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From Socialist Appeal, Vol. IV No. 25, 22 June 1940, p. 4.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
Time and again, defenders of non-citizen workers are confronted with the oft-repeated question: “Why don’t they become citizens?” In order to cement the unity between the citizen and non-citizen workers, a clear and revealing answer should be given. Here it is.
There are about 4,000,000 non-citizens in this country. At least one-quarter of them are Latin Americans. Yankee Imperialism, which has allotted to itself the role of “guardian” of all the Americas, which preaches with the most disgusting hypocrisy “unity of all Americas,” “unity of the Western Hemisphere” and the like, systematically fosters the grossest discrimination and persecution of Latin American workers in this country.
During the World War, powerful American fruit exchanges, railroad companies and cotton companies were in great need of “cheap” labor. They imported Latin American workers, particularly Mexicans in the thousands, en masse, in direct violation of the United States contract labor laws.
Before importing them the employers did not require of these workers that they pass a literacy test, or warn them that they would have to pay excessive fees to become citizens and that if they couldn’t become citizens they might some day be fingerprinted and forced to carry a registration card with them at all times. All that the employers required of them at that time was to be capable of working long hours, and lining the pockets of the bosses. When they were brought here they were herded like cattle into segregated areas.
Some ranches were particularly laid out so that they could not leave. The bosses tried to prevent them from being free to obtain jobs or higher wages elsewhere. Sometimes their shoes and clothing were taken away so they could not escape.
Living under such conditions it became practically impossible for the vast majority of them to obtain the educational requirements necessary to pass a literacy test for citizenship. The starvation wages which they received made it prohibitive for them to pay the excessive fees for naturalization. “A Mexican family living on relief in Colorado would have to stop eating for two months and a half to pay for the citizenship papers of one member of the family,” says one observer. Is it any wonder that many of them do not become citizens? Shall we blame them – or the bosses responsible for their plight?
As far as the great mass of immigrants from the European countries are concerned, the obstacles to obtaining citizenship papers are just as formidable. Especially true is this with regard to the expense involved. During the pre-depression era the fees used to be about five dollars. Now they average between $20 and $50. And if you add to that the expense for witnesses it may be even higher. To a worker who is employed at a fair wage it may not be a considerable sum, but to an unemployed or miserably-paid worker living in the segregated areas, such as “Little Italy,” “Little Mexico” and the like, it is a very high price.
A great many alien workers are living on relief, since they are among the first to be discharged when industry slows up. In some states authorities have gone so far as to deny the right to aliens, who are on relief, to become citizens. A New Orleans judge ruled in 1936 that non-citizens on relief are barred from citizenship.
Another obstacle to becoming a citizen is the lack of documentary proof of entry. This is sometimes due to failure to register the entry. A case in point is that of a nine year old boy held for deportation, because his mother, while bringing him to this country failed to register his entry. In many cases, however, the lack of documentary proof is due to the fact that the immigrants were brought here en masse, sometimes illegally, by powerful corporations who needed cheap labor, and no records were made at all.
A very large proportion of the non-citizens are composed of housewives. These – especially the ones living in the segregated areas – have never had an opportunity to acquire the educational requisites to become a citizen because of the long hours which house work entails. This is particularly true about those who have large families. Evening schools, where they might acquire some education, are prevalent only in the large industrial cities, and even these are being sharply curtailed.
There is also a group of aliens who cannot, under present laws, become citizens because of “illegal entry.” The Commissioner General of Immigration in 1936 gave the following reason for the illegal entries: “The motives most commonly promoting illegal entry are a desire to join the family or relatives in this country, to find a refuge from oppression, to better oneself economically.” What worker, even with a mere speck of class-consciousness, can condemn any alien from attempting to enter this country for any of the above reasons?
The working class is international in character. Its solidarity is based on the common bonds of exploitation and oppression. The American workers ought not to be blinded by the hatred against the alien workers which the capitalist class attempts to inculcate into them. Division between the native and foreign born workers can only help the ruling class to more thoroughly exploit the native workers.
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Last updated: 3 February 2019