Policies Exploit Undocumented Workers

In his May 16 column, Steve Lopez calls U.S. immigration policy “absolutely zany” because “we spend millions of dollars guarding the border and chasing immigrants to their deaths as they cross, and then we look the other way when employers hire those who make it into the United States.” Zany like a fox. As UC Riverside anthropologist Michael Kearney has argued, the function of the migra is not to prevent undocumented workers from entering the U.S. but to make those who do enter the U.S. afraid of deportation and thus willing to work hard for low wages without complaining about mistreatment. Thus, spending money chasing immigrants at the border complements rather than contradicts looking the other way when employers hire those immigrants.

Jeff Tobin

Assoc. Prof. of Anthropology

Occidental College, L.A.