Recently in U.S. Immigration Reform Category
Despite the "all or nothing" rhetoric with which Democrats in Congress have shot down proposed piecemeal reforms like the DREAM Act in defense of comprehensive immigration reform, Democrats are perfectly ok with passing piecemeal reforms--as long as they ramp up enforcement and deliver nothing of value to the immigrant community. On Thursday, Senate Democrats introduced a $600 billion million border enforcement bill that will further militarize the border while getting nothing in return for the immigrant community. America's Voice chided Democrats for continuing "to play a losing game of catch-up to politicians like Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio."
Republicans like John McCain are thrilled that Democrats are doing their work for them to punish immigrants until they leave on their own, a policy known as "enforcement through attrition":
"Although, there is a great deal more to be done, I believe today Democrats finally put good policy over politics and agreed we must secure our border first," McCain said in a statement.
With strong Republican support, the bill was quickly approved by the Senate. Democrats for a long time now have been good at pretending to be allies of the immigrant community to court the Latin@ vote, but bad at actually delivering any legislation that does more than further penalize the immigrant community.
The Mexican newspaper El Universal reported that Senator Schumer rejected attempts to attach the DREAM Act and AgJobs to the border enforcement bill. (Hat tip Jose Franco of the DREAM Act 21.) Deepak Barghava of the Center for Community Change speculated in a Politico article that introduction of the bill had been a failed attempt by Democrats at a bluff, but that Republicans "ate the Democrats' lunch," and voted for the bill even though Schumer had only introduced it a few hours before the vote. Politico reported that unnamed immigrant rights advocates said that passing a stand-alone border bill eliminated a bargaining chip for Democrats to pass comprehensive immigration reform. If so, this was a major tactical error by Schumer and shows how thoroughly outclassed he is by GOP Senators when it comes to immigration policy.
This is the latest in a string of piecemeal enforcement backed by Democrats without any expectation of any pro-migrant reform in return. Immigration Impact reported recently that the Democrats have now enacted the majority of the enforcement pieces of the failed 2007 comprehensive reform bill, while getting nothing in return for the immigrant community. Democrats have been the biggest facilitators of the current enforcement-only immigration policy regime, caving time after time to nativists in the GOP even though Democrats hold large majorities in both houses of Congress. These are not allies, they are "frenemies," friends to your face who stab you in the back as soon as you turn around.
If CCC and other national immigrant advocacy organizations are unhappy with Democrats right now, they have only themselves to blame for repeatedly enabling Democratic frenemies, from giving Deporter-in-Chief Obama an uncontested platform to deceive the immigrant community at the March 21 immigrant rights rally in Washington, D.C., to buying into Rahm Emanuel's poll-tested "tough on immigrants" talking points that reinforce conservative frames on immigration. Aside from recent movement from America's Voice to support standalone DREAM Act and challenge the Democrats, to me it's still an open question: Will D.C.-based immigrant rights organizations ever hold Democrats accountable for selling out the immigrant community?
And the next big question with this latest installment of enforcement-only legislation coming from Democrats in the Senate: Will the Congressional Hispanic Caucus follow the Senate's lead and support piecemeal enforcement-only reform while continuing to hold pro-migrant piecemeal legislation like the DREAM Act hostage to a nonexistent CIR bill?
So who are these Democratic frenemies, and what do they have against immigrants? Here is a short primer:
Late last week, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) released a draft internal immigration policy memo (pdf) that one or more anonymous anti-immigrant Department of Homeland Security employees had leaked to his office. Shortly before the leak of the draft memo from USCIS, the federal immigration agency which is part of DHS, Senator Grassley, along with seven other Republican Senators, had sent a letter to President Obama warning him against taking the kinds of actions outlined in the draft memo that would ameliorate some of the current unreasonably harsh immigration policies that separate families and punish children.
The policy changes would have:
- Given DHS greater latitude to defer the deportation of undocumented youth brought here as children by their parents.
- Protected spouses and children of members of the military from being deported.
- Eased interpretation of the current strict standard for showing that deportation of a parent, child, or spouse has caused "extreme hardship" to the remaining U.S. citizen family member. Currently, forced long-term (10 years or more) separation from one's spouse or child cannot be used as a factor in deciding whether "extreme hardship" exists.
- Finalized the rules dealing with children who come to the U.S. alone, and for victims of human trafficking, domestic violence, and other criminal activities.
- Permitted USCIS to exercise discretion to target criminals for deportation proceedings in line with ICE's stated enforcement priorities.
To me and others, these seem like common sense measures that should have been adopted long ago. To the anti-immigrant groups behind this manufactured scandal, the draft policy memo is the greatest outrage the world has ever known.
Senator Grassley is working closely with the nativist group NumbersUSA, a member of eugenicist John Tanton's network of anti-immigrant organizations, in an effort to use the leak of this draft policy memo to destroy any chance of immigration reform that remains this legislative session. The leak came just as Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) proposed a constitutional amendment to revoke birthright citizenship, which could lead to the deportation of citizen children of undocumented parents.
The leak of the draft memo, which was written in April, followed a letter in June from the same group of GOP Senators warning President Obama not to enact administrative reforms in lieu of comprehensive immigration reform. The release of the June letter shows that Grassley and NumbersUSA had the draft memo then and were holding on to it until its release would have maximum political impact.
The timing of the release, coming in the same week that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) met to discuss moving the DREAM Act forward separate from comprehensive immigration reform [Update: Reid's office is now denying that he discussed the DREAM Act with Pelosi at their meeting last week], the same week that communities around the country mobilized in opposition to SB1070, was no coincidence in my view. The leak was timed to derail the momentum the DREAM Act had gotten over months and years of organizing efforts by DREAMers, including a civil disobedience action in D.C. on July 20 where 21 undocumented youth risked deportation by being arrested in the Senate office buildings and an ongoing hunger strike now in its 12th day in California. The leak was designed to increase pressure on Obama to maintain existing federal SB1070-style programs like 287g that promote collaboration between local law enforcement and ICE and lead to racial profiling of brown-skinned people.
If this is the best attack the nativists can muster, if this is their "secret weapon" against the DREAM Act or any other legislative action on immigration, then I think the pro-migrant community is in good shape.
Jesse Lee: And we've got a bit of a graffiti artist in the chat asking over and over again, why not the DREAM Act as a stand-alone bill?The Obama administration certainly hasn't spent any political capital on getting the DREAM Act passed, but at least they aren't publicly blocking it from happening.
Cecilia Muñoz: So the DREAM Act, which I described before, is terribly important. The President absolutely supports it. And if Congress, if our allies in Congress decide to move forward on the DREAM Act, we will be - we will happily support it. The President has been a supporter really for much of his career.
So that, if it moves forward, that progress is progress, it has the same 60-vote threshold as anything else that moves in the United States Senate, and that's the challenge. In order to pass the DREAM Act or a comprehensive reform or anything else, we're going to need to get the 60 votes, and some of those votes are going to have to be from Republicans. And so in order to accomplish any piece of this debate, we're going to need that support.White House (1 July 2010)
Below are my responses to Reform Immigration For America (RIFA)'s questionnaire to participants from my state in its campaign to promote pro-migrant immigration reform. In addition to my constructive criticism below, I should add that RIFA needs to listen more to the grassroots and incorporate feedback from local communities into national policy in a more structural, democratic way. I take this questionnaire to be an attempt to do something like that, but it is not nearly enough.
1. How has the politics around immigration moved in your state this year?
Some additional co-sponsors of Dream Act, some additional awareness of immigration among Philadelphia-area progressives. Also, some anti-immigrant movement sparked by AZ SB1070.
2. What action or tactic helped to move the issue the most with your Member of Congress?
Dream Act-eligible students contacting them directly.
3. What Organizations or players would you like to see more involved with the State Action Table?
Dream Act students.
General Questions:
1. Please identify your relationship to the state table: Are you a leader in the community, a c3 organization, local business, faith organization or labor organization?
David Bennion - Staff attorney at Nationalities Service Center (nonprofit), blogger, involved with Dream Act advocacy locally and nationally.
2. For how long have you been a member of the State Table?
Didn't really know I was ... Ali got me involved around the March 21 rally.
3. On a scale from 1-10, how would you currently rate your participation with the state table?
3
4. What works well? Which one thing is most important to you?
Dream Act works well and is most important to me.
5. What does not work so well? Which one thing do you most want to improve?
National strategy is a dismal failure. Back to the drawing board!
6. What is your assessment of the national campaign (strategy, messaging, mechanics, etc)?
My two chief complaints about RIFA are: (1) continuing to push failed CIR strategy and (2) not being honest with the grassroots about dismal political prospects of CIR and weak commitment of ostensible leaders in Congress to any immigration reform at all.
RIFA has assumed the role of abused spouse, taking whatever scraps Democrats offer it along with the cheating, lying, and manipulation. Stand up to Congress and they will respect you more!
If RIFA doesn't change its approach, I predict it will lose credibility with the grassroots and they will look elsewhere for leadership and organization, if they haven't already.
CIR strategy has utterly failed, the poll-tested messaging ("get right with the law, go to the back of the line blah blah blah") has utterly failed, relying on disinterested Democrats to push immigration reform forward has failed. No amount of phone banking and canvassing and rallies will transform a failed strategy into a workable one.
Incremental reform is the best option now, especially Dream Act. Long-term, RIFA should work on reframing fundamentals of the discussion in the same way FAIR and CIS did 30 years ago: (1) immigration is a human rights and workers' rights issue, not a law enforcement issue, (2) the immigration system doesn't work as the public assumes it does--"illegal" is an ever-expanding, malleable category created for political purposes, (3) immigration policy needs to be globalized to bring U.S. into 21st Century (per work of Rinku Sen). FAIR's arguments seem easier to grasp and more convincing to the public because they've spent the last 30 years building on existing nativist elements of U.S. historical policy/narrative and tearing down pro-migrant ones.
A striking difference between yesterday's May 1 immigrant rights rally in Washington, D.C., and the rally on the National Mall on March 21 was the message. Another was the mood.
The speakers on March 21 included advocates, immigrants, and a fair number of politicians. President Obama even spoke in a recorded message about his sorrow for the families that are torn apart by the broken immigration system. The crowd was silent during his message and gave him a massive cheer when it was done. The mood that day was exuberant and hopeful.
The mood at yesterday's May 1 rally in D.C. was one of anger and betrayal. Speakers talked about President Obama's broken promises, his failure to promote immigration reform, and his continued support for programs like 287(g) and InSecure Communities that lead to racial profiling by local law enforcement. They talked about the 400,000 people deported in Obama's first year of office, more than any single year of the Bush administration. Children spoke of their parents currently in the process of being deported by President Obama, and they asked him not to break up their families.
The immigrant community is starting to realize that, when it comes to immigration policy, President Obama and the Senate Democrats have been saying one thing and doing another. They express regret for family separation, for the workers who have paid into the tax base for decades but still face deportation, and for the DREAM Act students brought here as infants who live under the shadow of exile. But through their actions, they wholly support the status quo enforcement-only immigration system.
"Friends Keep Promises"
"Obama, Don't Deport My Mama"
"U Got Our Vote, Now Keep Your Word"
These were some the messages at the May 1 Immigrant Rights rally in Washington D.C. I attended yesterday with other members of DreamActivist PA. Fueled by outrage at Arizona's latest racial profiling law, SB1070, participants directed most of their protest message at President Obama and Democrats in Congress who not only have failed to pass sensible immigration reform but continue to support the deportation-only status quo perpetuated by Obama's ICE.
The press was there in force, in contrast to the March 21 rally. Members of our Pennsylvania group made their way into lots of photos, including this shot in the New York Times.
I'll have more shortly about how and why the immigrant rights community is focusing their anger not on nativist conservatives but on false allies in the Senate and the White House. But for now, here are some of the photos I took yesterday afternoon:
DreamActivist PA at Lafayette Park before arriving at the rally.
Dreamers Unite!
I don't know how we are going to do this time around. Maybe we will get to stop all the deportations of dreamers. Maybe we will pass CIR. Maybe we won't get legal status. If we don't, it will officially mark the beginning of the Great Latino Depression. I got sick to my stomach watching Fox News today, and seeing the complex anti-immigrant narrative being built. Kidnappings in Mexico, trouble at airport security screenings, live coverage from a burning house in Phoenix, AZ. There is a political campaign already well underway in the right-wing network.I'm not sure our story can compete, the way we are telling it.
Next time we get a media request to write an op-ed or appear on TV, we gotta send Carlos, not Ali. Rachel, not Deepak. Olga, not Clarissa. Samantha, not Angelica. Tania, not Josh. Mohammad, not Markos. Faby, not Kent. Tolu, not Shu. Adey, not Marielena.
It's not about the dream kids. Kids no more: the things we have done and the things we have seen turn girls into women and boys into men. It's about getting these young women and men of the dream generation to the forefront of the movement. That's how we are going to change the way Americans analyze the question of our lifetimes: immigration.
The U.S. public is not ready for comprehensive immigration reform on the terms on which it is currently being presented. The story is wrong and the players are wrong. The story is built on the nativist narrative of the past 30 years, that the U.S. is a sovereign nation with an obligation to enforce its borders, and that Mexicans and Central Americans show particular disregard for U.S. immigration laws. The players in the current presentation are politicians and advocates, not the immigrants and family members who immigration policies affect.
That is why most politicians and most of the public doesn't care about immigration reform.
First because they don't understand the real story: the focus on border security and the dumbfoundingly complex immigration legal system is this generation's manifestation of the perennial American effort to exclude nonwhites and first generation immigrants from civic and economic participation. (More broadly, this represents the perennial human effort to exclude people who are different from themselves.) And the current focus on Mexicans and Central Americans is no accident. After the U.S. Congress shut down transatlantic immigration in 1924 in a fit of nativism, Mexicans were permitted free, illicit entry to provide American agriculture and business with a cheap, exploitable workforce. Central Americans entered the picture in the 1970s and 1980s as U.S.-supported governments killed their citizens and scattered large numbers of refugees to the wind.
Second, the public doesn't know the right players, namely all the undocumented activists Matias mentions and more. They don't know them because they often pass as citizens. Or are forced into the shadows by the fear of lifelong exile from their families and communities.
But these things are changing, as DREAM Act-eligible immigrants, or "Dreamers," come out of the shadows to take their rightful place as leaders of the immigrant rights movement. Now, will the immigrant rights movement let them lead? This question will be moot once Dreamers realize they don't need to ask permission.
Anger has been brewing for months but what perhaps finally tipped the scale for most D.C. insiders and caused them to finally speak out in uncharacteristically vehement terms was a meeting many national advocates held with Senator Chuck Schumer the week prior.So when I came across Sen. Menendez saying this to the editorial board of the New Jersey Star-Ledger, it was the last straw:
[...]
The issue of the Dream Act or AgJobs proceeding alone in the event that Comprehensive Reform failed was...discussed. On this one Schumer punted to Senator Menendez. It is Menendez who insists on Comprehensive Reform in the Caucus according to Schumer so the advocates should be taking up that issue with him.La Frontera Times (14 March 2010)
I think the time to get [comprehensive immigration reform] done is in November, right after the elections. I'm being very pragmatic. I think there are a bunch of people who are retiring who would cast votes (because) their heart and their intellect tell them it is the right thing, but their politics might have told them no. They are free to cast votes that we might not normally get. I think it's a propitious time to get something done if we have presidential leadership. That's what I said to the president two weeks ago when I was at the White House with him.Robert Menendez - New Jersey Star-Ledger (2 April 2010)
Menendez has been a tireless advocate for migrant rights in the Senate. I'll never forget when he took to the Senate floor to deliver this speech.
At the same time, members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) have been one of the biggest barriers to passing the DREAM Act on it's own, because they want it to be part of Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR). While most CHC members are in the House, Schumer confirmed above, much to my dismay, that Menendez is playing the same role in the Senate.
"Democrats, don't count on us again if we can't count on you now."
From Nezua, 3/21/10, Washington, D.C. Read his recap of the march last Sunday, he says what I would like to say but didn't know how.
