As the son and grandson of union members, Labor Day has a special meaning for me. When I think of Labor Day, I imagine my grandfather hanging off a bridge upside down by his ankles for refusing to call off a strike at the old CF&I steel mill in Pueblo, Colorado. While I tend to be more moderate than my father and grandfather when it comes to labor issues in this country (i.e., I think unions ultimately shot themselves in the foot by demanding too much), I am also cognizant of the real and sometimes deadly sacrifices that working class Americans have made to win fair wages, decent treatment and reasonable hours.

This year, the United States finds itself in the throes of the longest, most taxing recession since the Great Depression. Millions are unemployed and millions more are having trouble making ends meet with the work they have. We don’t just live in a market economy, we now live at its mercy. Approximately 90% of the capital in this country is controlled by an equally approximate 1% of the population.

Almost 16 years ago, the government under the leadership of George H.W. Bush dramatically expanded “free market” power through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).  This led to the displacement of millions of  Mexican farmers and other types of laborers who could not compete with the highly productive agriculture industry in the United States. These farmers, with very few other prospects, sought better lives North of the Mexican border. As the United States simultaneously shifted from an industrial-based economy to a service-based economy, many service sector industries welcomed the new illegal labor pool as a method of controlling labor costs. Restaurateurs and housing contractors, to name a few, knowingly hired illegal immigrants at lower wages than American counterparts and actively lobbied conservative representatives to keep regulation and oversight to a minimum.

With the economy in the doldrums, the issue of illegal immigration has come to a boiling point. Considering the “free market” conservative roots of the immigration problem in the United States, it is ironic that the Republican Governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, and her “tough on crime, tough on brown people” lackey, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, are the most vocal proponents of a deportation policy. To me, it is outrageous that on the one hand conservatives like Jan Brewer would encourage illegal immigration to keep labor costs low but simultaneously deride the very problem her party helped to create. It is so outrageous, I have to wonder if there is an angle that involves profit motive.

It is no secret that Sheriff Arpaio has made his reputation on the cheap labor his prisoners provide to Maricopa County through his notorious tent city jail. According to his website, Arpaio’s chain gangs contribute thousands of dollars of free labor to the community: “The male chain gang, and the world’s first-ever female and juvenile chain gangs, clean streets, paint over graffiti, and bury the indigent in the county cemetery.” Never mind that those are jobs that good, taxpaying citizens could have.

What’s not clear is what percentage of Arpaio’s prisoners are currently illegal immigrants. Over the past few years, it has become clear that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and local Sheriffs aren’t exactly operating in concert. According to Wikipedia, about 31,000 people who are not American citizens are held in immigration detention on any given day, including children, in over 200 detention centers, jails, and prisons nationwide. According to WikiAnswers, ICE can detain an illegal immigrant for up to 90 days before deporting them. To someone like Sheriff Arpaio, that has to look like a huge free labor pool that he can exploit while at the same time advocating for deportation.

Having a deportation policy as opposed to a border control policy is a win/win/win all the way down the line for someone like Arpaio. The fact is that many deported illegal aliens simply return to the United States the same way they came here. According to USImmigrationSupport.org, “the U.S. Border Patrol is often catching immigrants who were previously deported. For many it is not their first time, but rather their third, fourth, or even fifth deportation.” I’ve read dozens of articles about Arpaio in the last few days. No where, that I can find, does he or Jan Brewer ever advocate for better border control. I suspect that’s because shutting down the free and reduced labor pool isn’t in their long-term interests.

In the end, the debate over illegal immigration is a classic case of talking out both sides of your mouth. On the one hand, Republicans want “free markets,” “free trade” and a whole host of other “freedoms” that come at the expense of rights that took decades to achieve (fair wages, decent working conditions, etc). On the other hand, they don’t win too many friends by giving jobs away so they have to appear to be “tough on immigration.” Never mind that the businesses and industries that Republicans represent are the biggest violators of immigration policy. So they find the happy medium: Deportation.

The fact is that we, as a nation, invited the illegal immigration issues we have.  It is incumbent on us to take responsibility for those issues. If we want people of other nations to respect our laws, we have to respect them ourselves. Businesses that hire illegal immigrants are just as culpable as immigrants themselves and yet there has been no outcry from people like Jan Brewer and no offer from Joe Arpaio to tie those business executives onto his chain gang. Why?

In the end, Labor Day is about celebrating our hard work. It’s about the contributions that each of us have made to building this nation. The policies that people like Brewer and Arpaio advocate only contribute to tearing this nation down.