RNC and DNC: Two versions of anti-migrant policies

The Republican National Convention, held in Milwaukee in July, was a blatant display of white supremacy and fascistic demagoguery regarding migrants. The Democratic National Convention, held in Chicago in August with a more inclusive and “progressive” façade, nevertheless presented a program that restricted the rights of migrants.

Regarding foreign policy, both parties supported jingoism and war-mongering, including backing Israel’s genocidal war against Palestine. This article, however, will focus on the two big imperialist parties’ rhetoric and program regarding migrants.

Despite the serious differences in their messaging rhetoric, both capitalist parties treated migrant families and undocumented workers as scapegoats, blaming them for the economic crisis and the difficulties faced by workers in the United States.

As in the prior two RNC gatherings, many speakers spewed hateful and fearmongering rhetoric against oppressed people, particularly immigrants and other non-U.S. citizens. RNC attendees waved signs that read, “Mass Deportations Now!”

Vitriolic bigotry was embedded in the RNC from beginning to end. For instance, the first two items of the preamble of its official 2024 program declare, “Seal the border and stop the migrant invasion,” and “Carry out the largest deportation operation in American history.” (MSNBC, July 19)

The RNC has historically espoused anti-immigrant slanders, and former President Donald Trump raised the pitch of those hateful views when he became the Republican Party’s 2016 presidential nominee. Trump repeatedly insulted undocumented workers with false charges. His campaign emboldened vicious reactionaries and encouraged violent attacks against migrant workers.

As the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential candidate, Trump is once again campaigning on a xenophobic and viciously anti-immigrant platform. Much like his 2016 and 2020 presidential runs, Trump is fixated on completing a racist “wall” at the U.S.-Mexico border. Unlike their Democratic Party counterparts, the Trump-led RNC has never even pretended public empathy towards migrants or refugees.

Democrats move to the right on immigration

In contrast to the RNC, the Democratic Party delegates and participants repeatedly tried to distance themselves from the blatant bigotry and toxic misogyny that was rampant throughout the RNC. Nearly every DNC speaker critically called out Trump by name.

While DNC speakers were less reactionary than RNC speakers, especially regarding domestic issues, there was a right-wing turn among the Democrats regarding immigration that even the corporate media noticed.

An Aug. 21 Newsweek article was entitled, “Democrats Show Rightward Shift on Immigration at the DNC.” The Los Angeles Times article that same day had this headline: “On Immigration, Democrats shift message to combat GOP attacks.”

The DNC featured several anti-migrant speakers who bragged about working with Congressional Republicans on a strict bipartisan “border security bill,” and they all blamed Trump for its failure to pass. At times, some DNC speakers sounded more like racist vigilantes and border agents than liberals rallying for an election victory.

One such speaker was Javier Salazar, the presiding sheriff of Bexar County, Texas. Dressed in his uniform and brandishing a badge on his chest, Salazer promised the DNC crowd that a Kamala Harris administration would be “tougher” on migration than another Trump administration. Salazar told the crowd, “Harris has been fighting border crime for years.” (San Antonio Report, Aug. 21)

One DNC keynote speaker who evoked anti-immigrant rhetoric was New York Congress Member Tom Souzzi. In fact, Souzzi flipped many Republican voters in his historically conservative Long Island district by campaigning against “sanctuary cities” and demonizing migrant families. He told the DNC delegates: “The border is broken. But this year, when Democrats and Republicans worked together to finally write new border laws, we were blocked.” (CBS News, Aug. 21)

Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy was another presenter who echoed similar statements as Salazar and Souzzi, blaming Trump for “killing” their “bipartisan border bill. Murphy said, “It would have had unanimous support if it weren’t for Donald Trump.”  (Forbes, Aug. 23)

Desperate attempts to “one-up” Trump

Several corporate media outlets called attention to the stark difference in the DNC’s messaging on immigration compared with the 2020 convention. As an Aug. 21 CBS News article noted: “The 2020 platform did not reference any restrictions on asylum. On the contrary, Democrats promised to ‘protect and expand the existing asylum system and other humanitarian protections’ and ‘end Trump Administration policies that deny protected entry to asylum seekers.’”

In contrast, “The party platform adopted at the DNC this week … embraced limits on asylum, a marked departure from its more progressive immigration stances in 2020. … The (DNC) 2024 platform says Democrats support quickly deporting economic migrants and calls on Congress to ‘strengthen requirements’ for asylum claims.”

Vice President Harris’s acceptance speech was also in lockstep with other DNC speakers who blamed Trump for blocking the bipartisan border bill. She said:  “Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign … So, he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal.” She promised to “bring back the bipartisan border security bill.” (Forbes, Aug. 23) Remember that this bill would severely limit asylum.

Undocumented workers and migrant families are often forced to flee countries around the globe because of unbearable conditions brought on by world imperialism and in the Western Hemisphere, mainly by U.S. imperialism. The U.S. exports unemployment and imposes sanctions and military coups that drive people to leave their homelands.

Although this was rarely mentioned at the conventions, undocumented workers contribute billions of dollars into federal, state and local taxes annually. Yet, because they lack legal status, they receive little, if any, of the benefits due them. Meanwhile, on farms, in construction and in many cities, they perform much of the work that was recognized in the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic as being essential to the functioning of society.

Big bosses aim to divide and exploit all workers   

The ruling capitalist class knows it needs the labor of undocumented workers and is happy to superexploit them. But it is more important to the capitalists’

overall class interests to maintain divisions within the working class. The bosses rely on the strategy of divide and conquer, which means supporting propaganda that keeps workers pitted against one another – and especially on keeping workers who are citizens believing that the enemy is the migrant worker and not the boss.

Both U.S. capitalist political parties are fanning the flames of anti-immigrant frenzy to divide working-class voters and pander to backward segments of the electorate. The RNC platform explicitly dehumanizes migrants and has very little to say about permitting “legal” migration. While slightly less vile in their attacks on migrants, the DNC program sent a clear message that they are campaigning on a much more restrictive approach towards immigration than they did just four years ago.

Neither U.S. capitalist party represents the interests of the working class and oppressed peoples. While the Republican Party outright associates with fascist union busters like the Heritage Foundation, the Democratic Party presents itself as being more “pro-union” and at the same time puts forth an agenda that calls for the separation of migrant families and criminalization of undocumented workers.

Class-conscious revolutionaries understand that an injury to one worker is an injury to all working people. And this means regardless of possessing citizenship or the legal right to remain and work. Marxists know it is important to educate workers about the necessity of uniting with everyone in the working class and to reject the racist, anti-immigrant propaganda spewed by both capitalist parties that only serves the material interests of the employer class.

The late Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin wrote compassionately about the significance of internationalist, working-class unity. In conclusion of his 1913 essay “Capitalism and Workers Immigration,” he wrote: “The bourgeoisie incites the workers of one nation against those of another in the endeavor to keep them disunited. Class-conscious workers, realizing that the break-down of all national barriers by capitalism is inevitable and progressive, are trying to help to enlighten and organize their fellow-workers.” (Pravda, Oct. 29, 1913)

Lenin’s approach, building working-class solidarity, is the way to confront the vicious xenophobic rhetoric of the RNC and the softer anti-migrant program of the DNC.