The US President Donald Trump, who 'reigned' the empire previously from 2017-2021 and was sworn in for a 2nd term on January 20, 2025. He has gone to new lengths to cause untold suffering to the immigrant communities. Immigrants without legal status also called undocumented immigrants account for around 11-12 million people and are disparagingly called illegal immigrants/illegal aliens. During the election campaign Trump used racist and xenophobic rhetoric including one outrageous and baseless remark about Haitian immigrants eating dogs in a small town.

Within weeks of his swearing in as President, more than 8000 undocumented immigrants have been arrested by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 104 undocumented Indian migrant workers were transported using a C-17 military transport plane. The US Border Patrol shared a video on social media platform X that showed the workers handcuffed and their legs shackled as they boarded the US military plane for Amritsar. This video was set to dramatic music as the detained migrants marched on board. The parade of these migrants in shackled feet has shocked and deeply hurt justice minded people all over the world.

It was shameful that the foreign minister S. Jaishankar did not openly condemn this inhuman treatment and stated that these deportations were not new and had been going on for years. CPIML MP, Raja Ram Singh, in his letter to the government demanded that the Indian government stand by its people and not bow down to the US imperial policies. He pointed out that US corporations have thrived and made profits on the backs of immigrants. Raja Ram Singh also questioned “… rather than standing by its people, why has India compromised its independent foreign policy to placate the new President Trump?”

In a total contrast to the Indian government's shameful response, Gustavo Petro Colombian President in an interview with Univison said “… No Colombian men or women will enter here in handcuffs unless they are proven criminals". Colombian Air Force plane arranged for more than 100 migrants to return without handcuffs and were treated with dignity. The American Civil Liberties Committee (ACLU) and a few other immigrant rights organizations just filed a legal suit against the Trump administration for transporting more than 50 immigrants to the notorious U.S detention facility in Guantanamo where they will not have even access to legal aid.

Deals and Deportations

Modi met with Trump on February 14 to discuss bilateral trade, military deals and private industry collaborations between both the countries. India and the U.S. have agreed to enhance their defense partnership, the US is currently the 3rd largest arms seller to India. There will be expanded military sales to India and as Trump said “… by many billions of dollars starting this year". There will be increased cooperation and military presence from both countries in the Indo-Pacific region. These are ongoing efforts of US imperialism to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative in the region with military threats. While Modi and Trump were thumping their chests, more Indians have been deported to India, again handcuffed and chained, and at least 500 more are expected to be deported in the coming days.

It is also an interesting coincidence that Nita Ambani, chairperson of Reliance India Foundation is one of the prominent speakers at the Annual India conference of Harvard University in Boston which began on February 15, 2024. India’s richest billionaire will be among the many CEOs who will wax eloquent on the emergence of India as a “global leader” at the conference. The Ambani family in its shameful display of wealth lives in a multimillionaire dollar home in Mumbai, while the city of migrant workers has more than 9 million people living in slums. According to civil rights groups, more than 200,000 people in Mumbai are homeless.

Who does the important work in the American society?

The United States (US) population is 335 million. The PEW research center's data shows that immigrants (foreign born) account for 14.3% of the population. Out of this immigrant population, 23% are from Mexico, Indians constitute the 2nd highest and are 6% of the population. People born in China come a close 3rd to India, accounting for 5%. Other countries from Latin America (excluding Mexico) account for 26% of the population. Overall, immigrants from Asia account for a total of 28% of the population. Based on American Community Survey, undocumented immigrants account for around 11-12 million people.  In total, 8.5 million of workers in the US do not have a legal status.

In 2021, 27 million immigrants were workers and they accounted for 17% of the labor force in the 19-64 age group. In a University of Michigan report from 2022, there are 1.6 million immigrant workers in the construction industry in the US constituting 20% of the total number of construction workers. In some cities like New York, they account for 63% of the construction workers out of which 40% are undocumented. In Texas, an estimated 400,000 of the construction workers are undocumented. The construction industry is highly corrupt, in order to avoid paying payroll taxes they subcontract the work and hire undocumented workers who can be paid a lot less without benefits.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis in 2023 showed that American farms contributed to 0.8% of the GDP- $222 billion, the combined agriculture and food related industries account for 5.5% of the GDP-$1.53 trillion. 73% of the farm workers, who put the food on the tables, are immigrants and out of which undocumented workers make up 50% of the total workers. Per the data from Center for Migration Studies, there are 283,000 undocumented workers in the agricultural sector- 63% are male and 37% female.

The meat packing industry is a dangerous industry and is well known for the highly exploitative working conditions and high rates of injury. It employs 500,000 workers in the country. Estimates are that 40% of the workforce is undocumented. Two of the biggest companies Tyson and JBS had net incomes of 3 billion dollars in 2021.Yet their workers earn poverty wages in the poultry, beef and pork plants.

In the 'care economy' that includes nannies, cleaners, maids and personal care assistants, an estimated 300,000 are undocumented. Immigrant workers are indispensable in the care of the elderly and disabled. 42.4% of home health care aides are immigrants, some 6.4% of these workers are undocumented immigrants. 25% of nursing assistants working in the health care industry are immigrants out of which 4.2% are undocumented immigrants.

In a CNN report, David Grabowski, professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School said, "Immigrants also fill many support roles in long-term care facilities, more than 30% of non-direct care workers, such as housekeepers and dietary services staff, are foreign born. Caregivers are the backbone of long-term care, and foreign-born workers are a big part of that backbone, without them, we’d have huge staffing shortfalls and individuals’ quality of care and quality of life would be worse.”

Haitian immigrants who were recently verbally abused by the President account for a little more than 700,000 of the population, in addition there are close to 500,000 people of Haitian ancestry born in the US.  650,000 Haitian workers (American Community Survey Data) are employed in various sectors of the economy. Close to 22% (data from 2018-2022) are employed in the healthcare industry, they perform essential jobs as nurses, nurses aides and as hospital workers. The next category, which forms 18% of the Haitian born population, is in the retail sector working as cashiers, cooks etc.  A significant percentage of Haitian Americans work in the education sector (15%), 10% work in transportation, communications and utilities. In Boston the vast majority of school bus drivers are Haitian immigrants.

Mexicans and immigrants from Latin America account for 19% of the US population- 62.5 million in 2021. Trump's vituperative rhetoric has been particularly aimed at immigrants arriving from Mexico. He has been threatening more military presence at the US-Mexico border and rebuilding and strengthening the wall at the borders. Without Latino workers, many sectors of the economy will come to a halt. 31.1% of the construction jobs are by Latino workers. Women workers from Latin America constitute 1/3rd of the workforce in the service industry. 77% of farm workers are from Latin American countries and 61% are Mexican.

Trauma and Death on the job in the US

In a previous Workers’ Resistance article I wrote about researchers looking at death records from California Department of Public Health where they estimated that during the COVID pandemic there was relative excess mortality in certain professions in the working age group. When the year 2020 was compared with 2018 and 2019, mortality was extremely high in food/agriculture workers (39% increase), transportation workers (28% increase) and manufacturing sector workers (23% increase).

When they stratified the excess mortality based on race, Latino and Latina workers had experienced a 36% increase, and Black workers had experienced a 28% increase in mortality, as compared to an 18% increase among Asian workers and 6% in white workers. In all races, food/agriculture sector experienced the highest increase in mortality which largely has immigrant workers.

According to 2024 report from AFL-CIO, 5,486 workers died on the job in 2022, 1,248 were Latinos, 60%  of whom were immigrants. The fatality rate for Latino workers was 4.6 per 100,000 workers, 24% higher than the national average. The industries largely affected included agriculture, mining, construction which employs large number of immigrant workers.

Rulers Handbook of Division and Workers' Resistance

There are 2 important slogans in the immigrant rights movement in the US. "We Didn't Cross the Borders, the Border Crossed Us" and "No human being is Illegal". Rulers all over the world use the familiar trick in their handbook to pit native workers against immigrant workers. The US is no exception. That said, the US history is also replete with resistance from the workers both citizens and non-citizens to unitedly fight harassment and deportations. David Bacon in an informative article published in the Jacobin in December 2024 gives a detailed history spanning almost a century of resistance against deportations. In 1933, the Communist Party formed the American Committee for the Protection of Foreign Born and was active until 1982. It not only defended foreign born communists and radicals who were being persecuted by the state (in the initial years) but also defended the Latin American, Caribbean and Haitian immigrants in the 1960s and 70s against deportations, for protection of free speech and associations and successfully campaigned for the right to public education for children of undocumented immigrants. Fast forward to April 2006, hundreds of thousands of people marched in more than 100 cities against a proposed repressive anti-immigrant legislation that would have made undocumented immigrants into felons. The marches included undocumented workers, legal immigrants, union workers and others. The bill was defeated because of the militant protests.

The Trump administration has created an atmosphere of terror with the mass deportations. The Center for Immigration Studies in a recent report reported that 13 sanctuary states and 220 sanctuary cities and counties will not comply with federal enforcement to arrest and detain undocumented immigrants. These are indeed encouraging signs. US imperialist policies like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and military interventions across the globe have led to waves of migration. The way forward is to build multinational unity of the working class regardless of immigration status. The demands should include work permits and legal path for citizenship to undocumented workers and families and end deportations. The larger goal should be to unite the struggle for the undocumented immigrants with the struggles to end US sanctions against Cuba, Venezuela and wars across the world.

The rallying cry of the United Farm Workers Union – “ Si se puede” – Yes, it can be done! - should be the call of the day.