For at least the past 10 years we’ve been hearing, like a mantra: immigration law is broken and needs to be fixed. Yet, not only is the “broken” system not being “fixed”, but actions are mounting every day that call into question the real interest on the part of the U.S. Congress and the White House to do anything about it.
Let us take a look at just three examples.
1. Deportations under the Obama Administration. The first year of President Obama’s Administration registered a record number in deportations: nearly 390,000 people. About three quarters of them did not even have a criminal record. They were people whose “crime” was to cross a line in search of survival. Whether or not the remaining quarter could be deemed hardened criminals is suspect given the way current immigration law defines an aggravated felony as it relates to immigrants, even if the person is a legal permanent resident.
For us immigrants, anything that carries a sentence over 365 days, even if the punishment is community service, constitutes aggravated felony and makes us deportable. This is how 3 DUIs, for instance, qualify us as “aggravated felons” who, after serving our debt to society by spending our due time in jail, are deportable. Talk about cruel and unusual punishment! And the punishment extends to the families of the deported as well. For each person deported there is a family torn apart, a spouse or children or older parents who will suffer the separation of a loved one they are uncertain when they will see next and who will endure economic hardships if the person deported is a breadwinner in the family.
2. Deportation Quotas. A memo was leaked a few weeks ago showing that a high-ranking official at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agency, had issued orders to field officers to step up efforts so that the yearly quota of 400,000 deportations could be met by the end of September. The orders contradicted Homeland Security’s assurances that the focus of deportations would be on “removing” violent and repeat offenders, since to meet the quota, ICE will have to cast a much broader net.
3. Anti-Immigrant State Laws. Adding to already controversial anti-immigrant state laws, this week the Arizona state legislature approved a law that would deputize police officers into immigration agents. The law allows police officers to detain people merely on the “reasonable suspicion” that they lack legal immigration status. What does “reasonable suspicion” mean? Clearly, this will only institutionalize racial profiling since the only “evidence” police officers will have to detain people will be the way people look or speak. The racial profiling will hurt Latinos most of all, regardless of our immigration status.
Actions, indeed speak louder than words. Despite the fact that President Obama himself has publicly decried the immigration system as “broken” and in need of “fixing”, he has allowed his Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, to use the very same law to deport people and terrorize our families and wreak havoc in our communities.
Inaction, indeed, speaks louder than words. Despite the campaign promises and the political posturing of so many elected officials, their lack of real action sets the tone, promotes and legitimizes local and state legislation such as the one approved in Arizona this week.
In the absence of swift movement by the U.S. Congress to truly reform our immigration system in a way that can make us all proud because it respects the fundamental dignity of immigrants, because it reflects our contributions to this country and because it is congruent with this nation’s foundational values of equality and justice for all, raids and deportations MUST come to an end. President Obama has the Executive authority to command his Secretary of Homeland Security to halt all deportations until the U.S. Congress does its job. We want action, action that will end the suffering and anxiety in our communities, not just words.
