Crossroads in the face of unclear immigration reform
Activists hope that the congressmen will fulfill their promise.
Photo: Alex Wong / Getty Images
By: Maribel Hastings and David Torres
The proposal to grant only work permits and protection from deportation to between 7 and 8 million undocumented persons emerges as the most recent alternative that Democrats will try to include in the Senate budget conciliation, before the rejection of the legal adviser of that body, to measures that grant a path to citizenship.
This new migratory respite, however, encourages moderately expectations because it only falls within the scope of the probable, but not of the largely definitive.
In effect, the so-called “Plan C” would protect against deportation and grant work permits to those who entered the United States before January 1, 2011. It would be a five-year permit renewable for another five years to those who meet the requirements.
But now doing the math, in fact, is Already in advance a torture for millions of human beings who expected more from the beginning, in such a way that the proposal would snatch dreams from millions of those who have already taken root in the country during the last decade. Discouragement, of course, enters the house of many like a shadow that obscures everything. Once again.
Still, there are several questions. One of them is whether Plan C will pass the sieve of the Senate Parliamentarian, who has rejected two previous proposals for granting a path to citizenship. The third is the charm, it is said, but speculation given the previous rejection of the undocumented by a single person in a democracy does not give room for many illusions.
Hence the other question is what they will do the Democrats if Plan C is also rejected by the Parliamentarian. Will they let the matter die based on what said Senate legal advisor says? Will they try to push for any independent legislation, even if its chances of passing are slim, considering the Republican opposition en bloc and the fears of Democrats in vulnerable seats in the elections of 2022?
Or will President Joe Biden decide to go the Barack Obama route to provide some kind of executive order protection? In the latter case – and it has already been seen in recent years with the Dreamers – the situation has also been a coin in the air, because although these young people were temporarily protected, right now they are in the same migratory limbo due to the one that no one would want to go through, especially after having grown up with the idea that this is their country. And it is, in its own right.
Because the reality is that the patience of undocumented immigrants and their supporters has already reached its conclusion. limit. This November 6 marks the 35 years of the promulgation by Republican Ronald Reagan of the amnesty of 1986, which legalized about 3 million people. And that, in political symbology, says a lot; But apparently it has not meant enough to Democrats, who are being required right now to keep their promises not only to the immigrants they claim to defend, but to history, which will of course speak for them as well if they fail to do everything. that is in their hands now that they have the power.
Thus, it is incredible that three and a half decades later, there is still no reform, and the undocumented population has almost quadrupled. Republican obstruction and Democratic promises give to write a book. The two sides have used immigrants as a political ball without a solution in sight for this sector of the population, which is one of the axes of our economy and our daily lives, but which is unceremoniously discarded.
Right now, protest marches are taking place in different cities of the country to pressure the Democrats to comply, a sign that immigrants do not have to be “Married” neither with hollow promises, nor with electoral calculations that only benefit the political class.
Immigrants are always asked to keep waiting and those who support them are always asked to keep voting for the Democrats, because “now they will be able to.” Because if he matures as he looks and the work permit is not obtained, the Democrats would once again dust off their tired script that “we tried but could not, and it will be for the next one.” What they do not have this time, perhaps, is that not only immigrants, but voters, now have a clearer perspective of the “political thing” and the use and abuse of the promise to achieve power.
Which brings us to another question: What if the Parliamentarian says yes and the so-called Plan C advances?
It is anticipated that the recriminations begin that a kind of second-class citizenship is being created for people without the right to naturalize and later vote. There will be those who take the all-or-nothing position and decide that, without a path to citizenship, temporary protection must be rejected. And Democrats will blame internal divisions in the reform movement for the initiative’s potential failure.
But without the real possibility that true immigration reform with a path to citizenship progresses before Democrats can lose control of Congress and the White House, the question is: You, What would you do?
Furthermore, it would be necessary to ask the immigrants themselves what they would prefer. Temporary protection or waiting for another future opportunity for comprehensive immigration reform to take place.
In this scenario, it is obvious to say that each case is different, each family has its priorities, each aspiring to achieve full recognition as an American has and maintains his personal illusions. But that’s not what it was about when it was promised to protect the 11 millions. Now you will have to make new family and community adjustments, as if you were starting all over again. And that, in addition to being unfair, is already cruel.
Whatever happens, maybe This whole process serves to educate the Democrats. Undocumented immigrants and the citizens and residents who support them are not pieces of his political chess. They have been using them as a political ball for decades and asking for their support, making empty promises that they never keep. The strategy that Republicans are the “bad guy” of the movie is already tiring, because the Democrats – as “heroes” of that same movie – leave much to be desired. And then they complain about the apathy of Latinos who do not vote or those who vote for another party.
With Donald Trump threatening to run at 2024 for the presidency, the Democrats had better keep their promises at once. Or, what will your excuse be this time?
