Vol. 75/No. 20      May 23, 2011

The so-called Secure Communities program being aggressively pursued by the Barack Obama administration is part of a broader assault on the political rights of the working class. It is an example of the accelerating erosion of legal protections working people have against the capitalist state.

Under Secure Communities the fingerprints of any individual picked up by the cops—whether facing charges or not—are sent to the FBI, which passes them along to the Department of Homeland Security. This gives the bosses, cops, and courts yet another database to use to blacklist workers who refuse to go along with speedup, unsafe working conditions, mounting layoffs, and wage cuts; to target those who stand up against racist attacks and for immigrant rights; and to hound anyone who speaks and acts against government policy.

Like various trial balloons to establish a national ID card, Secure Communities targets not only immigrants but all working people. It is of a piece with the rising number of “national security letters” that provide “legal” cover for FBI agents to snoop into people’s financial transactions and phone records, on the grounds there is a “national security” connection. The FBI recently reported that the number of people targeted by these letters doubled last year to more than 14,000.

A growing number of police chiefs—as well as liberal politicians like Illinois governor Pat Quinn and state legislators in California and New York—are against participating in Secure Communities. Their opposition does not reflect support for immigrant rights, however. They are worried the program will further erode confidence in the cops. “We rely heavily on the trust and cooperation of all community members—including immigrants—to come forward and report crimes,” says San Francisco sheriff Michael Hennessey. The Secure Communities program “violates this hard-earned trust.”

Presenting himself as a champion of immigration “reform,” President Obama has prioritized militarizing the U.S.-Mexico border. “We have strengthened border security beyond what many believed was possible,” he boasted in El Paso, Texas, May 10. “We now have more boots on the ground on the southwest border than any time in our history.” That’s 20,000 border cops, double the figure in 2004.

Working people should reject Secure Communities and capitalist immigration “reform.” We must call for a halt to deportations and legalization of all undocumented workers—now, and with no strings attached.
 
 
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‘Secure Communities’ used to push back workers rights  
 
 
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