get by in the face of inflation, and staring down a future of dead-end jobs. The reality is undocumented workers face the same, or often worse, conditions as native-born workers. This is not due to scarcity, but rather hoarding of resources by the billionaires and a conscious divide-and-rule strategy to pit poor and working-class communities against each other. 

Kamala Harris and the Democrats failed to provide any alternative explanation for, or solution to, the crises of this system, and instead lectured people about “joy” and the supposed health of the economy. This has thrown the door wide open for right-wing, anti-immigrant ideas to proliferate. Rather than putting up a real counter to Trump and his anti-immigrant policies, Harris doubled down on the Democrat’s failed strategy of chasing Trump to the right, promising to be even tougher on immigration than Trump! 

Native-born workers can be won over to the struggle for immigrant justice through a real program that includes things all workers need like Medicare for All, affordable housing, and good union jobs, alongside demands against deportations and for full citizenship rights for all. However, the reality is neither corporate party is willing to fight for these things. This is why now more than ever we need a new party for working people, independent of the Democrats and Republicans which are both happy to sell-out all workers (immigrant and not) to the whims of big business. 

Reject The Bosses’ Divisions

Bosses will exploit any divisions that exist among workers to prevent unity against our common enemy. Driving a wedge between undocumented workers and those with citizenship or other “legal” status can be particularly effective for undermining solidarity in the workplace. Having a large group of workers with “second-class” status, who are terrorized by the threat of deportation and paid substandard wages, is useful for the bosses. They simultaneously keep undocumented workers in a precarious position, while also keeping workers with legal status in line and complacent with low wages, using the threat that there are others “willing to work for less.” 

For this reason exactly, it’s an absolute necessity that the left and the labor movement take a bold and unapologetic stance of defending undocumented workers against intimidation and deportation, fighting for full legal rights for all immigrants. It’s equally as urgent to undertake a campaign to organize the unorganized, native-born and undocumented workers alike.

Seeing the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment in society, the instinct of some union leaders is to take a softer stance on fighting for immigrants rights to avoid creating debate among union members. Some labor leaders, like Teamsters president Sean O’Brien and International Longshoremen’s Association president Harold Dagget, have also embraced protectionist “America first” rhetoric. This is a deadly trap that the labor movement, which has started to reassert itself for the first time in decades, cannot afford to fall into.

The answer to bosses’ divide-and-rule tactics in the workplace should not be to adopt their anti-immigrant, nationalist logic, but to fight to defend and organize every worker. Any form of second-class status in the workers movement is a barrier to a unified, fighting struggle against the bosses; this is why we fight for full rights to citizenship for all workers. This is not just a moral question about the conditions of immigrant workers, but a key, strategic question facing the workers’ movement.

Mass Struggle To Take On Trump

While xenophobic ideas have gained traction in society, this is in no way irreversible. The answer is not to retreat, but to start building a resistance now to the attacks on immigrants and all working people. Throughout history movements for civil rights and against oppression have been able to have huge impacts on attitudes in broader society, even when these movements faced significant resistance. An active movement for immigrants’ rights, organized around a clear working-class program, could have massive effects on US society in pushing back against xenophobia and raising the confidence of all working people to fight for what we deserve.

While Trump did carry out some brutal attacks in his first term, including workplace raids, he also encountered significant resistance in the streets that stalled his agenda. In 2017, after Trump instituted a ban on refugees from Muslim majority countries, thousands of people held mass occupations in airports across the country. Faced with mass upheaval, the court stepped in and Trump’s plans were delayed and eventually watered down.

In 2018, Trump’s policy of family separations at the border set off the Abolish ICE movement, which involved tens of thousands nationwide. The following year his attempt to repeal DACA, which gives some legal rights to undocumented people who came to the US as children, provoked explosive school walkouts across the country which forced a temporary retreat. 

The best defense against Trump’s agenda this time around will be an offensive strategy. Immigrants rights groups, unions, and left-wing organizations need to start organizing now to oppose Trump and his attacks. Unions should begin now to organize emergency deportation defense networks to shut down workplace raids by ICE and urgently respond to community raids as well. We need mass protests, civil disobedience, workplace action, and large-scale refusal to cooperate with Trump’s anti-immigrant policies.

Unite Against Xenophobia, Capitalism & Imperialism

Workers across borders have more in common with each other than we ever will with the bosses or corporate politicians of our own countries. The policies of US imperialism abroad also lead to war, climate disaster and horrible economic prospects in other countries, which creates the conditions for desperate migration. As long as the capitalist system exists, a race to the bottom will continue and workers will be driven across borders searching for a better life.

Capitalism depends on immigration because the ruling class wants a cheap source of labor available when it benefits them. To fight back, working people internationally need to link up in a struggle against exploitation, militarism, and war. We need to fight for a socialist world organized on the basis of our common interests as workers, not the insatiable capitalist drive for profit.

Socialist Alternative calls for:

• We need a mass struggle against Trump’s deportation plan! Build towards protests and walkouts for Inauguration Day as a strong first step.
• Refuse to cooperate with Trump’s agenda – get organized to fight for real sanctuary cities and build emergency deportation defense committees in workplaces, unions, and neighborhoods.
• Unionize every workplace – for a mass campaign to make every job a good job with living wages, benefits, stability, and protection against harassment and intimidation.
• Immediate and unconditional amnesty for all undocumented workers – full citizenship rights for all.
• Tax the billionaires to fund affordable housing, safe and fully funded schools, and a Medicare for All universal healthcare system.
• We need a new independent, pro-union, anti-war party that belongs to working people NOT the billionaires.
• Build a movement against the destructive policies of US imperialism around the world that drive working class people to flee their home countries. We need an international struggle for socialism to fight for a world that works for us, not the ruling elite.