In a letter published on Jan. 5, the writer compares Gov. Tony Evers’ defense of the economic importance of undocumented workers with southern Democrats of the 1850s — Democrats whose descendants are now Republicans — who defended slavery as necessary to their economy (“Evers is making same historical errors as Dems before Civil War”).
The analogy crumbles through the reminder that enslaved people, unlike undocumented workers, had no choice. Undocumented workers come to this country voluntarily, even if doing so often stems from the dire living conditions in their native countries. Enslaved people, in contrast, were kidnapped and shipped here to people waiting to sell them to other people.
Furthermore, undocumented workers enter the terms of their employment voluntarily. Enslaved people worked as long as their owners either wanted them or sold them as one sold property.
I believe these are pretty serious omissions from the argument and render it irrelevant.
John Callan, Fort Atkinson
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Comparison of undocumented workers to enslaved people wrong | Letters