Click here to access article by David Bacon from Americas Program.
The article explains how US employers use the criminalization of immigrant workers to exploit and divide working people. Corporations in Mexico, often owned by multi-national corporations, fire their workers to bust up unions, then workers are forced to migrate to the US for work. It clarifies why US corporations want and need the migration of workers to cross the US-Mexican border because they can be easily intimidated and fired. Thus, the US ruling class supports harsh penalties for undocumented workers because they need them to be criminalized.
The author goes into some detail about how unions and migrants are countering these attacks on working people by building greater solidarity among workers and unions on both sides of the border.
This piece offers an illustration of how capitalist elites are using borders to further their interests. Under the globalization agenda, they have managed to erase border restrictions for themselves: they have no difficulty in moving enterprises, money, or workers across borders in pursuit of profits. On the other hand, they have maintained borders to control working people in pursuit of their profit interests.