President Obama took a stand last Friday to stop deporting certain young people from the United States and allow them the right to live and work here. Behind his pronouncement was a simple idea - that deferred action for a certain class of young people was "the right thing to do." But he didn't arrive at this thought overnight. Undocumented youth organizers, who have been organizing for this change for more than a decade, were the real catalysts for this change.
No one person or organization deserves credit for a powerful movement that has spawned multiple locales and geographical archipelagos. Undocumented youth took to the streets, came out and proclaimed themselves as undocumented and unafraid, conducted civil disobedience actions in offices and ICE buildings and challenged the system at every turn. We were adamant that we are a part of America, not leaving and no longer willing to be ignored. We created social and political spaces, took politicians to task and stuck by our principles of holding both Republicans and Democrats accountable to immigrant communities. Every single person who came out of the shadows and worked on this campaign deserves to celebrate and give themselves a pat on the back.
But even after the announcement, many undocumented youth organizers continue to be skeptical and rightly so. After all, this is not an order from the President, who has deported over a million people. It is merely a memo from DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, quite similar to the unsuccessful memo issued by John Morton last year, which resulted in a reprieve of only 1.5% of cases in deportation proceedings. Attorney Dave Bennion lays out the problems with the new memo, noting that those who are denied deferred action may still be subject to deportation proceedings and far too many people will be excluded for simply having a felony or misdemeanor, terms that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is choosing to define much more broadly in the implementation of this policy. Additionally, the fact that the process is highly discretionary means that there is no way to appeal even illegitimate denials.
However, if executed right, this new deferred action plan for a class of young undocumented people promises to be a pilot program for how the government would carry out the implementation of any future legalization program. It also raises questions as to why the federal government cannot grant the same relief to same-sex bi-national couples, many of whom have lived here for a long time and face separation from their homes and their U.S. citizen partners.
We have won a tiny victory - a simple reprieve - but the war is far from over. My own personal thoughts go out to everyone who has aged out, everyone the Obama Administration has deported ruthlessly, everyone who has grown tired of waiting for their life to begin and left us, and everyone who is still languishing in detention without hope. Additionally, undocumented youth do not live single-issue lives and immigration is not our only problem. We are personally affected by a slow economy, a pitiful healthcare system and an education system that leaves far too many of us behind, among a myriad of other issues.
In the meanwhile, I'm still fighting deportation proceedings--not just my own, but that of many worthy clients who come through the doors of America on a daily basis, yearning to live out their dreams. When the celebrations die down, I'll still be here, fighting for their dreams. That is also, the right thing to do.
Follow Prerna Lal on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@AQueerDesi
GET ON THE OFFENSE.
I would love to know under what circumstances you would deport an illegal?
Would you follow the guidelines for deportation under the Dream Memo or do you have a much narrower criteria?
Why, has no author, including this one, NEVER mentioned the lawless actions of the parents who brought these people here ?
Dreamers did NOTHING, Obama was not deporting them anyway. More Hispandering, nothing else. Next week SCOTUS will uphold SB 1070, this move was done to soften the blow to Latinos.
You're a law student ? I would file a 2255 motion on you from this article alone.
No, the 'right' thing for you to do is simple, GO HOME!! You are obviously one of those ones who has aged-out as you stated previously and you re bitter because the 'law' did not include you, so get a grip and get on your way. It is not ruthless for a country to enforce their laws, it is not too much for the citizens of this country to demand that this happen because it something expected of us, and if you want to live your dreams here, do it legally.
1) Turn your parents (or whoever smuggled you into our country) over to ICE.
2) Agree that you are an illegal immigrant but that you would like a chance to prove your worth.
3) Pay a substantial fine in order to adjust your status so that all of the immigrants with a sense of ethics and honor don't feel smeared.
2) How does she talk like a U.S. citizen in the second to last paragraph? It seems to me that she is talking as a person who has participated in and witnessed the troubles plaguing our economy, health care system, etc. and who wants to do something to fix them.
No. But one country deserves most of the credit for their unrelenting propaganda campaign and ceaseless financing for that movement in this country.
The author and her clients would not be fighting deportation for herself and others if they had "come through the door of America" like so many others have done. Instead they sneaked in through the window.
What Obama has done, he himself said he couldn't legally do. And in so doing he has made many foreigners who violate our laws and their countries very happy. A goodly portion of the citizenry, however, is not so happy with him. This action risks possible impeachment and loss of the election in November. It will doubtlessly hold until at least November while the lawsuits and Congressional committees get ready to hold him accountable for ignoring the laws and the Constitution.
The final outcome remains to be seen but the anger is palpable among many of the citizens who will soon have to compete for jobs with people not even permitted to be here. This will probably not end as well as Obama and the illegal alien advocates might hope.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/prerna-lal/dream-act-immigration-reform_b_1588212.html
āWith respect to the notion that I can just suspend deportations through executive order ā thatās just not the case. Because there are laws on the books, that Congress has passed ā and I know that everybody here at Bell is studying hard so you know weāve got three branches of government. Congress passes the laws. The Executive branchās job is to enforce and implement the laws, and then the Judiciary has to interpret the laws. There are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system, that for me to simply through executive order ignore those congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as president.ā
Jonathan Turley:
"It raises some troubling questions, again, about President Obamaās assertion of executive power. While liberals again celebrate the unilateral action, they ignore that danger that the next president may also simply chose to ignore whole areas of the federal law and criminal code in areas ranging from the environment to employment discrimination. It is one more brick in the wall of the Imperial Presidency constructed under Barack Obama ā a wall that may prove difficult to dismantle for citizens in the future."
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/06/18/obama-administration-declares-no-policy-not-to-deport-young-illegal-immigrants/
Obamaās policy strategy: Ignore laws
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0612/77486.html