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| Even bright young immigrants don't buy Obama's executive action fail | Even bright young immigrants don't buy Obama's executive action fail |
| (about 5 hours later) | |
| With an out-of-session Congress deadlocked over immigration reform and right-wing lawmakers hell-bent on “sealing the border”, the White House faces intense pressure to do something – anything – about immigration, after years of burying a civil rights crisis in a mire of political tone-deafness and jingoistic bombast. | With an out-of-session Congress deadlocked over immigration reform and right-wing lawmakers hell-bent on “sealing the border”, the White House faces intense pressure to do something – anything – about immigration, after years of burying a civil rights crisis in a mire of political tone-deafness and jingoistic bombast. |
| Activists hope that President Obama will expand an existing program to shield undocumented youth from deportation and grant reprieves to their family members. But whatever unilateral action Obama may take, it won’t be nearly enough to offset the systematic betrayal of immigrant communities over the past six years, as the White House has dangled vague promises of reform while denying justice to millions of undocumented people and their families. | Activists hope that President Obama will expand an existing program to shield undocumented youth from deportation and grant reprieves to their family members. But whatever unilateral action Obama may take, it won’t be nearly enough to offset the systematic betrayal of immigrant communities over the past six years, as the White House has dangled vague promises of reform while denying justice to millions of undocumented people and their families. |
| Even the young people who have obtained temporary protection aren’t necessarily comforted by the prospect of more executive intervention from Obama. After watching their communities get ripped apart by incarceration and deportation, they’re now not only pressing for relief, but demanding long overdue justice. | Even the young people who have obtained temporary protection aren’t necessarily comforted by the prospect of more executive intervention from Obama. After watching their communities get ripped apart by incarceration and deportation, they’re now not only pressing for relief, but demanding long overdue justice. |
| In 2012, Obama launched his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) program as a temporary reprieve for hundreds of thousands of undocumented young people who grew up in the United States. It was little more than a conditional promise from the White House not to kick them out of the country, but in a political arena that tends to demonize the undocumented as criminals or just ignore them, it was hailed as a breakthrough. Many hoped that actually comprehensive reform would eventually follow. | In 2012, Obama launched his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) program as a temporary reprieve for hundreds of thousands of undocumented young people who grew up in the United States. It was little more than a conditional promise from the White House not to kick them out of the country, but in a political arena that tends to demonize the undocumented as criminals or just ignore them, it was hailed as a breakthrough. Many hoped that actually comprehensive reform would eventually follow. |
| Two years on, Daca stands as a sadly partial success. The initiative has reached only about half of those eligible for relief, impeded by social and legal obstacles. And with Congress frozen in an impasse, the more permanent solution activists had anticipated seems more distant than ever: like the immigration debate as a whole, Daca’s roll-out has plateaued amid bitter frustration, as the social imperative for humane reform gets stymied by Washington’s political calculus. | Two years on, Daca stands as a sadly partial success. The initiative has reached only about half of those eligible for relief, impeded by social and legal obstacles. And with Congress frozen in an impasse, the more permanent solution activists had anticipated seems more distant than ever: like the immigration debate as a whole, Daca’s roll-out has plateaued amid bitter frustration, as the social imperative for humane reform gets stymied by Washington’s political calculus. |
| Cowed by the right’s frothing anti-immigrant rhetoric, Obama has presided over the separation of countless families through systematic detentions and some 2m deportations. Even if he is now goaded into granting temporary protection to more undocumented immigrants, both the president and Congress are ignoring the core moral crisis: relief for individuals means nothing unless their families and communities are recognized in their full humanity. | Cowed by the right’s frothing anti-immigrant rhetoric, Obama has presided over the separation of countless families through systematic detentions and some 2m deportations. Even if he is now goaded into granting temporary protection to more undocumented immigrants, both the president and Congress are ignoring the core moral crisis: relief for individuals means nothing unless their families and communities are recognized in their full humanity. |
| Providing a two-year, renewable protection, Daca is a practical tool to help undocumented youth, who meet basic educational or military-service criteria, to live and work legally in the US. The political reality is more complex: while nearly 590,000 have been approved for Daca and many are set to renew their term, close to half of the estimated eligible population have not yet benefited; many more are shut out by legal and bureaucratic hurdles. Today, Daca’s incomplete progress exemplifies how much work needs to be done to make the system fairer for all – not just those with the legal savvy and money to do the paperwork, and not just the students and veterans who’ve won the public’s sympathy. | |
| Data from the Migration Policy Institute underscores the barriers endemic to the program: a $465 processing fee is prohibitively expensive, particularly if people wanted to apply for Daca because the lack of legal status prevents them from getting jobs that pay more than poverty wages; a lawyer’s assistance is needed in many cases; and language barriers and limited educational credentials deter more potential applications – especially poor young workers who left school. | Data from the Migration Policy Institute underscores the barriers endemic to the program: a $465 processing fee is prohibitively expensive, particularly if people wanted to apply for Daca because the lack of legal status prevents them from getting jobs that pay more than poverty wages; a lawyer’s assistance is needed in many cases; and language barriers and limited educational credentials deter more potential applications – especially poor young workers who left school. |
| Others may be unfairly disqualified by a past court conviction. While some may think “criminals” don’t deserve legal status, in reality, using criminal records to judge relief applications perpetuates structural biases in the immigration system and the criminal justice system: a nonviolent pot offense, for instance, or an old driving-under-the-influence charge, could ultimately exclude a young person from protection. Such barriers undermine the basic purpose of deferred action – to stabilize the population and help people escape social marginalization. | Others may be unfairly disqualified by a past court conviction. While some may think “criminals” don’t deserve legal status, in reality, using criminal records to judge relief applications perpetuates structural biases in the immigration system and the criminal justice system: a nonviolent pot offense, for instance, or an old driving-under-the-influence charge, could ultimately exclude a young person from protection. Such barriers undermine the basic purpose of deferred action – to stabilize the population and help people escape social marginalization. |
| In recent years, various immigration reform measures have sought to screen out “undesirables” with blemished records, ignoring the fact that immigrants are often disproportionately targeted by racial profiling, unable to afford decent legal counsel and, in some cases, denied due process in a criminal justice system that heightens penalties for non-citizens. | |
| As a relatively bright spot in this political mess, Daca was supposed to be a stepping stone toward reform, not a third rail in a gridlocked legislature. But instead, even conservatives like Senator Marco Rubio – once considered a moderate on immigration – have condemned Daca as dangerous executive overreach, while pushing for even harsher immigration restrictions, including a recent vote to dismantle the program altogether. | As a relatively bright spot in this political mess, Daca was supposed to be a stepping stone toward reform, not a third rail in a gridlocked legislature. But instead, even conservatives like Senator Marco Rubio – once considered a moderate on immigration – have condemned Daca as dangerous executive overreach, while pushing for even harsher immigration restrictions, including a recent vote to dismantle the program altogether. |
| Meanwhile, Daca youth are safe (for now), but locked in a legal purgatory, as family members are forced into exile and the futures of their own reprieves remains uncertain. They need more than papers; they need a system that respects their dignity and provides their communities with permanence and stability. | Meanwhile, Daca youth are safe (for now), but locked in a legal purgatory, as family members are forced into exile and the futures of their own reprieves remains uncertain. They need more than papers; they need a system that respects their dignity and provides their communities with permanence and stability. |
| Despite the setbacks, many advocates still see deferred action as a starting point for advancing a more inclusive vision of immigration justice. A group of activists with the campaign #Not1More, including some Daca youth, have called for more decisive executive action – including extending deferred action to cover older family members. This would provide only limited protection, but would at least help shield immigrants from labor exploitation and prevent family separation. They also demand that the administration end harsh detention and deportation policies and instead shift to a human rights-based approach, which takes into account people’s ties and contributions to their community when assessing their cases. | Despite the setbacks, many advocates still see deferred action as a starting point for advancing a more inclusive vision of immigration justice. A group of activists with the campaign #Not1More, including some Daca youth, have called for more decisive executive action – including extending deferred action to cover older family members. This would provide only limited protection, but would at least help shield immigrants from labor exploitation and prevent family separation. They also demand that the administration end harsh detention and deportation policies and instead shift to a human rights-based approach, which takes into account people’s ties and contributions to their community when assessing their cases. |
| As opposed to the fixation of DC lawmakers on bureaucratic strictures, the efforts of these activists reframe the project of immigration reform as a question of equity: it’s not about who belongs or doesn’t, it’s about the kind of society we want to build. The undocumented have actually done a better job of defining what makes a cohesive, equitable society than the officials obsessed with criminalizing them. And the president, a constitutional law professor who’s seemingly lost his ethical spine, should pay attention to what these kids are teaching Washington about the real meaning of justice. | As opposed to the fixation of DC lawmakers on bureaucratic strictures, the efforts of these activists reframe the project of immigration reform as a question of equity: it’s not about who belongs or doesn’t, it’s about the kind of society we want to build. The undocumented have actually done a better job of defining what makes a cohesive, equitable society than the officials obsessed with criminalizing them. And the president, a constitutional law professor who’s seemingly lost his ethical spine, should pay attention to what these kids are teaching Washington about the real meaning of justice. |
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