Supply-Side Cruelty: How U.S. Immigration Policy Targets the Powerless and Protects Profit

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The Rotten Roots of the U.S. Immigration Policy

Many policy briefs on U.S. immigration have begun with the phrase:  Our immigration system is  broken.  It was never broken, it was built on rot.  Since its inception it has focused on controlling the labor supply through restriction and punishment, while ignoring the economic systems that rely on and profit from undocumented workers.  Namely, it was developed on the heels of slavery, and has roots with a colonial power (Britain) that used immigration to cast off its “undesirables” as well as create a system of indentured servitude (Cato Institute, “A Brief History of U.S. Immigration Policy from the Colonial Period to the Present Day,” 2021).  Exploitation has always been the lens by which we view human beings in migration policy.  Political leaders state that immigration reform is to improve citizen job retention and reduce criminality by undocumented workers when the underlying motive is to maximize profit. Ultimately, the latest symbolic crackdown on immigration reform is for advancing a political agenda  and not for the benefit of the everyday worker, citizen or otherwise.   

History Repeats Itself—And Still Doesn’t Work

History has shown that deporting immigrants that occupy the most critical low-skilled jobs–those few U.S. citizens want –does not reduce unemployment.  Namely, 1930s immigration reform during the Great Depression, when poverty and unemployment was at its highest in U.S. history saw   “...the federal government deport[] more than one million Mexicans and persons of Mexican ancestry in what was euphemistically known as “repatriation,” even though approximately 60 percent of the deportees were U.S. citizens, having been born in the United States to Mexican parents.Despite its intended goal, the repatriation efforts increased unemployment rates for native-born Americans.” (Cato Institute, “A Brief History of U.S. Immigration Policy from the Colonial Period to the Present Day,” 2021) 

The brutally aggressive ICE tactics to identify, detain and “process” undocumented immigrants is no different from what we saw in generations past.  Except now, social media allows us to witness in real time how these policies are being enforced against women and their children:  nursing mothers separated from their babies, a child with cancer deported without consultation with doctors, or in one case using a child as bait to lure a woman out of her home so she could be detained. 

Feminized Migration and the Gendered Cost of Conflict

As I mentioned in my post “Made in America,” the feminization of migration is nothing new.  We have seen it as a global trend for decades, shaped by economic inequality, care labor demands and systemic gender biases.  Whether we have a restrictive or permissive immigration policy in place, gendered migration will persist.  Globalization has pulled male workers abroad, leaving many towns occupied solely by women and children.  When the remittances stop, women seek migration to feed themselves and their children.  

Likewise, although war has decreased in the world, conflict has not. There are currently 59 state-based armed conflicts as of 2023, the highest number since 1946 as well as the most violent conflicts occurring in the last three decades.   Women and children are the primary targets of various forms of violence during conflict such as rape as a weapon of war, commercial sexual exploitation, human trafficking and forced armed recruitment.   However, the U.S. government has halted almost all refugee admissions for people escaping famine and war—-like places in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, two of the 59 armed state conflicts. 

Selective Compassion: The Color of Asylum

 Currently, South Africa is not one of the armed conflict nations. Yet, the U.S. government has recently permitted dozens of white South Afrikaners seeking asylum for economic and racial violence persecution into the United States after only a three month application process.  (NY Times, “White South Africans Granted Refugee Status by Trump Leave for U.S,” May 11, 2025).  

Concurrently, the current administration has increased the authority of ICE and local police enforcement through:  the expansion of the 287(g) program, permitting detainment at most locations including schools and places of worship, and has increased its focus on workplace enforcement on the supply side, not the demand.  A promise was made during the election campaign in 2024 that the focus would be to deport undocumented immigrants with a criminal record, but that in fact is not what is happening.  All individuals without legal status, regardless of their criminal background are being targeted, primarily individuals from Haiti, Mexico and other Latin American countries.  The drastic and draconian criteria changes being made to our asylum and immigration systems have racialized underpinnings.  These underpinnings have always been there where designated whiteness accelerates protection and perceived Blackness invites suspicion. (Cato Institute, “A Brief History of U.S. Immigration Policy from the Colonial Period to the Present Day,” 2021) 

The Real Crime: Exploiting Undocumented Labor Without Consequence 

Big businesses rarely face meaningful penalties for employing undocumented workers—or the fines are simply too low to matter. Penalties for employing undocumented workers can range as follows: first offense,  $698 to $5,579; second offense,  $5,579 to $13,946; and third or subsequent offenses, $8,369 to $27,894 (Littler, February 2024).  If we were to apply the penalties for employing undocumented workers we can see that it does not damage their economic bottom line sufficiently to dissuade big companies from employing them. 

For example, Immokalee Florida is a significant hub for U.S. tomatoes.  The Florida Tomato Committee estimated that about 33,000 workers were needed to hand pick 31,500 acres of fruit in 2013.  The average tomato farm in 2013 was 400 acres, so that equals 419 workers on that farm.  Even if all 419 workers were undocumented and fined at the maximum first-time offense rate, the total penalty of $2.3 million would still leave the farm with nearly $5 million for operational costs and profit—underscoring how ineffective current deterrents are. 

Why Chasing the Supply Won’t Fix the Problem

Thus, what we need is more focus on the demand rather than on the supply side of labor. Big businesses will continue to do what they have been doing, regardless of the performative measures currently taking place on being tough on crime and immigration.  As long as there is money to be made with the cheapest inputs, big business will find an end run around immigration rules and policies.  While there are still conflicts raging around the world without investment into shaping trade and foreign policy to improve economic development, peace and stability, people will come, legally or illegally.  

Toward a More Honest and Humane Immigration Strategy

Political leaders and immigration activists must turn to changing the demand side of immigration.   History has shown us, repeatedly, placing pressure on the supply side does not change migration patterns nor significantly improve the economy by increasing the number of jobs for born and raised U.S. citizens.  We will continue to see more women and children placed in harm's way if we continue to ignore what is obvious, but is the  politically harder path to take.

In the U.S., our default has long been to punish the powerless while shielding profit.  But what we also do as citizens is invoke our right to protest.  The upside of social media is that it has been a tool of protest and now more than ever we use it to showcase the cruelty of ICE tactics to arrest women and their children.  Now we must take it a step further and demand responsibility from  those who benefit most and protect those who are least able to protect themselves.  Immigrant advocates know what needs to be done to build a more humane immigration system.  They have been saying it for decades but now is not the time to let fatigue set in.  I  encourage those in the struggle to protect and defend to:

• Use collective action because it is a powerful tool:  school and work walkouts in industries dependent on immigrant labor has and can continue to work, by shifting pressure where it belongs.  

• Demand tougher enforcement on employers, not workers.  We can advocate for improved tracking systems that are linked to the employer—and not workers.  

• Push for better corporate responsibility  by regulating how big businesses recruit in other countries 

• Revise and expand where needed programs such as  E-Verify, Farm Workforce Modernization, and the Fair Food Program across sectors, not just agricultural workers.

Our children are watching how we treat people who just yesterday were our grocers, neighbors and members of our own families.  What impact will it have on how we see each other as individuals and as communities when we know our world is getting smaller and smaller?  I wish I could say that only time will tell but we know that is not true, because we have lived this chapter again and again.  It is easy to take the road most travelled, and history has shown us where that leads. When will we take the more difficult path–the  one that puts people over profit and justice over fear?