“Hecklers,” Families and Obama’s Immigration Action
by Ryan Campbell | November 23, 2014
Jose Patino (with a child on his shoulders) helping to organize last April’s White House Hunger Strike
“Mr. President, why did you leave my mom out?” asked Jose Patino of the Arizona Dream Act Coalition (ADAC) in Las Vegas. Soon, a small part of the Obama audience started making noise to drown them out, and then another small crowd broke out into cries of “Si Se Puede,” forcing the President to take a minute while he waited for the chants to subside. “That’s right, not everybody will qualify under this provision, that’s the truth. I…and that… and that’s the truth. And that’s why we’re still going to have to pass a bill.” Said Obama to cheers from the crowd. The large shift in policy, as well as the interruption, exploded on #ImmigrationAction for several days as the top tag.
Jose is a DREAMer with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, much like Erika Andiola, Co-Director of Dream Action Coalition. It was extended to them because they had been in the country as a while, were brought here as children and passed a background check amongst other requirements. Leading up to the announcement of Obama’s immigration executive order, one of the biggest questions was whether the parents of DREAMers would have DACA expanded to include them: the answer was no.
“When I found out my mother wouldn’t qualify, it was pretty rough,” said Erika. “My brother, Angel Fernandez, was next to Jose at the President’s speech, pushing for our mother as well. We’re going to her deportation hearing together soon. We were hoping that Obama would offer something broad enough to protect my mother from deportation, but he didn’t. Anything the court offers will need to be renewed again in a year or so, and then we’ll have to go through this all over again,” explained Erika. “ICE has even gone so far as to handcuff her and put her into a deportation bus: it was a really close call and, for about 1,100 people and their families a day, it’s a deportation.”
All in all, it is estimated that around 5 million undocumented immigrants will qualify for legal status, which will include a Social Security number, work permit and, most importantly, freedom from deportation for a few years. It’s only temporary, but it will allow 5 million people to get on with their lives and more fully contribute to society.
“While we’re glad for those who will be included, we are concerned that the odds for deportation will go up for others as Obama spoke about increasing some aspects of immigration enforcement. For families like mine, this means that some of us have reason to celebrate, while their siblings, cousins or children may not,” said Erika.
This is especially difficult considering how the DREAMer moms were so active in the push for this executive order: there have been several civil disobediences organized by or involving the mothers, such as when they stopped traffic outside the Democrat National Committee headquarters in DC.
The mothers are concerned about deportation for the same reason the President recently reflected “we’re misallocating resources, we’re deporting people that shouldn’t be deported:” our deportation machine has become completely out of control.
Though there was some good news on immigration enforcement, it was certainly mixed and difficult to read. So much of the practical effect in law enforcement will depend upon implementation, so we will have to wait and see.
On one hand, the Administration is getting rid of Secure Communities (SCOMM) and replacing it with an initiative known as the Priority Enforcement Program. SCOMM has been a strong wedge between local law enforcement and immigrant and Latino communities. It has been attacked by many women’s groups as it makes crimes like domestic violence much more difficult to report, because the same officer taking your statement could very quickly put you in handcuffs and have you deported before you finish your story of abuse. Officials say that this program will target only those convicted of certain serious crimes or national security threats, though the Morton Memo promised similar results (and failed miserably).
On the other, however, Obama talked about increased border enforcement and an increased emphasis on finding and recent border crossers. How will the opposing forces of keeping families together and enforcement/deportations break? Will we continue to see record-setting deportations, or will this number begin to decrease? We have had presidential action in the form of DACA, helping many, but not helping to slow down deportations at all.
To be sure, this executive order has the potential to be a lot better than the status quo, and millions of people will no longer be undocumented and held back economically and looking over their shoulder for the police, running the risk of being put into prisons for years because of their status alone; if nothing else, it’s a victory for our country as it represents a very big step towards a meritocracy. For the majority of the undocumented community, however, they face an uncertain future where congressional cooperation is even less realistic, and calls for increased enforcement may make their own deportations more likely.