OPINION | The real migration crisis is not at the border

Editor’s note: Alice Driver is a freelance journalist whose work focuses on migration, human rights, and gender equality. She is in Mexico City. Driver is the author of the book “More or Less Dead: Feminicide, Haunting, and the Ethics of Representation in MexicoThe opinions expressed in this article belong exclusively to the author. See more opinion articles here.

(CNN) – In April, in the cottony black of night, I stood on the banks of the Rio Grande in Roma, Texas, and watched hundreds of migrants cross into the United States via inflatable rafts. I interviewed many of them while working in Tapachula and Reynosa, Mexico. Most came from Central America and many of them were unaccompanied minors, fleeing unemployment, poverty and violence, realities exacerbated by the pandemic.
A minor migrant in Tapachula told me how she was orphaned, explaining that her parents “died because of the hurricane and, the truth, I was destroyed.” She had emigrated to Mexico alone in hopes of seeking asylum and reuniting with her family in the United States.

Migrants from El Salvador told me stories of how they were fleeing hunger in their country, of how they placed strips of white cloth outside their houses to indicate that their families were on the brink of starvation. Friendly neighbors and strangers, if they could, would leave food for them at the door.

Girls as young as 12 told me stories of how they fled the effects of hurricanes Eta and Iota last November, which left villages submerged under water, and in some cases ended the lives of entire families or left children orphans. It should come as no surprise that, as the Covid-19 cases are on the rise again and the delta variant spreads in nations where citizens have little or no access to vaccines, crossings on the border between Mexico and the United States have reached a maximum of two decades.

The administration of President Joe Biden has framed the issue as a crisis, as a surge that needs to be stopped, but should rethink it as an opportunity to address the labor shortage. His management of the crisis has raised criticism of the defenders of immigrants, as well as of the leaders of the right.

In June, Vice President Kamala Harris, who is leading the administration’s efforts to address the root causes of migration, traveled to Guatemala and told migrants: “Don’t come to the united states“Simultaneously, the US faces a labor shortage which is evident in sectors such as agriculture, meat processing and jobs related to the food supply chain.

When i gave a lecture on migration at Harvard University, In March, one of the students in the audience asked me for an example of practical action the US Government could take to address the border crisis. I responded that, as a nation, we simply needed to recognize the degree to which we depend on immigrant labor, especially undocumented immigrants, and offer immigrants legal options to work in the United States, even if only as seasonal labor.

The migrants, many of them fleeing desperate circumstances exacerbated by the pandemic and climate change, were lining up to be processed by US Border Patrol agents. Many of the migrants were unaware of the implications of Title 42.

The Biden administration should repeal Title 42 of the Trump era, a public health order that allows border agents to expel migrants without allowing them to apply for asylum. In addition to turning away asylum seekers who would like to work and become productive citizens, many work visas like the EB-1 visa for extraordinary abilities They are for highly skilled workers. As the EB-1 describes, “few foreigners are eligible for extraordinary capacity visas, since it is necessary to demonstrate that they are at the top of the profession and that international or national recognition has been maintained in their countryside”. There are few options for unskilled workers, such as those working in the meat industry, agriculture or catering, which are the sectors most affected by the labor shortage.

Other work visa options are the EB-1 Multinational Executive, the EB-2 Advanced Degree, and the TN visa for Canadian and Mexican citizens to come to the United States to work for a US employer. Work visa options for immigrants fleeing the conditions imposed by the pandemic and climate change are scarce. For example, the program H-2A visas allows US employers to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary agricultural jobs.

The labor shortage crisis is due in part to immigration restrictions that have reduced the number of unskilled workers. In October 2020, issued immigrant and non-immigrant visas decreased by 54% compared to 2019. In 2021, farms, factories and restaurants, all in need of unskilled workers, have battled labor shortages and many have offered a raise and perks to attract workers. What reported Marisela SalazarIn 2021, “undocumented workers comprise 10 percent of all restaurant employees in the United States, and up to 40 percent in urban areas like Los Angeles and New York.” As the agricultural sector, food production and restaurants grapple with issues related to covid, the delta variant, mask wearing mandates, and vaccines, they must also recognize the role of immigrant labor and undocumented in maintaining our nation’s food supply.

I have passed last year covering working conditions at Tyson, the largest meat company in the United States, based in Arkansas. I witnessed firsthand how labor shortages have affected workers from Mexico, Guatemala, Myanmar and the Marshall Islands.

In recent months, workers at the Tyson plants in Arkansas that I have interviewed have told me that they have been asked to work seven days a week without a break and to forego their 2021 Christmas vacation. Tyson who was shown to me by one of my interviewees at a Springdale plant advised workers: “Any team member who has taken a vacation in December in the last 3 years will not be available for vacation in December unless space is available.”

Derek Burleson, a spokesman for Tyson, denied that the company is asking workers to work seven days a week. Burleson noted that Tyson “briefly tested a pilot crew rotation program at an Arkansas facility” voluntarily working overtime on Sundays and making sure they would have time off so they wouldn’t work all week. He said that “all team members, throughout the company, have Christmas day off. But, like most companies (and newsrooms), we cannot make everyone in the plant take the same week. free”. He added that the company staggers the week between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day because a large part of its workforce has to travel abroad during the holidays. “So we are actively working to ensure that our entire squad has an equal and fair opportunity to take a vacation,” Burleson said.

Several workers in Central America told me that they asked their church priest for notes to obtain an exemption from working on Sunday. They wanted to go to church and spend the day with their loved ones, rather than accept a brutal work cycle that strained their families and other relationships.

These workers are grateful to have a job and to be able to send money to support their families at home. However, the labor shortage has made their job more difficult and dangerous as they say they have to do overtime on under-staffed lines, but that they continue to process products that are in demand even higher than before the pandemic. In an instant, a tired worker can find his hand caught in machinery and sustain an injury that will leave him disabled for life. To make these jobs more secure, the Biden administration has to solve the job crisis, including solving wage and safety problems.

In this global pandemic, a time of instability and uncertainty, so many American citizens have the privilege of having access to the vaccine, of having a job, a salary, their daily bread. In Mexico, as COVID cases rise again amid vaccine shortages, and as hospitals struggle to maintain oxygen demand, families find themselves buying oxygen tanks on the black market. In Guatemala, impoverished families they march through the streets screaming “We are hungry” and they depend on charity to survive.

In fact, in many Central American countries, citizens measure the risk of covid with the possibility that they or their families will starve. Given these conditions, many migrate to the United States, where they know they will be hired, even without documents, to work in restaurants, meat processing plants and the agricultural sector.

One truth we should take for granted in America is that the committed and relentless work of immigrants sustains our food supply system. In fact, an estimated 82,700 undocumented immigrants work in food processing facilities in the United States, according to the Center for American Progress.

By not recognizing their work, by not providing them with a legal means to contribute their valuable labor force in the United States, by forcing immigrants who want to work to cross into the United States illegally and work without documents, we expose them to increased risk of being exploited. As more and more immigrants arrive at our borders, the Biden Administration should offer them a number of legal options to work in the country.