American jobs for American workers?

[limpyhobbler]

27. Such slogans are used to pit working people against each other and benefit only the bosses.

The bosses and owners like it when native born workers fear immigrants and see them as the enemy.

Reality is it would be much better for US-born workers to join forces with Mexican-born workers to demand a better deal for all of us.

Not only Mexicans but the same is true for exmaple for US high tech workers and workers in India, who work over the Internet so they don't even need H1-Bs for that, in some cases.

Debates about H1-B's and immigration controls are legitimate. But in my opinion that is not going to end well if we base our struggle as US-born workers around the issue of keeping foreigners out.

Money is always going to go where wages are cheap. If we build a giant electric fence to keep Mexicans out, it's just going to increase the misery. It's not going to keep them out if they are determined to come.

Instead we ought to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Mexican-born workers, or workers in India, and demand a better deal for all of us. As a side benefit, we'll feel much better about ourselves than we would if we used our energy vocally complaining about foreigners all the time.

Just my 2 cents.