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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGOP Was The Cause Of Immigration Problem. Really Started With Ronald Reagan.
We were struggling with what to do about undocumented workers when Ronald Reagn initiated the amnesty program. And he did it with one reason in mind. His primary reason was to weaken the trade unions knowing full well that wages would be driven down. Plus by not going after employers and the GOP refusing to pass sensible immigration laws it aggravated the problem.
The real solution was to pass sensible laws and to penalize employers who used undocumented workers. The GOP has drug its feet since Reagan every time. They refused to cooperate in passing meaningful legislation.
Now they claim NO AMNESTY. But they cannot deport all these undocumented workers without creating total chaos.
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JI7
(89,233 posts)TheMastersNemesis
(10,602 posts)along with not doing anything to reign in employers hiring these workers. Now I worked at DOL during that time and we could see wages going down. Trade workers and other workers were coming in losing their jobs. In many cases they were being replaced by undocumented workers. This kind of activity was under the radar.No employer sanctions were being applied and the laws were and still are weak.
The reason I know what was happening was that I was interviewing many of these workers. Here is one example. There was a time when if you worked in a meat processing plant you made a decent wage and had benefits. And there were a lot of construction trade jobs that were union had apprenticeships that paid well also. Over time I was seeing more and more of these workers as companies began to replace workers. Undocumented workers were cheaper and could not report abuses. In construction union shops and companies had to compete with companies using undocumented labor. The feds did nothing.
By the time I left DOL in 1998 pay and stability in these jobs was sinking badly. As Reagan attacked the unions they were weakened. Plus the federal government essentially DID NOTHING about these abuses. If you go into meat packing or you look at construction the work force is very different. Pay now is barely above minimum wage.
You would not know this information unless you worked as an interviewer like I was. I was able to observe the deterioration where I worked.
What Reagan did was pretty sophisticated and the usual labor stats did not reveal what was really going on.
JI7
(89,233 posts)TheMastersNemesis
(10,602 posts)Reagan and the GOP were smart. They did NOT discourage new entries in that they implied by the amnesty that there would be new amnesty in the future by the fact that they gave the last one. Their silence encouraged people to come across. They allowed THEIR employer base to hire these people because it was in their political best interest. They resisted higher minimum wages to allow wages to be kept low to benefit their employer supporters who now had cheap labor.
It all has been a very large scam on the part of the GOP. How do you think we ended up with so many billionaires?
pangaia
(24,324 posts)JI7
(89,233 posts)TheMastersNemesis
(10,602 posts)You name the occupation and the problem of using undocumented workers appeared. I interviewed thousands of people during my career. The main reason we have a problem now is that the GOP created the conditions for lower pay as a way to put workers in a bind in such a way they would be against taxes. Surreptitiously the GOP kept adding taxes and fees to workers while reducing taxes for corporations and the rich.
They used declining wages as a way to cut revenue for government. It was an indirect way to starve government services. The trouble is that most voters do not have the information to see and understand the whole picture. Plus they have been positioned to understand only short slogans.
NotThisTime
(3,657 posts)
pat_k
(9,313 posts)... working within our borders would end the underground economy. There is little motive to employ undocumented workers if you can't underpay, overwork, or otherwise take advantage of their status.
If we are a humane nation, than we should be enforcing our minimum labor standards, regardless of worker immigration status. If they are in our borders, they should be paid a fair wage. Providing a "path to citizenship" for workers who blow the whistle on employers in violation would be a good start. No need to go after the workers who are here without authorization. Go after employers who would seek to take advantage for labor law violations, not for employing undocumented workers. Remove the demand.
Of course, actually going after the employers who are profiteering on the backs of the vulnerable, is not something the GOP would ever do.
TheMastersNemesis
(10,602 posts)They have no reason to stop the employers because it served their dual political purposes. First of all they could get the support of employers who profited from cheap labor and wage theft. Secondly by dragging their feet on immigration they could allow more workers in to the economy and keep wages lower due to competition. Thirdly they could blame Democrats for coddling these workers when they tried to protect them.
The GOP wins all the way around because they then could continue the politics of racial and cultural resentment. They were able to claim these people were taking American jobs that THEY were actually sending overseas based on laws they tricked Clinton into help pass. Then they could claim the Democrats were giving these people free services that was untrue. White middle class workers would then give the GOP their votes when they promised them that the GOP was the only party helping them.
It was a "no pea shell game". Now we have Trump and GOP Congress.
jmg257
(11,996 posts)Wonder if they were aware how much the immigtants were getting by the repubs.