The Immigrant Rights Movement’s New Focus

Towards the end of the 2013 legislative year, Speaker of the House John Boehner could not avoid immigrant rights demonstrators, not at any of his homes, nor at his office, nor at his regular morning café breakfast. Although demonstrators made an impressive push to pressure Congress, nothing could make them budge, and ultimately 2013 saw no significant immigration legislation put to a vote in the House. Because of this, immigrant rights organizations put out statements to lean on the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) to place more pressure on Obama. Between this and other tactics, the Administration is reviewing its deportation policy for the first time since Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

The Obama Administration is now nearing 2 million deportations, meaning that it has deported more immigrants than any other. While it is understandable to be tough on immigration to earn enough credit with the GOP to be able to pass reform, the GOP House has not given ground to meet the President. Considering how he has already deported more than an entire administrations-worth of immigrants already, how can he justify continuing his immigration policies?

The short answer is that he can’t, and has been called out for it, such as in the “Deporter-in-Chief” comment the head of the National Council of La Raza made recently. The deportation record is especially harsh considering how the Administration has consistently gone against repeated statements that deportations would be prioritized to security concerns: in a report entitled “False Promises: The Failure of Secure Communities in Miami-Dade County,” AI Justice and Florida International University’s Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy exposed abuses within Secure Communities, a domestic immigration enforcement program, as it related to prioritization of deportations in Miami-Dade.

They found the vast majority of people targeted were not serious criminals as ICE contends, had either committed no crime, or a minor offense like a traffic violation, and only 6% of those ordered for removal represent high priority public safety risks by local standards from the Miami-Dade County’s Public Defender. To have these unfortunate outcomes, S-Comm cost Miami-Dade County around $12.5 million. While this is only one case, it is representative of the broader problems in our immigration system, and is similar to findings in several other reputable studies on domestic immigration enforcement.

As the head of the agencies like the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Custom Enforcement that are in charge of deportations, responsibility for them ultimately falls on the President. As President, Obama can do things like expand DACA and Parole in Place, both programs used by the Administration to prioritize deportations and grant reprieves to those who qualify.

While a temporary fix from Obama would not solve every problem in the immigration system, it could offer much-needed relief. When we look at “sanctuary cities” like San Francisco and Seattle, the cities are far safer and better off economically for their policy. For example, police don’t need to dedicate time to deporting nonviolent immigrants out of status, and victims of crime feel free to cooperate with the police without fear of deportation, making policing both more effective and less costly. This is, of course, just the tip of both the public safety and economic iceberg.

In cities like Mesa, AZ, with a large undocumented population, it is a ‘Tale of Two Cities,’ even within families sharing a household. Erika Andiola, who was granted DACA status, has the right to work and is free from deportation for two years. She had to organize, however, to fight the deportation of her mother. It was only because of her connections in the media and Congress that she was able to get her mother a one-year reprieve at the last second. The Andiola family represents thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of families where children are either citizens or have been granted a temporary status, but the rest of their family is still very deportable.

The best recent immigration reforms, like DACA for those brought into the country as children and Parole in Place for undocumented and mixed-status military families, have come from the Administration. Conversely, so far in 2014, 2 anti-immigrant bills have passed the GOP-controlled House. With nowhere left to turn but the Administration, the immigrant rights movement is shifting. The shift is already lighting up on Twitter between those fiercely loyal to Obama and those arguing we should pressure his Administration to cut down deportations (for examples, just check the comments directed to @DRMAction).

Those siding against deportations and looking for any way to bring them down while we wait for immigration reform are gaining momentum: after watching Boehner take his walk of shame back to the podium to announce how the GOP would not follow through on his recently-announced immigration principles while Obama is still in office, the immigrant rights movement has lost what little faith they had left in the House.

Relief from Obama is now the last direction that a frustrated immigrant rights movement has to push in, and the President knows that his party cannot afford to lose the Latino vote. It’s not an “either or” choice, but, although a legislative solution is more lasting, amidst 2 million deportations, it can be hard to see beyond Joe Arpaio kicking in your door.