[Cispes-Alert] Say "No Deal" to the Democrats on Trade and Immigration

[CISPES National Office]

Action Alert: Say "No Deal" to the Democrats on Trade and Immigration


May 24, 2007 - adapted from an alert by the Portland Central America
Solidarity <http://pcasc.net/>  Committee (PCASC)

Over the past few weeks Democratic congressional leaders have announced
so-called "deals" with the White House on immigration and trade. While these
may be good for big business, the proposals will deal a sharp blow to
workers, immigrants and the environment. 

Take Action Now!  

1) Call your representative and Senators now and say: "No deal on trade and
immigration. We demand justice for workers, immigrants and the environment
in the U.S. and Latin America." 

*        Tell your elected officials that we demand trade and immigration
legislation that: 
- respects workers, immigrants, human rights and the environment. 
- supports Latin American farmers, workers, and other impoverished sectors
of society 

*        We will not accept trade deals that: 
- allow companies to sue states (Chapter 11 provisions) over labor and
environmental protections. 
- lead to dumping of U.S. subsidized agricultural products in Latin America.

*        We will not accept immigration bills that: 
-  include a guest worker program - "No" to indentured servitude. 
-  militarizes the border - "No" to a border fence.

-  further divides immigrant families - "No" to a  "point" system for
eligibility 

 

Call your representative and Senators by dialing the capital switchboard:
(202) 224-3121

 

2)  join CISPES, the Quixote Center, the Alliance for Responsible Trade and
others in signing on to an ad to be printed in the New York Times against
Fast Track authority, which would help Bush pass more bad trade agreements:
http://www.notofasttrack.org/ 


Background:

Leading congressional Democrats and White House Join Hands and Agree to
Exploit Immigrants and Working People 

The Democratic Party recently signaled that it interpreted its November 2006
congressional victories as a mandate to sell out to big business on trade
and immigrant rights. 

The guest worker based immigration bill and the capital friendly trade deals
are part of a shared vision--held by business, Republicans and most
congressional Democrats--of a global economy that allows corporations to
scour the globe in search for low wages while immigrant workers are forced
into the indentured servitude of guest worker programs. The Democratic
leadership's vision of trade and immigration represent the central
contradictions and hypocrisies of corporate globalization. 

Not that we should be terribly surprised, but the speed with which Democrats
have dropped populist campaign rhetoric and gotten busy making big-biz
friendly deals with the White House is enough to make the most hardened
cynic dizzy. Today they even agreed to drop troop withdrawal deadlines from
Iraq war funding legislation! 

While some significant labor and environmental provisions were agreed to,
this is no way changes the fact that there are some things fundamentally
wrong with these "free trade" deals. As labor activist Jonathan Tasini
notes, we need to "get to a place where trade relationships are focused on
bettering the lives of communities, not primarily protecting capital and
investment at the expense of decent living standards and a safe
environment." 

The deal on the Panama and Peru Free Trade Agreements that Speaker Pelosi
and House Waynes and Means Chairman Rep. Charles Rangel reached with the
White House fails to fix nearly all of what's wrong with the current NAFTA
model. 

Importantly from our perspective, Latin American labor and social movements
continue to reject these trade deals. 

Why the trade deal is bad a bad idea: 

- According to the National Coordinator of Struggle Against the Free Trade
Agreement in Peru-- a coalition of unions, campesinos and other popular
organizations--an estimated 2,857,000 agricultural jobs will be lost if the
trade deal passes. The Rangel/Pelosi/Bush deal changes none of this. 

- The deal still bans anti-offshoring policies. Many states have lost
thousands of jobs to NAFTA style trade deals. 

- Still includes NAFTA Chapter 11-style foreign investor rights, which allow
corporations to sue states if they think a health, safety, labor or
environmental law is "an unfair barrier to trade." Chapter 11 provisions
will undermine the democratic process in the U.S., Peru and Panama. 

- The deal threatens prevailing wage laws in the U.S. 

As a recent editorial in The Nation put it: "That the US Chamber of Commerce
is delighted with Pelosi ought to tell you something." 

Why the immigration legislation is a bad idea: 

Senator Kennedy and the White House's "compromise proposal" is inspired by
the corporate vision of immigration. The corporate ideal envisions the
existing two-tiered labor market--within which immigrants are treated as
second class workers--signed into law. Under the current system, where
undocumented immigrants are second class workers, corporations win by
driving everyone's wages down and pitting documented and undocumented
workers against each other. The downside for business is that, occasionally,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) can get them in trouble for hiring
"illegal" workers. 

The new proposal enshrines the two-tiered worker system into law making it
easier - and legal - for corporations to exploit immigrant workers.

Under the Senate deal negotiated by Senator Kennedy and the White House,
immigrants' labor will be allowed to cross the border, but their humanity
will have to stay in Mexico. 

The fatally flawed immigration deal is bad for immigrant and U.S. workers: 

- Changes the premise of our immigration system from family reunification to
letting corporations cherry pick "desirable workers." This deal makes it
much harder for legal residents and citizens to bring family members to the
U.S. While many of the 12 million-plus undocumented immigrants currently in
the U.S. would earn a "path to citizenship", that path could take 8-13
years, a ridiculous and costly "touchback" trip to their country of origin,
and around 6 months worth of wages. 

- Establishes a guest worker program that the New York Times Editorial Board
referred to as a "system of modern peonage within our borders." Guest
workers would be allowed to work in the U.S. on two-year visas, for a total
of six years and be required to return to their home country for at least
one year between each two-year period. 

- Increases the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border. The legalization
provisions of the bill will only be triggered once the government has hired
an addition 18,000 Border Patrol agents and constructed 370 miles of a
U.S.-Mexico border wall.

For more information on the trade "deal", see http://davidsirota.com/ and
http://www.citizen.org/trade/ 
For more information on the immigration "deal", see
http://www.afsc.org/immigrants-rights/

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