The Jan. 9 editorial in the Tribune asked the question “And the Chavez problem is…what?” As the facts about Marta Mercado’s relationship with the secretary of labor-designate came to light, it is now clear “what” the problem was. The problem was that Linda Chavez, an employer, failed to pay wages to someone who was doing work for her–in other words, an employee.
As an employer, Linda Chavez was obligated under U.S. law to pay Mercado for her work. The U.S. Supreme Court and lower federal courts have consistently ruled that all workers, regardless of their immigration status, must be paid for work done according to applicable wage and hour laws. This policy protects undocumented workers from exploitation and is intended to remove the incentive for employers to seek out undocumented workers in order to pay substandard wages.
During the Clinton administration the Department of Justice (in charge of enforcing immigration laws) and the Department of Labor (in charge of enforcing labor laws) publicly assured undocumented immigrant workers that their labor rights would be protected.
Quite a number of people in public life, from both political parties, have been revealed to have had similar “undocumented” problems. These revelations have not been a surprise in immigrant or upper-middle-class communities where everyone knows that much of the child-care and domestic chores necessary to maintain two-career, upper-middle-class households is done by immigrant workers, many of them undocumented.
The Mercado-Chavez incident points to a wide gap in U.S. law and public policy. Immigrant labor is needed to clean our homes, harvest our crops and run our factories, restaurants and hundreds of small businesses. Our aging native-born population will need more, not fewer, immigrant workers over the next decades.
Last year, “compassionate conservatives” as well as some moderates and liberals opposed bills that would have legalized the status of long-term-resident, undocumented Guatemalans and Salvadorans. It is hoped the new Congress will take a more compassionate approach to reconciling U.S. society’s labor needs with its immigration laws. The real compassion will be to enable the Marta Mercados to be able to earn a decent wage.
This nation will increasingly depend on immigrant labor to serve its meals and clean its homes. We all have a moral duty to support bills to provide labor rights and dignity to those essential workers.
