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5/21/2025 Illegal and Mass Immigration is Slavery and We Must Address it as Slavery By: Wade T.Read Now The immigration issue in the United States is often framed as a debate over border security, economic impact, or cultural identity. Politicians like Senator Ted Cruz emphasize border security, warning of "caravans" of migrants overwhelming U.S. checkpoints, as he did in a 2021 Fox News interview.[1] The U.S. Chamber of Commerce highlights immigration’s economic impact, claiming it boosts GDP by billions annually.[2] Cultural commentators like Tucker Carlson argue that immigration dilutes American identity, a point he reiterated in a 2023 X post.[3] But the truth is far darker: immigration, particularly illegal immigration, is fundamentally about slavery—corporate slavery, wage slavery, and the modern slave trade. This is a narrative that needs to be exposed and understood by every American. Illegal Immigration and Corporate Slavery First, let’s clarify the scope of this discussion. We are focusing specifically on illegal immigration and mass labor migration—often referred to as labor dumping—not on immigration as a whole. This is not a conversation about highly skilled professionals, such as doctors from India or engineers from China, who voluntarily migrate for well-compensated positions. The primary source of illegal and mass immigration comes from the war-torn and destabilized regions destabilized by Western imperialism—Central America, the Caribbean, and parts of Africa and the Middle East. Consider Honduras: after the U.S.-backed coup in 2009 ousted President Manuel Zelaya, violence and poverty skyrocketed, with homicide rates hitting 85 per 100,000 by 2011 and 66% of the population in poverty by 2016.[5][6] This destabilization, which can include regime changes, resource extraction, and economic sanctions, meets the legal definition of genocide as outlined in the Geneva Conventions, as it systematically destroys the conditions necessary for people to thrive in their own countries.[7] Scholarly work, like Frank’s analysis of U.S. policy in Honduras, ties this to migration surges, while Grandin’s research frames it as a broader pattern of imperialist aggression.[8][9] When these individuals flee, they often seek refuge in the very nations responsible for their displacement. Desperate to survive, they cross borders without the resources or education required for legal entry. This desperation makes them vulnerable to exploitation. Many turn to coyotes—human traffickers who operate as modern-day slavers—to facilitate their journey. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported over 2.3 million border encounters in 2022, many facilitated by these traffickers.[10] Once in the U.S., they are often sold into workplaces that exploit their labor, paying them below minimum wage, denying them labor rights, and subjecting them to inhumane conditions. ICE investigations label such cases forced labor, with agriculture as a prime example.[11] Bales’ global slavery studies highlighted how undocumented status amplifies this vulnerability.[12] This is corporate slavery, plain and simple. Wage Slavery and Labor Dumping Even for those who immigrate legally, the system is rigged to exploit. Wage slavery is rampant in industries that rely on immigrant labor. The Economic Policy Institute found H-2A farmworkers earned a median $11.50 per hour in 2020—below a living wage—often with illegal deductions for housing or tools.[13] Corporations engage in labor dumping, a practice designed to undermine unions and drive wages down to the bare legal minimum. In meatpacking, where immigrants make up 51% of workers, real wages fell 6% from 2000 to 2020, dropping from $25,500 to $35,700 annually when adjusted for inflation, as union membership plummeted.[14] This creates a race to the bottom, where both immigrants and native-born workers are forced to compete for jobs under increasingly exploitative conditions. Wharton’s analysis confirms immigration depresses low-skilled wages, a finding Borjas’ wage distribution study supports.[15][16] Legal immigrants—often tied to their employers through visa sponsorship—are particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Many endure illegal working conditions, lack access to benefits, and are denied basic labor protections. This system of wage slavery not only exploits immigrant workers but also undermines the rights of American workers, whose wages are suppressed and whose labor standards are eroded to match the same conditions imposed on mass immigrant labor. The Political Complicity Both the Democratic and Republican parties have turned immigration into a partisan wedge issue, yet both ultimately sustain the same system of corporate slavery. Democrats frequently promote open-border policies that enable the mass influx of exploitable labor—Senator Chuck Schumer’s 2013 immigration bill is a clear example.[17] Republicans, by contrast, focus on punitive enforcement measures that criminalize the victims of this system, as demonstrated by Representative Jim Jordan’s co-sponsorship of the 2023 Border Security and Enforcement Act.[18] Neither party confronts the root of the problem: the systemic exploitation of vulnerable people for profit. Corporate lobbying—such as Tyson Foods’ $1.95 million spent in 2022—deepens this bipartisan complicity, as documented by investigations from ProPublica and Canadian researchers.[19][20] The only party in the United States that consistently opposes this exploitative system is the American Communist Party (ACP), which identifies mass immigration under capitalism as a modern form of slavery.[21] It’s time to move the national conversation away from scapegoating immigrants—and toward dismantling the capitalist machinery that enslaves them. What Needs to Change Rather than targeting the victims of modern slavery, we must focus on dismantling the systems that perpetuate it. At the core of this exploitation lies U.S. imperialism, which destabilizes entire regions and drives people to flee their homelands. The presence of over 800 U.S. military bases abroad, regime-change operations like the 2009 coup in Honduras, and decades of CIA intervention all serve to maintain global conditions ripe for exploitation, as documented by scholars like David Vine and Catherine Lutz.[22][23] The ACP calls for the immediate closure of all U.S. military bases overseas and the total dismantling of NATO. We must also abolish transnational financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, which undermine national sovereignty and facilitate corporate exploitation—an argument developed in critiques by Noam Chomsky and others.[24] In place of imperial domination, we must build sovereign, cooperative economic relationships grounded in mutual benefit rather than profit extraction. We must end all foreign military aid and begin the process of dismantling the U.S. Military-Industrial Complex. Intelligence agencies such as the CIA, NSA, and FBI—long complicit in global destabilization—must be disbanded. All secret treaties, covert agreements, and criminal networks tied to U.S. imperialism must be publicly exposed, and those responsible must be held criminally accountable. The ACP calls for an immediate end to the system that sustains corporate slavery and the modern-day slave trade—namely mass and illegal immigration under capitalism—which functions as a pipeline for corporate exploitation and wage suppression. Instead of perpetuating a model in which vulnerable migrants are funneled into precarious, exploitative labor, we must replace the current chaos with rational, planned frameworks for population movement. These must be rooted in bilateral agreements between sovereign nations, ensuring that migration is controlled, equitable, and humane. Studies by the Immigration Forum and Gaurav Wickramasekara have demonstrated the effectiveness of such models.[25][26] Furthermore, all human trafficking and exploitative networks—particularly those involving U.S. corporations, intelligence agencies, and transnational criminal syndicates—must be thoroughly investigated, dismantled, and prosecuted. The $12 billion smuggling industry is a stark testament to the scale of this crisis.[27] The U.S. government must stop enabling and profiting from this modern slave trade. No worker, regardless of immigration status, should ever be subjected to abuse, coercion, or exploitation in the workplace. Politicians who enable corporate slavery—whether through exploitative immigration policies or collusion with corporate interests—must be held fully accountable. This includes thorough investigations and prosecutions of elected officials, corporate lobbyists, and foreign influence operations that undermine the welfare of the American people. Tyson Foods’ $1.95 million in lobbying during 2022 is just one example of this corrupt nexus of power and profit.[28] We must expose and dismantle the criminal networks that link political elites, corporate profiteers, and trafficking syndicates. Those complicit in sustaining this modern-day slave trade must face prosecution without exception or leniency. The problem is not immigration itself—it is the imperialism, exploitation, and capitalist systems that weaponize human migration for profit. We must fight to replace these systems with ones grounded in fairness, sovereignty, and true international solidarity. Conclusion Imperialist elites have conditioned the public to view modern-day slavery through the distorted lens of immigration policy. It’s time we confront the truth and reclaim our rightful place as abolitionists. Slavery must no longer be obscured, deflected, or disguised as a matter of border control or immigration reform. We must demand a full reckoning with the modern-day slavers—corporations, politicians, and imperial institutions—that profit from human exploitation. We cannot allow them to reframe the debate. Slavery—not immigration—must become the central issue in our national discourse on labor, borders, and justice. The ACP offers a path to true abolition: closing military bases, ending labor exploitation, dismantling imperial institutions, and prosecuting the powerful. The lines are clear. There are only two sides—are you an abolitionist, or are you pro-slavery? Author Wade T. Endnotes
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Siden04
5/26/2025 04:48:11 am
‘The old master class was not deprived of the power of life and death, which was the soul of the relation of master and slave. They could not, of course, sell their former slaves, but they retained the power to starve them to death, and wherever this power is held there is the power of slavery. He who can say to his fellow- man, You shall serve me or starve, is a master and his subject is a slave….Though no longer a slave, he is in a thralldom grievous and intolerable, compelled to work for whatever his employer is pleased to pay him..’ (Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, 1892) 6/6/2025 05:31:19 am
Wade T.'s article on Midwestern Marx presents a critical perspective on the intersection of illegal immigration and modern forms of exploitation. He argues that the influx of undocumented migrants, often from regions destabilized by Western foreign policies, leads to their vulnerability to human traffickers and exploitation in low-wage labor sectors. T. suggests that this system mirrors historical forms of slavery, where individuals are coerced into labor under duress. He emphasizes the need for systemic reforms to address the root causes of forced migration and to protect the rights of vulnerable populations. Leave a Reply. |
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