The Industrial Reserve Army of the Border

Why ICE Raids Job Sites, Not Trap Houses

The Story Thus Far

Recently, I posted this article make sure you read it or this one won't make sense:

To summarize, it was an article comparing the Bracero program to the modern ICE deportations based on undocumented people being a part of the Industrial Reserve Army of Labor. While it was overwhelmingly well received I did get criticism that I think is worth addressing. The first commenter taking issue said this:

The Industrial Reserve Army of Labor

To diverge from the path of response for a second, let’s define and expand on the main concept expounded in the article. The industrial reserve army of labor. This is the class of workers who are especially prone to unemployment or otherwise being bullied and strong-armed by the Capitalist class which keeps wages down for everyone. If everyone had a stable job, we would all demand higher pay. By creating a class that is easily exploitable you create an entire group always possible to swindle out of wages, that is also easily moveable out of the workforce. This allows for Super-Exploitation, a concept that stems from Marxist Dependency Theory. This is when labor is paid for below the level of remuneration. The bare essentials necessary for existence are not covered by the employer. By having an easily exportable group in America, this allows for Super-Exploitation within US borders. This makes it accessible to all kinds of business owners, not just big firms capable of expanding to the global south. Lastly, to piggyback off the thought of anthropologist Nicholas De Genova, deportability is a major factor in maintaining this industrial reserve army.

It is precisely in the ‘illegal’ migrant’s deportability that we may encounter anew the centrality and constitutive role of labor...The exquisitely refined legal vulnerability of illegalized migrant labor – above all, materialized in its deportability – plainly serves to radically enhance the preconditions for its routinized subordination within the inherently despotic regime of the workplace.

Deportation by Nicholas De Genova

This is not a unique idea to me. This is simply analyzing the industrial reserve army as Marx describes it in relation to the material conditions of the US.

Comment 1:

The only problem is that this isn’t “excess” labor since these people are so concentrated in specific sectors. Undocumented people make up the majority of the labor force in agriculture and a substantial portion of the service and construction industries. There are also many who work in food processing (factory labor).

There really is no material reason for any of this. They’re just racist. They just believe that America should be a white nation. This is an attempt to turn the clock back to the time of their fantasies when in reality it only accelerates American decline since these people are actually integral to the real economy and the majority of young people don’t meet their definition of white anyway. This is all part and parcel of the national suicide that is driving all of these decisions from tariffs to foreign policy.

I grew up in a rural conservative part of California where people have been obsessed with illegal immigration for as long as I can remember. This is just red meat for that base.

Materialism Not Idealism

Where I disagree is in a few ways. I’m not an idealist, history is moved by material conditions NOT ideology. The bourgeoisie are not reacting to sustain ideology for ideology’s sake; instead what they’re doing is protecting themselves materially and furthering their goals that way. The bourgeoisie is not interested in the ideology of their most fervently racist supporters. Instead they are worried about pillaging American’s money through tax cuts, subsidies, upward redistribution, crypto rug pull scams, etc. Ideology is instead to give the base a reason to trust them. Think of how rapidly the right wing has gone from paying constant lip service to libertarianism, even going as far as to follow the pro-gay line briefly shortly after gay marriage was legalized, to now doubling down on the Christian aspect of the conservative ideology. the elite do not care about ideology.

Instead the conservative voter cares about ideology because it has been pushed on them from the top down as a tool to divide the working class. This is why it is so fluid, because they are simply capitalizing on pre-existing sentiment to build false consciousness. Think of how much more antisemitic the right wing is now compared to before Trump was elected. Essentially, the inequality caused by Capitalism could no longer be ignored causing the bourgeoisie to shift the blame to a subset of the rich (Jewish people due to their proximity to wealth and tendency towards progressivism) instead of to all the rich. The elite are not confused. They are driving the car. Just because they are driving it off a cliff doesn’t mean they don’t know how the steering wheel works. They are crashing it on purpose to collect the insurance money.

Immigrants As Excess Labor

To address the second major part of the comment, the commenter disagrees that undocumented people are a form of excess labor that can be bled off. This is because they make up a majority of agricultural workers, manufacturing workers, and a large part of the service industry. However, this essentially proves my point. The labor is excess labor in the eyes of the bourgeoisie, not in reality. As we enter a recession the rich cannot afford to employ everyone profitably, hence lay offs happen. However, if you leave a massive body of people without work you tend towards civil unrest. So the undocumented people are removed from the workforce which opens up jobs in the service industry, manufacturing, and agriculture. As mentioned in my original article, agriculture is not a job that native citizens are willing to take. The fact that the rich hope to open that industry does not mean it will be filled. Yet, the Republican party goes all in on promoting the idea of bringing manufacturing back to the US, hence removing a large portion of people that work in that industry makes perfect sense. Manufacturing is a massively propagandized industry by the GOP. Lastly, the reality is that many work in service jobs which are the positions most likely to be filled by American citizens. Materially this makes the most sense to a failing economy. Think especially of how ICE tends towards emptying job sites instead of the criminals they said they would focus on. They could go empty out Sureño and Norteño barrios and would likely not face the resistance that people tend to assume they would. Rico cases happen all the time, in which an entire set is arrested, often at the same time and location and are not met with a shootout or violent opposition. Instead they focus exclusively on job sites, hence why it has a material basis, it is about freeing up jobs for an economy that cannot afford to employ everyone.

Racism as a Tendency

Lastly, the commenter mentions that anti-immigrant and especially anti-Mexican sentiment is common in border states. However, to keep things brief, I’ll ask you, what was the most common sentiment around anti-Mexican talking points before cartel violence and rapists rhetoric?

Comment 2 & 3

Following that, I was met with another comment from a different user.

Ya but isn’t that all just going to drive up the price of labor? I don’t see what material motive a capitalist could have for increasing labor costs.

I think that the material component of this is a mass market media whose purpose has always been to pit native workers against immigrants as a way to divide the working class. The current crop of conservative elites have had their brain Swiss cheesed by ideology and are actively slitting their own throats as a result of the contradiction.

My Response

I am quite, fond of my response and think it address his major points so I will repost how I originally responded.

You’re pointing to a key contradiction. What you’re presenting is true of a boom economy or expansion. In a healthy market sure deporting workers reduces supply and raises labor cost but we’re effectively in a state of crisis right now. During periods of recession you can’t profitably employ everyone so they’re getting rid of excess labor (excess not in so far as not productive but instead not profitable to keep employed). Keeping a large body of people who aren’t employed is dangerous for the rich because that leads to conflict as unrest. They cannot and will not deport every single immigrant it’s simply not possible so this creates a circumstance where those who work without documentation during and after must keep their heads down and accept their sub-minimum wage to avoid conflict (deportation is a common threat against undocumented workers from their employer) lastly to address the Swiss cheese brain it’s a huge mistake to assume our enemies are stupid they play dumb if they were dumb they wouldn’t be in power. But their voting base is easily manipulated which is why racism is a useful tool for them to antagonize people other than the rich. Lastly to touch more directly on my point about opening up jobs to an extent I do believe they think they’ll fill those jobs with white people but they simply cannot as I stated. It’s more so bleeding off labor they can’t employ for now and then bringing it back in when the market is expanding again. At least historically that’s how that works, but we’ll see if this time is different and it very well might be.

His Rebuttal

I was too flippant with the Swiss cheese comment. I don’t think they’re drooling from their mouth dumb, but I don’t think this would be the first time in history where the ruling class thought things were one way only to discover they were wrong.

We’re all the product of our context and so much of what the elite do is consume ideology. I just am not sure they could diagnose and plan ahead for a crisis caused by surplus labor, particularly the right wing of the elite.

The Elite Are Not Stupid

He then claims both that the elite are not dumb, but also that they’re too dumb to run the economy that they already do run. In terms of their ability to plan ahead for a crisis, we are essentially already there. This is not an advanced plan ahead situation, it’s instead a response to the market, hence why corporations rely on lay offs at times to stabilize profits after being in the red for a quarter or a year. If they are capable of doing that, they are capable of getting rid of excess labor.

Now, when he says this is planning ahead, I assume he is responding to the idea that they have fomented the ideology ahead of time, since back in 2016 in regards to this recent brand of Christian Nationalist racism. As I implied the ideology was asserted on their base in order to create the material conditions necessary. For this to be a problem, this has to assume it is not or has not been the norm forever. Racism has always been a tool to encourage labor extraction and divide the working class.

In Conclusion

Anti-Mexican sentiment is not a feature of racism because racism is fun. It’s a set of conditions meant to address the contradictions of capitalism and our current circumstance. I am a Materialist, not an Idealist. The elite are ideological because of material conditions, not because ideas move history.