By HERMAN MORRIS

This article is based on a speech that the author delivered at a rally May 1 in Mountain View, California.

The demonization and attack on immigrants remains a bipartisan project. Case in point, this past week the governor’s office of California announced that it will be turning over the driver’s license data of all 1 million undocumented immigrant drivers in the state to a federal database where their names, information, and addresses can be looked up.

In response to pressure from the Department of Homeland Security, California is to provide DMV records to the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, who will enter it into SPEXS, a national database used to search for duplicate licenses that could be used to deny Real ID’s. Because these records are open to state employees and contractors, there is no way to ensure it will not be used by DHS to find and deport workers without papers. Information on the database revealing that a person does not have a Social Security number could signal to DHS authorities that they are subject to deportation.

While implementation may be dependent on the legislature voting funds for the process, this decision has not yet been legally challenged and as of yet there have been no rallies opposing it.

This is coming from the Democratic Party—the party that says it stands with immigrants! If they are willing to do this today, what will they do next? Send a list of minorities in the state to the federal government? Create a national database of those who have abortions or seek gender affirming care? The Democratic Party does this because it is ultimately responsible to the same big business owners and donors that the Republicans are. The only way out for us is to recall the legacies and victories of May Days past, build a movement in the streets and in the workplaces, make demands on the government, and stand up collectively for our rights.

Once again, the question of international solidarity rears its head. Who is and who is not a citizen is something that the U.S. government has defined and redefined for as long as it has been around—at various moments expanding it dramatically when it needed more workers, and restricting it at times of political crisis. We are currently in a moment of restriction, when undocumented workers are reviled by both big parties in the U.S., who have each taken a hand in building the border wall between the United States and Mexico and expanding the strength of ICE and developing it into the secret police that it is today.

ICE is now an unchained attack dog that targets undocumented immigrants, documented immigrants, and even full U.S. citizens—as we saw most dramatically in Minneapolis with the shootings of Renée Nichole Good and Alex Pretti. This presents working people with a challenge: Are workers from other countries who come here looking for a decent wage and the freedom to live their lives as they see fit able to become U.S. citizens? We must say YES! And this can only be achieved through the dismantling of ICE and other forms of immigration enforcement and the extension of a quick and painless process of attaining U.S. citizenship for all.

Without these two demands guaranteed, the question of who will have the rights of a U.S. citizen will always be played with by the ruling elites who run this country. The issue will continue to be used to divide working people, whom they try to trick into thinking that the worker from another nation is not their friend and ally.

The Democratic Party’s betrayal of immigrants in California is a devastating attack on our communities. Defending ourselves from the government’s unmitigated attacks and surveillance requires us to go further than just electing Democrats, who sell us down the river the moment that it becomes politically expedient. Unions and community organizations in California must come together and discuss what must be done to protect our communities from government attacks, and nationally to coordinate our efforts and move beyond the corrupt wreckage of the Democratic Party.

Photo: Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times

The post California to share immigrants’ DMV records with Feds first appeared on Workers’ Voice/La Voz de los Trabajadores.

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