Immigrant advocates, lawyers and political experts in Los Angeles reacted without much fuss to the executive orders decreed by President Joe Biden to protect thousands of people who are not US citizens, because they know that Republicans will challenge the legality in court of the measures.
“I think it is something positive, but also motivated by politics in an electoral campaign, just like Barack Obama did,” declared Miguel Tínker Salas, historian and professor at Pomona College. “It is a remedy that could have been implemented much earlier to benefit 500,000 people.”
Tínker Salas maintained that the final results of immigration relief for spouses of US citizens and their children “is still not decipherable,” because it could be reversed by another president.
He considered that the fact that Biden makes the announcement five months before the presidential election, on November 5, is because he feels that he is in trouble with the electoral preference of the voters.
“[Biden] “It faces challenges on multiple fronts with young people, with those who defend human rights in Palestine, with Latinos because it has not fulfilled the promise of comprehensive immigration reform,” he added. “Also with environmentalists, and with those who are worried about the economy, because even though inflation is more controlled, prices have not gone down.”
“One of lime and one of sand”
Salvador Sanabria, executive director of El Rescate, analyzed that the executive orders represent “one of lime and another of sand.”
“First, it closed the border for asylum seekers from around the world, which is a law protected by international law and United States Federal Law,” he explained.
Secondly, the president offered immigration relief to regularize mixed families of citizens with whom they do not have a regularized immigration status.
“In political terms, it is a good tactical move by Biden’s advisors, although we know that opponents of this kind of immigration relief are going to challenge it in court, and that way the president will have the opportunity to tell people, “ Look, there are those who oppose my immigration option from the first day of my mandate.”
In February 2021, Democratic Senator Bob Menendez and Congresswoman Linda Sánchez introduced the US Citizenship Act, which never received Republican support.
“In terms of immigration, he did what he had to do on the first day of his term, and he made the proposal to both houses of Congress, in a way neither George W. Bush nor Barack Obama did,” he added. “There was no possibility of seeing light at the end of the tunnel, because migrants are a bargaining chip…, the sacrificial lamb, or the thinnest dog that gets all the fleas.”
“Is not sufficient”
Yanci Montes, an expert immigration lawyer, said she is happy because the measures will cover spouses married to citizens, but many more are left out of this benefit.
“For the immigrant community it is a beginning to receive this good news,” considered the lawyer. “But it is not enough for all the millions of people who still remain in limbo of their immigration status.”
The lawyer warned that, from now on, the probable beneficiaries prepare with the necessary documentation and the advice of a lawyer, to avoid scams.
For the independent vote
For Dr. Fernando Guerra. Professor of Political Science and Chicano Studies at Loyola Marymount University, President Biden’s executive orders were not to obtain a positive reaction from Latino voters, but rather to “fall in love” with the vote of independent voters and Republicans who do not want to vote for Donald Trump .
“For the left, they have no option to vote for Trump; They know that Biden is better than Trump and they are working in states where [el tema de] Immigration is going to impact.” Those states are Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia and Nevada.
The professor reflected that, in Donald Trump’s Project 2025, there is talk of mass raids and deportations if he reaches the White House, and this could be more dangerous for the Latino community.
“For many voters, the immigration issue is important in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin,” Guerra said. “What Trump wants to do, symbolically, is more political.”
In fact, contrary to Biden’s executive order to grant the possibility of obtaining US citizenship to unauthorized spouses in the United States, Trump’s Project 2025 would prohibit families from qualifying for federal housing subsidies if someone lives with a US citizen or permanent resident.
It’s not what we expected
“The immigrant community has been asking the federal authorities to fulfill the campaign promise of a comprehensive immigration reform that provides a fundamental solution to the suffering and the Via Crucis of immigrants,” commented Juan José Gutiérrez, executive director of the Coalition of Full Rights of Immigrants.
“That is what we have wanted for four decades,” he said. “What President Biden announced is not what we expected, but we see it as a triumph for the immigrant community… as a sign of what we really need: immigration reform.”