Michael Lind at TPMCafe, who supports a border crackdown on undocumented immigrants, says the goal is a "a high-wage, one-tier labor market."

We agree on that.  But we disagree on how to enforce it.  

Folks like Michael think you can get that by upping enforcement at the border.  Which is guaranteed to be a failure.  500 immigrants die each year trying to cross the border-- a degree of motivation that will overcome almost any increased enforcement efforts.

So if Michael wants a "high wage" labor market, why not just start there?  Raise the minimum wage, reinforce freedom to form unions, and increase enforcement of labor laws.  Give all workers, including undocumented immigrants, the ability to enforce those rights through triple damages for every dollar stolen from those workers-- and even more serious sanctions for any employer who fires a worker for exercising those rights.  

Low-wage employers would be subject to a cross-fire of government wage enforcement and a blister of employee lawsuits and union organizing drives that would shut down the low-wage sector and make hiring undocumented workers less attractive.  And if any were hired, they wouldn't be undermining wage standards for other employees.

Michael Lind and other immigration crackdown advocates will say they wants to punish unscrupulous employers who hire undocumented workers.  But how will he catch them all?  If undocumented workers fear deportation, they will become collaborators with bad employers to hide sweatshops from the government.   A two-tier labor market will continue under Michael's scenario precisely because he will create millions of unwilling collaborators with low-wage employers. 

This is the delusion of the enforcement-only immigration control advocates.  Any honest solution to wage inequality requires empowering those exploited to act as allies against low-wage employers.  

If we want to put sweatshops out of business in this country, we can either turn the millions of undocumented workers into allies in fighting them-- or turn them into criminals and unwilling collaborators in hiding the underground economy from law enforcement officials. 

Over at the Progressive Legislative Action Network, we've highlighted the state governments that are supporting real solutions to the exploitation of immigrant workers-- and that means empowering undocumented workers themselves.   New York State's high court just recently affirmed that undocumented workers had a full right to sue under state labor laws.   Judge Victoria A. Graffeo, writing for the majority, said that denying them equal rights “would lessen the unscrupulous employer’s potential liability to its alien workers and make it more financially attractive to hire undocumented aliens and would actually increase employment levels of undocumented aliens, not decrease it.”

California, which has dealt with the issue of exploited immigrants for longer than almost any other state, passed SB1818 in 2002, which affirms that all labor protections are available to any employee “regardless of immigration status.”  The National Employment Law Project details a host of specific initiatives to end the two-tier labor market involving immigrant workers. 

And a long-term solution requires ending the exploitation of workers in their home countries, so that they don't have the need to flee their homes to find a better life for their families.  California, Illinois, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, along with sixty cities, counties and school districts, have changed their procurement policies to ban government purchases from contractors violating internationally-recognized labor rights.  Governor of Maine, John Baldacci, recently launched a challenge to his fellow Governors to join a multi-state Governor’s Coalition for Sweatfree Procurement and Workers Rights to strengthen monitoring of labor conditions of contractors used by states. With states and local governments purchasing $400 billion in goods and services, a nationwide coalition of states could play a pivitol role in changing sweatshops both at home and abroad and creating real long-term solutions to the conditions driving immigration.

If the federal government would join these states in enforcing labor rights and negotiating trade agreements that require the enforcement of labor rights among our trading partners, we could create a real "one tier" labor market" in the US and, by ending exploitation by employers in our trading partners, curb the motivation for immigrants to leave their homes in the first place.