I have been on the road recently, and came upon this midday demonstration across the Las Vegas Strip from Harrah’s, on January 29. Given the city’s reliance on transportation, housekeeping, construction, and food preparation for economic viability, effective deportation sweeps would decimate the industries that make this city in the desert possible.
After the fields of Southern California, there is likely no geographic area where undocumented labor is more desired—and most employers on what is considered “The Strip” are multinational entertainment corporations (Caesar’s, MGM, Wynn, Hilton).
It’s been hypothesized that the German Nazi’s atrocities were made possible by bureaucratic and other complex organizational structures that insulated the actors from the full scope of the actions being undertaken. Similarly, the transnational corporation’s own structure insulate those who built undocumented labor into their business model from the daily hiring and supervision. The nation-state insulates the individual ICE agent from personal responsibility for the suffering they cause through following orders, on the other side.
Two different human mobilization organizations, both of which make offending the other inevitable, and exploitation under both possible.
I am not certain, but I believe the march was destined for the Trump Hotel. Unlike most hotels (and many restaurants, bars, and laundromats) in Las Vegas, the Trump Hotel is not allowed to have a single slot machine. Before he lost his ability to hold a business license or operate a charity in New York State, he lost his ability to hold a casino license anywhere in the U.S. #Failureship.
