No immigration reform or labor reform will be truly comprehensive without the repeal of the employer sanctions provision of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA). In the last four decades, this law has created and maintained an underclass of undocumented workers in this country, established deep divisions between and within racial and ethnic communities, and has been key to driving down the working and living conditions of all working people, undocumented and documented alike. Employer sanctions has made it harder for all workers to fight for their rights. It has also served as the foundation for the rash of regressive, anti-immigrant laws we are seeing today.
To repeal employer sanctions would signify eradicating the law's most profound effect- the criminalization for work for undocumented workers.
To repeal employer sanctions would signify eradicating the law's most profound effect- the criminalization for work for undocumented workers.
"EMPLOYER SANCTIONS" IS A MISNOMER
Signed into law by President Reagan in 1986, employer sanctions was supposedly enacted to protect jobs for U.S. citizens by punishing employers with a fine for "knowingly" hiring undocumented workers. Contrary to its name, however, few employers are actually "sanctioned" under the law. The limited number of enforcement actions against employers since 1986 is no accident; there are strong political and economic interests that favor expanding the supply of cheap labor.
Consequently, it is not the employers that are punished by the law. but working people in this country. The government gives employers a 'wink and a nod' to hire undocumented workers, authorizing them to wield unchecked power and to use immigration status to legally exploit workers. By denying undocumented workers the right to make a living, our government creates an underclass of laborers who are criminalized and forces them to accept the most undesirable, inhumane working conditions. To compete with undocumented workers, native-born Americans and documented workers must then lower their standards or else be replaced by cheaper labor, fueling a cycle of resentment and hostility among working people, becoming the seeds of the grassroots fascism we see today.
Signed into law by President Reagan in 1986, employer sanctions was supposedly enacted to protect jobs for U.S. citizens by punishing employers with a fine for "knowingly" hiring undocumented workers. Contrary to its name, however, few employers are actually "sanctioned" under the law. The limited number of enforcement actions against employers since 1986 is no accident; there are strong political and economic interests that favor expanding the supply of cheap labor.
Consequently, it is not the employers that are punished by the law. but working people in this country. The government gives employers a 'wink and a nod' to hire undocumented workers, authorizing them to wield unchecked power and to use immigration status to legally exploit workers. By denying undocumented workers the right to make a living, our government creates an underclass of laborers who are criminalized and forces them to accept the most undesirable, inhumane working conditions. To compete with undocumented workers, native-born Americans and documented workers must then lower their standards or else be replaced by cheaper labor, fueling a cycle of resentment and hostility among working people, becoming the seeds of the grassroots fascism we see today.
