The Illinois Green Party believes in a sensible immigration policy, comporting with Green values, and must begin by recognizing some basic precepts.
First, the fact that there are millions of undocumented immigrants in this country with few legal rights is a huge problem for all working people. Other things being equal, when the supply of labor rises, relative to demand, the price of labor – wages – will fall. That is simply a fact of economics. And when a large part of this increased supply consists of undocumented workers who can be forced to work under miserable conditions and even below-minimum wages, it has an even larger downward impact. An underground economy that defies minimum wage laws will necessarily take away jobs that pay decent, or at least minimum, wages. Unscrupulous politicians and political commentators use this situation to whip up anti-immigrant sentiment among native-born working people.
Second, our society should recognize that the majority of immigrants who come from Mexico, Central America or other impoverished regions are being driven by dire circumstances. They do not leave their homelands and families and take tremendous risks to get here because they want to take away American jobs. They are trying to do the same thing that workers everywhere do –survive, support their families, and hopefully make a better life for themselves. It makes no sense to criminalize them for it. A Green immigration policy has to be grounded in the demand for social justice for all working people, documented and undocumented.
Third, our society should recognize that, except for Native Americans, who were here first, and African Americans, descended from persons who were kidnapped and inhumanely shipped here as slaves the rest of us “Americans” are descended from immigrants, most of whom were fleeing either persecution or economic hardship, or both – just like immigrants today.
Fourth, our society should recognize the real causes of the present situation. These include:
A) The role of U. S. based giant agribusiness corporations, the international banks, NAFTA, CAFTA, and U. S. foreign policy generally, in creating massive poverty in Latin America in the first place. Farmers in Mexico are being driven out of business and driven off their land by our heavily subsidized corporate agribusiness, which floods the Mexican market with cheap imported corn and other grain. Already poor to begin with, many of these displaced farmers flocked to the factories and sweatshops near the border, called maquiladoras, where they were exploited by U. S. manufacturing corporations. However, now many of the maquiladoras have closed, their operations moved to China or other nations where their owners can exploit even cheaper labor. These displaced farmers and former farm and factory workers comprise most of the desperately poor who are being driven to seek work in the United States.
B) The demands of U. S. agribusiness and reckless urban growth in unsustainable regions has also led to depletion of water resources (e.g., the Colorado River) that has further harmed Mexican agriculture, generating more poverty.
C) The role of U. S. corporations, and smaller sweatshops in the United States, in the agriculture, meatpacking, construction, textile and other industries, as well as restaurants, custodial contractors, landscaping contractors, etc., in knowingly employing undocumented workers, so that they can get away with paying sub-standard wages. These are the real criminals – the giant corporate outfits and the sweatshop capitalists alike.
D) Other factors, such as the oppressive and corrupt government in Mexico, which has betrayed its people in order to cater to multinational capital, and which has cynically used immigration as an escape valve for its own unemployment problem.
Fifth, every nation has a fundamental right to control its own borders and the terms and conditions of entry into its territory. However, considering the causes of immigration listed above,we must recognize that the immigration problem cannot be solved by militarizing our borders or building a wall to literally seal the southern border. The attempts to address the problem through such oppressive means create other adverse consequences, including disruption of ecosystems, and promotion of greater militarism and police-state methods.
Sixth, we believe in the rule of law and we are searching for a way to develop an immigration policy that is socially just and consistent with the rule of law. We also need to recognize that a policy to expel millions of people who have been living and working here for years is extremely unjust. Any solution to the immigration issue has to be grounded in respect for the human rights of the undocumented immigrants. Accordingly, to bring our policy in line with the rule of law, we must find ways to make legal pathways to immigration easier and faster, both for workers who seek entry and workers who have already been contributing to our society, and their children who have never known any other country but the United States.
Seventh, we must be extremely vigilant against our government undermining our basic civil liberties under the guise of searching for undocumented immigrants. We must not allow politicians of any party label to use scare tactics to further attack our liberties.
Eighth, the Illinois Green Party accepts as a goal a world in which persons can freely choose to live in and work in any country they desire. We recognize that this would be impractical without reciprocity between nations. We seek that reciprocity as a practical goal. Countries do have a right to know the identity of persons seeking to enter. They also have the right to limit who can come in to protect public safety and legitimate security concerns.
While these precepts may not yield perfect answers, they provide better answers than what is being done now. We must recognize that there cannot be any true solutions to the conflicts created by immigration until we are able to organize globally to overcome the power of multinational corporations, which are engaged in an unending campaign to drive down workers’ living standards everywhere. International cooperation and solidarity among labor organizations, to advance the rights of labor and raise such living standards globally, are essential to combat this trend. Until the power of the multinationals is curbed, we will continue to be confronted with seemingly “no win” choices.
- While working toward that goal, we support the following immigration policies as steps in the right direction: The undocumented immigrants who are already residing and working in the United States, and their families, should be granted a legal status which includes the chance to become U. S. citizens. Persons should be excluded from this process only if they present a clear danger to other members of our society. The level of fees required for this process should not be a burden on low-income workers. Any path to citizenship should include recognition of past, uncredited payments into the Social Security System as part of any fees assessed for regularization of status.
- In regard to who should have a right to come and live and work in the U. S., we support the following policies:
a) The Green Party calls for permanent border passes to all citizens of Mexico and Canada whose identity can be traced and verified. Mexico’s “matrícula consular” should be accepted as one means of proving one’s identity. Work permits for citizens of Mexico and Canada must be easily obtainable, thereby decriminalizing the act of gainful employment. This action would help eliminate exploitation of undocumented persons by criminals engaged in human trafficking and by unethical employers. It would also help ensure that taxes will be paid in each corresponding nation per its laws. These measures will also help temporary residents from Mexico and Canada to secure driving privileges and liability insurance.
b) All persons fleeing political, racial, religious, or other types of persecution must be welcomed, offered asylum and offered an opportunity for permanent resident status, excluding only those who are clear risks to public safety.
c) Family reunification must be a priority in accepting applications for permanent residency. The years of waiting that families are currently put through must be ended.
d) Permanent residency should not be denied based on political views, racial or national origin, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or any other arbitrary basis. e) We must keep faith with our commitment to the United Nations, to assist in the resettlement of refugees currently stranded in refugee camps in other parts of the world.
f) All those who are issued work permits must have the option to come and go from the U. S. as they desire. They must also have the option of remaining in the U. S. and becoming U. S. Citizens. - Recognizing that a just reform of immigration policy may take some time, the Illinois Green Party supports:
a) Giving legal status to undocumented immigrants who graduate from high school in the U. S. and who are otherwise qualified, to allow them to attend colleges and universities on an equal basis with other high school graduates. The Green Party is opposed to efforts to force undocumented youth into the U. S. military as the price for legal status.
b) Reducing wait lists and make the system work more efficiently: current numeric caps on immigrant visas must be increased. The current system of quotas and preferences has to be thoroughly and realistically reformed. Current backlogs must be brought up to date as soon as possible. Wait times for processing and resolving immigration benefit applications should be reduced to no more than six months. Pre -1996 screening criteria for legal permanent residency and citizenship applications should be restored. - The understandable concern about immigrant workers competing for jobs with current citizens cannot and should not be addressed by criminalizing undocumented immigration or punishing fellow victims of U. S. corporatist policies. Instead, we must reverse the policies. Among other things, we should repeal NAFTA, CAFTA, and other corporate globalization policies. We must stop using our tax dollars to subsidize corporate agribusiness and to promote poverty in Latin America, and start using them to help reward environmentally responsible family farmers, encourage improved infrastructure and economic conditions in Latin America, and raise labor standards, at home and abroad. Here at home, we must also promote the policies, outlined in the Workers’ Rights and Workers’ Power section in this Platform, that can help us achieve a full employment economy at a living wage, including strictly enforcing and expanding the rights of all workers to form unions.
- We advocate an end to employer sanctions, which have been shown to hurt not only undocumented workers but also U. S. born workers (especially those of color). Instead, the focus on employers must be to vigorously enforce our wage and labor laws. Don’t further victimize the victims of corporate globalization; create real opportunities and raise labor standards for all!
- We oppose provisions allowing state or local police to become agents of federal immigration authorities. Local policing functions should be totally separate from immigration enforcement.
- We oppose “English-only” legislation. Immigrants already have ample incentive to learn English. But when interaction with the government is limited to the English speaking, persons are put at additional risk of exploitation. The focus needs to be on providing adequate and accessible English language instruction and assistance. We advocate legislation to ensure that federal funds marked for communities to provide English as a second language training, and health and social support services to immigrants, actually go to them. Meanwhile, courts, social service agencies, and all government agencies dealing with the public must provide trained and certified translators. Additionally, the language rights of peoples who were in this land before it became part of the U. S., including Native Americans and Mexicans in the Southwest, must be recognized and respected.
- We oppose the militarization of our borders, misusing the National Guard as border police, and building a wall between the U. S. and Mexico. This will further intensify the human rights disaster our immigration policy has become, as well as seriously harm border ecosystems. We demand an immediate end to policies designed to force undocumented border-crossers into areas where conditions dramatically increase the risk of permanent injury or death, destruction of fragile environments, and the cutting off of corridors needed by wildlife for migration within their habitat. For these reasons we specifically oppose the walling off of both traditional urban crossing areas and of wilderness areas. We also call for the immediate dismantling of any existing border wall.
- We must resist proposals that use illegal immigration as an excuse to put us all under further government monitoring and control by means of a national ID card or other identification or tracking systems. Citizen workers who have been propagandized to support “tougher” measures to identify and apprehend undocumented workers need to carefully consider what they are asking for. The same snare they want the government to use against undocumented workers can easily be used to repress them. A national ID card system is one of the hallmarks of a totalitarian government. We oppose any system that would suppress freedom to travel and require citizens and non-citizens alike to “show their papers” and reveal their private information to government monitors at every turn.
- We demand recognition of the sovereignty of indigenous nations whose territories cross national boundaries. These indigenous nations have the right to determine the status of their members.
- We demand new policies and laws to deal more effectively and humanely with the victims of illegal international trafficking in humans, primarily women and children who are bought, kidnapped, coerced, defrauded and marketed for forced sex and prostitution. We oppose the deportation of victims before the traffickers are prosecuted, which frequently allows the traffickers to escape justice. The victims of trafficking should have the option of permanent residence in the U. S. or being returned to their home country.