By: Maribel Hastings
By: Maribel Hastings
The past week was full of stories of Dreamers who have seen their chances of obtaining a work permit and protection from deportation cut short, following the ruling of the Texas District Judge, Andrew Hanen, who declared the DACA program illegal and suspended the processing of new applications.
On Friday, President Joe Biden met with a group of Dreamers who expressed satisfaction after their meeting, convinced that the steps are being taken for a permanent solution to the migratory limbo in which the so-called Dreamers find themselves.
The Dreamers are one of the groups of migrants, along with TPS beneficiaries, agricultural workers and potentially other employees essential, those who would try to legalize through the budget conciliation process, given the impossibility of promoting in the Senate an independent immigration reform project that brings together the 60 votes required to advance.
The reconciliation process is used since 1974 to promote budget measures expeditiously and by a simple majority, as long as the Senate Parliamentarian determines that such measures affect the revenues or expenditures of the federal government.
The measures are only eligible for the budget reconciliation process if they comply with the so-called Byrd Rule, in honor of the late Democratic Senator from West Virginia, Robert Byrd, who promoted it to prevent the reconciliation projects from being plagued of measures not related to the budget.
This Sunday Biden declared upon his arrival at the White House from Delaware that while “there must be a path to citizenship” for the Dreamers, It is still “to be seen” if it is included in the budget measure that would try to be approved through the conciliation process.
Although it will be the Senate Parliamentarian who decides whether to measure them. As migrant legalization is included in the budget plan, another thing remains to be seen: how the Democrats will fulfill their eternal promises of legalization in case the conciliation strategy does not progress.
It is the Democrats who control both houses of Congress, at least for the remainder of this year and next, when midterm elections are held.
Hanen’s ruling assumes that the The matter will attempt to be elucidated in court, since the Biden administration assures that it will appeal the decision and there is the potential that the case will reach the Supreme Court.
But it supposes above all that the ball is in the court of Congress, where the Republicans have not even wanted to collaborate in the investigation of the riots of January 6, this year, when a mob of Trump supporters violently stormed the Capitol, causing damage and even deaths.
It remains to be seen if those rep The ublicans will continue to block a permanent solution even for a group of migrants, the Dreamers, who generate the most sympathy and support among the American population, outside of partisan divisions.
It also remains to be seen whether Democrats finally act like the majority they are in Congress and go from pretty speeches in favor of the Dreamers to concrete actions that allow their legalization.
Much is said that for Latino voters the immigration issue is not central, that it is rather the economy, jobs and that is why the Democrats are not they feel the pressure to act urgently on that front. The analysis forgets, however, that the Latino vote and its interests are as diverse as their nationalities and that the one with the most or the least has some connection with an undocumented person, be it family ties, friendship, work or simply empathy.
Thus, ruling out the effect that acting or not acting on immigration matters may have on a Hispanic voter could be a miscalculation for Democrats in the midterm elections of 2022. Especially if it involves the Dreamers. It should not be forgotten that in 2012, Barack Obama turned over the DACA executive order after intense pressure from the Dreamers and when his team realized that a sector of the voters Latinos, upset by the wave of deportations and the unfulfilled promise of immigration reform, thought not to vote in 2012. After granting DACA, Obama was reelected with greater Hispanic support than in 2008.
So it remains to be seen if Voters, especially Latinos, will continue to tolerate broken promises.