TruthOut.Org (Op-Ed)
By Faby Jacome and Hairo Cortes
July 6, 2015
If
it wasn't clear before, it is now: President Obama's 2014 Immigration
Action, though beneficial to millions of parents of US citizens and
residents, maintained the
foundations of a cruel detention and deportation system intact for
those unjustly excluded and further cleaved our communities between
deserving and undeserving immigrants under proclamations of "families
not felons," codified by new and rigid enforcement
priorities.
Since
then, leading Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and
Bernie Sanders have acknowledged the political rather than legal
considerations that guided President
Obama, leading them to make promises of further executive action should
they be elected president.
Although
these developments can be partly attributed to the pressures of
building a progressive platform ahead of the Democratic primaries, they
are also a testament to
the power undocumented immigrants have built through bold and fearless
organizing that has challenged foe and friend alike.
As
undocumented immigrant youth, we have a message for all of these
presidential hopefuls: Promises are not enough. Not when a Democratic
president still occupies the
White House, and definitely not when undocumented leaders like Jennicet
Gutierrez are forced to continue to place so much on the line to move
this president to make full use of his authority to put an end to the
practice of immigrant detention and truly dismantle
deportation programs that criminalize and commodify our communities for
profit.
This
is why we challenge all presidential hopefuls seeking the Latino vote
with promises for the future to follow the example of undocumented
leaders and take sensible
action on immigration now.
The
candidates may respond to our challenge by pointing out that they
currently lack the executive powers to put an end to these injustices,
but we know they are not powerless.
In the absence of administrative authority, candidates seeking the
Democratic presidential nomination can directly enact further positive
change for immigrant communities by using their influence to openly and
unequivocally champion immediate policy changes
that:
End the practice inhumane immigrant detention;
End
all collaboration between local law enforcement agencies and US
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and programs that criminalize
undocumented migration; and
Expand Deferred Action to its full potential under the law.
Championing
the demands of undocumented immigrants should be easiest for Hillary
Clinton, among the current field of Democratic presidential contenders.
Clinton's hiring
of Lorella Praeli - a high-profile DREAMer who led the United We Dream
Network's advocacy campaigns for a stop to deportations - as her Latino
outreach director was a smart, strategic move considering her past
immigration record, but it is nowhere near enough
to convince us of her commitment. Until candidate Clinton advocates for
our community's proposed policy changes in the present, we must take
Praeli's hiring with a grain of salt and hope that Clinton's campaign
does not intend for Praeli to serve the role
of a Cecilia Munoz 2.0.
It's
said that politicians campaign in poetry but govern in prose. But for
Democratic hopefuls, there is a responsibility and an expectation to do
both. The promises they
dangle in front of Latino voters to get us to the polls will be more
convincing when they pressure the current president to apply their
recommendations now.
When
we see them as part of the effort to make our present day more secure,
then we'll start to believe what they say they'll do in the future.
Until then, we remain unconvinced.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
No comments:
Post a Comment