Congresswoman Sanchez on CNN New Day - Delay on Immigration Reform
On September 8, 2014, Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (CA-46) spoke with CNN #39;s Kate Bolduan about the Obama Administration #39;s decision to delay executive action...
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Congresswoman Sanchez on CNN New Day - Delay on Immigration Reform - Video
Will stalling immigration reform help Democrats?
President Obama #39;s decision to delay action on immigration reform has been criticized as a purely political move ahead of November midterm elections. But with critics on both sides of the...
By: PBS NewsHour
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Will stalling immigration reform help Democrats? - Video
Commentary: By Angelo Falcn
Latino immigration reform advocates are up in arms over yet another broken promise by President Obama to further delay his plans to issue administration relief on deportations, DACA-style. With the midterm elections ever on his mind, he is now also finally planning military action against the ISIS threat. By side-stepping the immigration issue for the time being he seems to be counting on John Muellers classic rally round the flag strategy to bring his party the electoral support it seeks in November to continue their control of the Senate. In the process, he has effectively thrown Latino immigration advocates, who have vouched for him over and again despite his record, under the proverbial autobus or guagua.
The reaction so far has been symbolic. Latino leaders are livid, bitterly disappointed, with some referring to Obama and the Democrats now as immigration opportunists. Others have documented how Obama has missed an opportunity to energize his Latino base, giving even more credibility to Nate Silvers predictions of Democratic Party losses in November.
Still others are now increasingly noting that too many of the national Latino organizations had gotten way too close to the White House, with very little payoff. The National Hispanic Leadership Agenda )NHLA), a coalition of 39 of the leading national Latino organizations, just issued a statement that in part pointed out that President Obama has never even deemed to meet with the group in his six years in office!
This collective outburst, however, is being met with sage advice by pro-Obama white liberal allies. Angela Marie Kelley, Vice President for Immigration Policy at the Center for American Progress told Buzzfeed:
Theres no one answer because none of these Latino groups are going to act the same,. I do think things will cool down enough so people can look at broader political issues again. . . I dont know that there wont be some constituencies that will be angry and wont get beyond that. But I think most groups will come back to the table. You know, its not powerful to not vote.
Simon Rosenberg, President of the NDN/New Policy Institute explained to the Huffington Post that, Immigration advocates should be careful to temper their reaction. At the end of the day, we are talking about a six-week delay on an issue of enormous consequence. It is more important that it get done right than fast.
The problems with this advice are many. While Rosenberg is pointing out that all that will be involved is a six-week delay I think most Latinos might reply. Oye Simon, its been SIX YEARS of broken promises. And to Angela, Are you saying Latinos are so hot blooded that we cant look at broader political issues again? Which poses the following recurring Cecilia Muoz Question: Are these people allies or simply flack-catchers for the Obama Administration?
But the big question is what does the Latino community do now? Do we hold out the hope that the Presidents just announced delay on deportation relief is simply a political blip that will be addressed after the November elections? Or maybe the Latino community will just have to wait until after the 2016 Presidential elections and two or three years of military actions against ISIS? After all, whats two or more years of waiting? Anyway, by this time, its clear Latinos are already used to the deaths ad abuses of the deportations, the continuing employer exploitation of immigrant workers, the unrelenting Republican and rightwing scapegoating for the sins of corporate America and corrupt Central American societies, and have apparently perfected the art of skulking in the shadows of American society. Even Future Stephen in a recent The Colbert Report couldnt pinpoint just when this reform would be adopted! I guess we just have to learn to perpetually delay the need for immediate policy gratification.
The problem, of course, is that Latino voters dont have any political place else to go and so the Democrats can continue to take them for granted. The Republicans arent a real alternative in their current Tea Party-Fox News incarnation. Should Latinos start their own party? Or maybe, we should mass self-deport back to Latin America, Marcus Garvey-like? Another possibility is to have Latinos all join The Libre Initiative or the Heritage Foundation and turn them into hotbeds of Latino activism, since it is rumored we are all natural Republicans? Maybe Dolores Huerta should sign on to a class action suit against President Obama for trademark infringement or something over his deceptive use of the phrase, Si se Puede!
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Toward a New Immigration Reform Strategy: Where Do Latinos Go From Here?
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents take a suspect into custody in Chula Vista, Calif., March 30, 2012, as part of a nationwide immigration sweep. Federal officials say they arrested more than 3,100 immigrants convicted of serious crimes and fugitives in a six-day nationwide operation. AP Photo/Gregory Bull
When President Obama decided to delay his plans to unilaterally implement immigration reforms, immigrant advocates slammed him as the "deporter-in-chief." Yet according to an analysis from the Associated Press, the president has quietly slowed deportations by nearly 20 percent in about the past year.
The Homeland Security Department is now on pace to remove the fewest number of immigrants since 2007.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency responsible for deportations, sent home 258,608 immigrants between the start of the budget year last Oct. 1 and July 28 this summer, a decrease of nearly 20 percent from the same period in 2013, when 320,167 people were removed.
Over 10 months in 2012, ICE deported 344,624 people, some 25 percent more than this year, according to federal figures obtained by the AP.
The president has been mulling executive action to grant deportation relief to some undocumented immigrants in the United States and strengthen border security resources. In June, he announced that he'd asked Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Attorney General Eric Holder to present a list of executive actions he could take within the scope of his authority to modernize and streamline U.S. immigration policy.
Mr. Obama previously signaled he would move on the issue by the end of summer, but earlier this month, he announced he would delay any action until after the congressional elections in November. The White House suggested that Republicans' "extreme politicization of the issue" would harm the policymaking.
"The reality the President has had to weigh is that we're in the midst of the political season, and because of the Republicans' extreme politicization of this issue, the President believes it would be harmful to the policy itself and to the long-term prospects for comprehensive immigration reform to announce administrative action before the elections," a White House official explained.
There are two principal reasons fewer immigrants already are being deported:
-The Obama administration decided as early as summer 2011 to focus its deportation efforts on criminal immigrants or those who posed a threat to national security or public safety. Many others who crossed into the United States illegally or overstayed their visas and could be subject to deportation are stuck in a federal immigration court system. Last month the backlog in that system exceeded 400,000 cases for the first time, according to court data analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. For each case, it now takes several years for a judge to issue a final order to leave the U.S.
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No immigration action yet, but deportations are down
LOS ANGELES -- A day before President Obama announced that he will not take executive action on immigration reform before the November elections, Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Los Angeles) renewed his pledge to extend health coverage to undocumented immigrants in California.
Speaking to a group of ethnic media reporters in Los Angeles, Lara said that his Health For All bill, which in 2014 was intended to expand health care access for the undocumented, will be the first legislation that he reintroduces when the state legislature reconvenes in January.
While the federal government puts the brakes on immigration reform, Lara is pushing forward: Our communities cant wait California has to lead where the federal government continues to fail, he said.
Im very confident we can get this done this upcoming legislative session, he continued. We all know that what happens in California moves through the rest of the nation It is our responsibility to show the federal government that we can cover our undocumented community. The state senator also discussed possibilities for how this expanded coverage might be funded.
The change cant come soon enough for undocumented individuals who have had to postpone getting care, several of whom spoke along with Lara at the press briefing convened by New America Media last week.
California takes the lead in expanding health coverage
Health care access has expanded widely under the Affordable Care Act, especially in California, where youth eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) which offers temporary legal status to some undocumented individuals who came to the United States as children also qualify for Medi-Cal.
California is a state thats really been progressive about extending coverage to a lot of people that other states arent, said John Connolly, associate director of the Santa Monica-based Insure the Uninsured Project.
Adalhi Montes, 22, is one of those who has benefited from that policy. Montes didnt know that he lacked health coverage until a year ago, when he was experiencing severe pain in one of his legs. When he tried to obtain insurance, he found out that he couldnt because he was undocumented. Instead, he had to rely on a health clinic.
You get up in the early morning, around 5 or 6, and you go to the clinic, and you wait in this line. Hopefully they have enough numbers for you to get chosen to actually see the doctor, he said. If you dont get chosen, you have to come back the next day.
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Immigration Reform Stalled, But CAs Health For All Bill on Its Way Back