Please work to protect Black worker gains by including by H.R. 2 in any funding bill.
The New York Times Magazine article The Kids on the Night Shift
by Hann Drier, published in September, tells the story of Marcos, who came to the U.S. at 13 years old and began working illegally in a meat processing plant.
Marcos’s story shows how the current border crisis is enabling exploitative employers to under Black American worker gains in the meat processing industry.
The Great Wave of immigration in the late 19th century drove recently-emancipated Black Americans out of the meat processing industry where they had gained a tenuous hold. When Congress responded to the calls of civil rights leaders like A. Philip Randolph to moderate immigration, the meatpacking industry had no choice but to improve working conditions and pay and — in the process — became a vehicle for the Great Leveling and the rise of the middle class.
The current exploitation of migrant labor in the meat processing industry reverses Black American worker gains in this country.
H.R. 2 includes loophole closures on migrant child releases and E-Verify to end the abuse of migrant labor that undercuts Black American workers.
Sincerely,
Greg Raven, Apple Valley, CA
P.S. Secure our borders. Stop the influx of immigrants and refugees. Evict those here illegally. End chain migration. End birthright citizenship. Make E-Verify mandatory.
