Apartheidesque Republican Immigration Principles – DEAD-ON-ARRIVAL By: Nativo-Vigil :Lopez© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED – 1/31/14 What did you expect from the Republican Party on immigration matters? This is not Ronald Reagan’s party any more. Twenty-seven years ago he signed into law the Immigration Reform Control Act of 1986, which ultimately legalized 3 million undocumented persons with permanent resident status. Five years hence these same newly legalized immigrants qualified for U.S. citizenship. Not this Republican Party, not now, and probably not ever. The long-awaited “Republican Immigration Principles 2014” regurgitate legislative proposals and rhetoric authored and heard from Republican federal legislators all year long. There is nothing new here. However, a closer look reveals that these are broad stroke proposals that actually mirror many of the current immigration policies and practices of the Obama administration. • The first principle - Border Security and Interior Enforcement. This has been Obama’s mainstay. He has increased 8,000 additional border guards along the U.S. – Mexico border, used the National Guard, incorporated military technology perfected in Iraq and Afghanistan, including drones, and built 700 miles of border wall. The expansive and mandatory use of Secure Communities Program really became a reality under this administration. The creeping intermeshing of federal and local police authority and database exchange has never been so invasive and thorough. No other president in the history of the United States has deported more migrants than the first black president – 2 million and counting. At this rate, more than three million migrants, the majority of Mexican origin, will have been removed by the end of Obama’s second term. The annual budget of the Department of Homeland Security for immigration purposes has never been more robust. • The second principle – Implement Entry-Exit Visa Tracking System. On this score Obama has not been overly ambitious. It is estimated that 40 percent of the current undocumented population actually entered the U.S. lawfully with a visitor, tourist, business, or student visa, but overstayed. This has historically been the case notwithstanding the persistent border enforcement emphasis. However, the Republicans will find no argument with the president in this regard. • The third principle – Employment Verification and Workplace Enforcement. President Obama has expanded workplace enforcement more than his previous three predecessors. He has aggressively expanded the use of the E-verify program – employment verification – with both private and public employers nationally. This has come to be recognized as electronic deportation through employment termination effectively undermining migrant workers’ ability to thrive economically, and thus force what Mitt Romney called self-deportation. • The fourth principle – Reforms to the Legal Immigration System. This proposal portends probably the greatest shift away from family reunification emphasis in our legal immigration system since the 1965 overhaul under President Lyndon Johnson (enacted in 1968), which moved the country from the racially oriented national origin formula in effect since the 1920s. The new proposed emphasis would be employment-based immigration, and preferably high skilled, over family relationships. The second tier of this preference would be for low-skilled temporary workers to meet the ever urgent needs of the agricultural industry, but others as well. This is nothing more than a renewed call for plenty of guest-workers – the 21st Century bracero program. Again, this is consistent with proposals advocated by President Obama, and even shamefully acquiescence to by the AFL-CIO, SEIU, and the UFW, among other trade unions. • The fifth principle – Youth. Everyone loves a Dreamer. The Republicans propose a path to legal resident status, and ultimately U.S. citizenship, for young eligible undocumented, who “through no fault of their own” were brought to the U.S. by their parents, and would be required to serve “honorably” in the military or attain a college degree. President Obama actually facilitated this proposed measure by his executive order of the Deferred Action for Children Arrivals, popularly known as DACA, in 2012 just prior to the presidential elections. • The sixth principle – Individuals Living Outside the Rule of Law. This is probably considered the most contentious proposal due to its requirement that the undocumented applicants for a probationary legal status declare an admission of guilt of having committed the civil/criminal offense of unauthorized entry into the U.S. Additional requirements are the same as those presently imposed to obtain permanent legal residency and U.S. citizenship. In other words, an extremely high standard would be required for a tenuous legal status with no guarantee of obtaining permanent status or citizenship. These would include – “pass a rigorous background check, pay significant fines and back taxes, develop proficiency in English and American civics, and be able to support themselves and their families (without any access to public benefits).” This is an extremely high bar to jump, and the unmistakable risk to applicants making such an admission of guilt is that they would waive all constitutional protections against self-incrimination, and if not qualified for the legal status they could be removed from the U.S. and precluded from ever returning or gaining lawful status in the future. President Obama has balked at this formula, which does not guarantee a “path to citizenship” to his credit. However, he may be so desperate for a deal that he ends up conceding to this Apartheidesque second-class status for migrants – a work permit with no rights or access to benefits. • However, the Republican proposition also declares, “none of this can happen before specific enforcement triggers have been implemented to fulfill our promise to the American people that from here on, our immigration laws will indeed be enforced.” This truly places the Republican principles in the category of Dead-On-Arrival, beyond the pale, non-negotiable, and totally unacceptable. Obama has demonstrated his willingness to go down this slippery slope with his enforcement on steroids policies and practices supposedly to prove to Republicans that he is serious about protecting America’s borders. The question that Latino families have for this president is – what did two million deportations, hundreds of thousands of employment terminations, prolonged incarcerations in private ICE detention centers, tens of thousands of foster-care placements of abandoned minors of deported parents, and U.S.-born children deported with their undocumented parents get you in the way of fair and humane immigration reform? Answer us that, Obama. 1/31/14 – Reprint with author’s permission nativolopez@gmail
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 13:15:35 +0000
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