Photo: Drew Angerer / Getty Images
For: Maribel Hastings and David Torres
Monday, September 30
Waiting for the Parliamentarian
While the long wait for the decision of the Senate Parliamentarian greatly despairs, especially undocumented immigrants, the obligatory question at this time is: what is really happening?
That is, is the delay due to the Parliamentarian, or is the Democratic leadership of the Senate hiding behind the official so as not to have to deal with the immigration issue this year? This, although what is being considered is not even the path to citizenship for millions of undocumented people.
It is already known that in politics there are no coincidences no one hundred percent surprises. In thorny issues, almost always everything is practically “cooked”, while negotiating behind the scenes so that each part is not so bad, nor so weak, depending on the other. Finally they know that they are part of the same political class that, according to the law of the pendulum, sometimes makes a country to the right and sometimes to the left. It does not fail.
Therefore, to the question of what is really happening, another equally decisive question must be added: Why perverse purpose do both parties maintain in total anxiety 11 millions of undocumented – 11 millions of human beings— who live, work, contribute and literally give their lives for a nation that does not finish accepting them? This forced waiting, in that sense, is irresponsible, it is dishonest and it is unfair.
But the year is close to ending and, once again So far, there is no sign that something is going to happen. Even the press reported that the plan for Better Reconstruction (BBB), which includes the language of a temporary work permit and protection from deportation for 6.5 million undocumented immigrants, would be delayed until the beginning of 2022. This is due to Democratic differences regarding other components of the measure. Or rather because of the demands of a couple of Democrats, particularly Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and their conservative demands, although one wonders whether Manchin, like the Parliamentarian, has become the perfect excuse for inaction on the part. Senate Democratic leadership.
Whatever the case, don’t forget that 2022, which starts in a few 16 days, is the year of intermediate elections. And although a recent survey by the consulting firm Equis concluded that in 2020 immigration took a back seat -after the Covid – 19 and the economy—, for Latino voters concerned about these two major issues, the reality is that inaction in the immigration area can Influence the enthusiasm of those voters who, either out of empathy or because they have family ties with undocumented immigrants, are tired of the lack of action on this front, especially because Democrats have been making promises for decades.
Indeed, it has been decades of taking the support of Latinos for granted, support that Democrats do not encourage permanently and for which they do not fully fight, but when they do. needed at election time, almost always at the last minute.
In this regard, one of the conclusions of the study by Equis is enlightening: , Democrats continue to have some selling Natural challenges, specifically in caring more about ‘people like you’ and being ‘better for Hispanics’, but are on equal footing with Republicans in areas that once defined their brand: valuing hard work, defending the American dream, and help American workers. ”
If to that we add that there are promises in other areas that have not been fulfilled, such as the measures To protect minority voting rights from frontal assault by Republican states and legislatures across the country, Democrats are cooking a recipe for electoral disaster, jeopardizing their control of Congress.
And while Therefore, we must continue “waiting for the Parliamentarian”, as if we were all part of the work Waiting for Godot, by the Irish writer Samuel Beckett, because this inexplicable moment is another example of that “theater of the absurd” applied to the environment. American politician. And it is to be feared that, as in this work, the Parliamentarian (Godot) will never arrive, and the only thing left to do is speculate about things that we do not really know. to Godot — we’ll have to… keep waiting. But waiting for what and for how long?
Thus, in each electoral cycle the political maturity of Latinos has shown that they can oscillate between a party and another, especially in states key to winning the presidency.
Continuing to postpone broken promises does not bode well for the Democrats, or for the groups that they say and presume to “defend” and represent.