By Lisa McCormick
Immigration has once again dominated the national conversation, especially as the United States faces a new reality with Donald Trump poised to take office on January 20, 2025.
Despite inflammatory rhetoric from both Trump and Kamala Harris during the 2024 election, the real crisis of immigration today is not one of jobs and crime, as often framed by the political establishment.
Simplistic solutions—whether championed by the right-wing or endorsed by establishment Democrats—miss the mark entirely in addressing the real complexities at play.
The Root Causes of Migration: Capitalism, War, and Colonialism
The surge in global migration is not driven solely by the actions of individuals seeking to flee danger, as the incendiary mainstream discourse often suggests.
While the blame for mass immigration is frequently pinned on “illegal” immigration and asylum seekers, the true crisis lies in the systemic forces of poverty, war, and economic exploitation that compel people to leave their homes in the first place.
Mass migration is rooted in global inequality, the same capitalist-driven system that feeds on the exploitation of labor and resources. It is no accident that immigration spikes are often correlated with wars and political violence. Many of these crises are fueled by powerful nations’ insatiable appetite for raw materials and labor.
Today, at least 120 million people have been displaced, with 60 million having crossed international borders.
In 2022 alone, the European Union saw over 5 million immigrants—double that of 2021. Meanwhile, the United States is grappling with 11 million undocumented immigrants, many of whom face the threat of detention and deportation under Trump’s proposed immigration policies.
Trump has already signaled his intention to carry out the largest mass deportation in U.S. history. He promises to deploy military forces and work with right-wing militias to remove millions of immigrants forcibly, including many who have been living in the U.S. for years or even decades.
This violent rhetoric distracts from the broader issue: the political and economic systems that force people to migrate in the first place, systems that Trump himself has supported and exacerbated.
One of the most crucial intersections of immigration and the broader economy is in the labor market. Immigrant workers play an integral role in sectors like agriculture, construction, and service industries—sectors that are often poorly organized and vulnerable to exploitation.
Immigrants make up 68% of America’s agricultural workers, and they experience an on-the-job death rate nearly six times higher than the national average due to factors like hazardous working conditions, limited access to healthcare, and language barriers.
Yet unionization is often sparse in these industries, leaving workers without protections and vulnerable to abuse.
The U.S. capitalist class benefits immensely from the exploitation of immigrant labor, using it as a way to drive down wages for everyone.
In non-union workplaces, bosses use immigrant workers to undercut unionized competitors, perpetuating a race to the bottom that harms the entire working class.
Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric feeds into this division, painting newcomers as a threat to American jobs and cultural identity—when in fact, the real culprit is the system that pits workers against one another in the name of profit.
Weakening the Borders, Strengthening the System: A Failed Solution
A common refrain from Trump and his supporters is that “weak borders” pose a grave security threat to the nation. But this argument ignores the broader reality that immigration is, at its core, an issue of global human movement—driven by economic and political pressures that often lie beyond the control of any one nation-state.
Far from securing the border, Trump’s proposals for militarized enforcement and mass deportations do little to address the systemic issues driving migration.
The real crisis in immigration today isn’t a lack of security—it’s the inability of the U.S. to process migrants in a way that respects their rights, humanity, and dignity.
Migrants seeking asylum are often met with bureaucratic gridlock, inadequate resources, and harsh detention practices. These practices aren’t about ensuring safety—they are about reinforcing a system that prioritizes corporate interests over human welfare.
How to Defend Immigrants: Solidarity Over Division
As Trump prepares to take office, working-class people—native-born and immigrant alike—must recognize the shared interests that unite us.
Attacks on immigrant workers are part of a broader assault on all working-class people. Whether it’s agitational anti-immigrant rhetoric used to divide us or exploitative labor practices used to keep us working for less, the forces behind these attacks are the same: the billionaires and corporations who profit from inequality.
Unions, which historically have served as a home for immigrant workers, must take a stand against these attacks. By organizing workers in agriculture, construction, and other industries that rely heavily on immigrant labor, unions can build power that helps lift the entire working class. We must also reject the nationalist rhetoric that seeks to divide us by birthright, race, or immigration status. The bosses have always sought to create divisions among workers to maintain control—and the labor movement must reject this strategy at all costs.
Immigrants are not the problem. The problem is a system that exploits their labor, fuels wars, and forces millions to migrate in search of safety and opportunity. Instead of focusing on militarizing the border or deporting workers, the U.S. must focus on ensuring that all workers—immigrant and native-born alike—have access to good jobs, healthcare, education, and housing.
The Role of Unions in Defending Immigrants
One of the most effective ways to prevent Trump’s planned deportations is through mass action—organizing workers at the point of attack.
This can include organizing workplace defense committees, refusing to cooperate with ICE raids, and staging protests to demand better protections for immigrant workers. The labor movement must be proactive in defending immigrant workers, using its organizational power to shut down ICE raids and fight for workers’ rights.
This is not a fight that can be left to politicians or NGOs.
The Democratic Party, while often positioning itself as the champion of immigrants, has failed to live up to its promises. Under the Obama and Biden administrations, millions of people were deported—an inconvenient truth for those who now claim to advocate for immigration reform.
The real fight will come from the grassroots, from the labor movement and communities that have the power to stop Trump’s attacks before they begin.
Building the Future We Need: Solidarity, Not Division
Ultimately, the immigration crisis is not a crisis of national security—it is a crisis of global inequality. The vast majority of the people crossing borders today are doing so because they are fleeing violence, poverty, and political repression, much of which has been exacerbated by U.S. foreign policy.
The fight for immigrant rights is inextricably tied to the fight for a fair economy where workers of all backgrounds, nationalities, and legal statuses can unite to demand better living and working conditions.
In the coming years, the question of solidarity between native-born and immigrant workers will become even more critical. Unions must take the lead in defending immigrants from deportation and ensuring their rights are protected in the workplace.
As workers, we cannot afford to let the capitalist class divide us. By standing together—whether we were born in the U.S. or elsewhere—we can build a movement that fights for our collective liberation.
If Trump’s second administration is to succeed in its anti-immigrant agenda, it will be because workers allowed it to. But history shows that when we fight, we win. We must prepare now—through mass action, organizing, and solidarity—to ensure that immigrants are defended and the interests of the working class are upheld.
Lisa McCormick was a candidate for US Senate in the 2018 Democratic primary election who took nearly three out of five ballots away from disgraced former US Senator Bob Menendez.