Immigration Solutions and not this Trumpian, Millerist Racist Bullshit Crap
It's not that difficult if you all wake the F up and kill the distractions
Years ago, I lived in the UK in London. It was at a time when a lot of Eastern Europeans and some other Europeans were beelining for the UK for opportunities plain and simple. Then the UK had a system in place where you applied for a Work Permit. Once granted you came in, worked, vat taxed like everybody else, and did your thing. The only caveat was that you had to leave the country, I think every year or two years (I may be wrong with the timeline) for 2 weeks, I guess your home country or elsewhere and then you re-apply, wash-rinse-repeat. At the time it made sense. I had a stamp where I was a national and didn’t have to do that, but again it made good sense and seemed to work.
Fast forward to me living in Seattle, then as a design-builder. I hired anyone who could do the work, trained many, and tried to grow. My guys and gals were from the full spectrum of American life, all races, all genders, all sexual orientations. I think I was a good outfit to work for as I was also concerned about their safety — always. I honored the 10:15 15 minute break, was adamant about lunch, and honored a 3:15 break time. This kept accidents down. No drinking allowed during work hours. My number 2 was an openly gay man with massive building skills. And it seemed that everywhere where we worked that there was a secure pole of some sort. 3:15 we turned on the dance music and my number 2 would hilariously do a pole dance, upside down and everything. It was amazing. The new guys would look at this show with their mouths wide open — what kind of jobsite is this? But we had great fun, we got it done, we released stress and kept safe. Breaks were important. I’m not now and wasn't then a slave driver, but I want it done right. I’m smiling right now thinking back.
But this new stuff is shit. I’m saying that out loud and clearly. A total shit-show of racism and fear. In the US out in Seattle I saw a change happen real fast. The other construction firms I would compete with would always send the white guys to do the walk-throughs and the bids. If they won the project, a crew of Latinos showed up to do the work. The white guys were just the face to get the biz; the Latinos showed up to actually do the work. It was hard to compete with that with my mix of Americans of all races and orientations. I resisted as long as I could but then sort of ending up doing the same. The great white myth of the Latino worker was born. This great myth of the super hard worker took hold. Not that the Americans of my company weren’t excellent it was that they were being priced out by exploited Latinos. If some Latino worker got injured or worse died as happened, their bosses just got another from a Home Depot parking lot, no questions asked except the rate. It was so organized in the Home Depot parking lots that you had to talk to a sub-heffe to negotiate a rate while he selected the worker for that day. The result was a lot of Americans, say just out of prison for selling weed or some unpaid child support payment wasn’t hireable due to the new construction economics. I hated this shit but eventually had to play the game or wither. The takeaway from this paragraph is that all this began as a wage issue benefitting the white guys in the biz. They don’t want real wages paid or real responsibility for the workers. They just want to maximize their take at the end of the job.
The decent solution to the immigration issue in the US is Work Permits that work like they did way back when in the UK. Register and give a real wage but the takers in this capitalistic system want nothing to do with that because their margin goes down when immigrants (and I don’t care how they got here) are given a real US wage. They want to preserve exploitation. Jose gets seriously injured at work; well Hector will do. This is why this Trumpian racist ICE crap is nothing more than a mindfuck. A show led by a useful idiot with orange painted skin.
George Bush 2 offered a workable solution, but that was killed because the capitalistic exploiters want to keep on exploiting the undocumented immigrant labor force. Take as much as you can get away with. Can we face up to this reality and finally tell or demonstrate to ICE that we have a constitution here dammit. A bunch of amendments that I know they have not read. And that we’re not going to let these proud boy and other insurrectionists assholes, and Millersist destroy the only hope this nation has.
I put this quick piece out here to say that immigration has a real solution. It doesn’t look like this Trumpian era shitshow. These people are not your enemies. Most I’ve talked to either want to open some business here or take their earnings back home and build something there. Building a biz or something back there is the least we can do considering how the US has tried to or actually F’d-over a lot of the countries where they originate from. Learn the true history of the 20th and 21st centuries. The truth sets all free. And F them!
