On May 27, six immigrant, religious and human rights organizations used their significant political clout to call for the Obama administration to *not *take action to stop deportations — at least until August. Their stated reasoning is that the legislative process has a “real window of opportunity” for immigration reform and that the President should “allow for this process to take place before issuing administrative action,” thereby giving the House Leadership “all of the space they may need to bring legislation to the floor for a vote.”
The statement, which was met with instantaneous outrage by many immigrant rights activists on social media, was signed by the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC), the National Immigration Forum, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Sojourners, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Migration.
It states: “Should the House fail to move forward during this window, the Administration will have an obligation to use whatever tools are at its disposal under the law to prevent the tragic family break-ups and economic disruption that has become the daily norm.
“We sincerely hope it will not come to that, because any such administrative reforms must necessarily be partial and temporary compared with what legislation can accomplish.”
This statement was immediately followed by an order from the Obama administration to delay the publication of its review of deportation policies until August. This same day, the Obama administration carried out two large-scale immigration raids in Milwaukee, Wi., in which 200 people have been identified for arrest. These arrests violate the administration’s own stated “deportation priorities.”
The Obama administration’s timing of course was no coincidence, nor was it a matter of “listening” to a movement that it has for years criticized as too “radical.” Approximately 97,000 people are projected to be deported over this “waiting period,” if the administration continues to deport people at its current rate.
Undermining the movement for Not One More Deportation
By calling for a delay in halting deportations, one sector of the immigrant rights movement is openly calling for the President to ignore the powerful demand of immigrant youth and their allies: “Not One More Deportation!” They instead aim to redirect the energy of this struggle into something from which the Democratic Party can benefit.
Over the last two years in particular, the youth-led movement has boldly conducted civil disobedience actions in deportation centers, at the border, in politicians’ offices, and in front of deportation buses to physically block deportations. The statement has been received as a slap in the face to those who are working desperately to stop the pending deportations of workers and family members, those who do not have three months to wait.
Gabriela Benitez, an organizer with the Immigrant Youth Justice League whose father Daniel Marquez is currently in deportation proceedings, responded to the news: “Families like mine cannot wait for relief. My father could be deported in the next few months and the President continues to play political games with our lives.”
False reasoning
Why would these established groups—while proclaiming themselves on the side of immigrant justice—do such a thing?
On one level, their reasoning is absurd. There is no reason the racist, anti-immigrant Republican Party, which has shown no interest in passing broad immigration reform in years, would voluntarily take up this issue to divide their party and their base before the Congressional elections.
The Republican-led House of Representatives’s anti-immigrant crusade is well established: It has intentionally prevented legalization and has joined with Democrats to increase deportation and border militarization. The day that the President announced the “delay,” news broke about Rep. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s re-election campaign mailers highlighting his role in “stopping the Obama-Reid plan to give illegal aliens amnesty.” House Republicans have themselves dismissed the President’s offer of time, stating that the delay “does not open the door to anything.”
Administrative action against deportations also does not preclude legislative reform.
The groups that signed the statement have not simply made a grave error, backstabbing the movement. Their shameful statement is the result of a political strategy that prioritizes the gains of the Democratic Party over immigrant communities — or falsely equates the two.
Providing a disguise for the Democratic Party
The reasonable assumption is that the Democratic leadership had already decided to put off any action on deportations and chosen instead to use Republican inaction on immigration as an issue to drum up votes for the fall elections. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D.-NY), the Senate Democrats leader in the immigration reform process, has stated that he’s worried that administrative relief to stop deportations would give the Republicans another campaign issue.
It would hurt the Democrats to announce to immigrant communities the truth about their strategy: “We are throwing you under the bus yet again, while using your ongoing suffering as a campaign issue to win votes.” Instead, they had to announce their strategy in the disguise of the immigrant rights movement itself — as if the movement had *asked* for continued stalling, and as if some new “window of opportunity” had magically appeared. The organizations that signed the statement volunteered their services to carry out the ruse, maintaining the appearance of independence while giving a “movement face” to the ruling Democratic Party.
Many will speculate about how each of these groups have sunk to this level: their political and social ingratiation with Washington’s ruling elites; their disconnection from their own memberships, which overwhelmingly would favor immediate deportation relief; or simple cowardice.
Putting aside such speculations, the history of the last eight years has dispelled any illusions that the Democratic Party’s success should be the goal of the immigrant rights movement.
Ever since the explosion of the movement in 2006, the Democratic Party has attempted to divert these communities to direct their struggle towards the elections with a host of false promises. “Today we march, tomorrow we vote” was the slogan they spread to demobilize the movement when millions were in the streets. But when the Democrats gained control of the House, Senate and the White House, they again sacrificed immigrant communities for political expedience.
Immigrant communities cannot wait
Over the next six years, the Obama administration has carried out approximately two million deportations. The pace of deportations has escalated to the point that they are being carried out nearly twice as often as under Bush. The militarization of the border has escalated, expanding drone use, and collaboration with local and state law enforcement. Federal prosecutions of immigration-related offenses reached an all-time high, especially at the border. In the 2013 fiscal year, the federal government brought a record 97,384 criminal prosecutions for immigration charges, including “illegal entry,” and “illegal re-entry.” “Illegal re-entry” is a federal felony that can carry a maximum 20-year prison term. These are now some of the most commonly prosecuted federal offenses.
Of course, mass migration is a reflection of the imperialist system — which uses military force and economic policies to knock down all barriers to Wall Street exploitation and profit. Those who drive and benefit from that system are celebrated as corporate heroes, while its victims are criminalized.
The militancy and determination of immigrant youth has forced the Obama administration to issue administrative measures like Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. DACA is completely insufficient for immigrant communities, but it is a hard-fought concession won through struggle.
The President himself has recognized the impact of the movement by calling for it to stop. He held a meeting in early March with key undocumented youth leaders, discouraging their activism, saying that the rallies and protests showed disunity to the Republicans, and asking for a 90-day reprieve. The protests continued.
The conclusions for immigrant rights organizers are clear: it is necessary to escalate the struggle for immigrant justice and equality. Each new stage of struggle demonstrates with greater clarity who are the movement’s true friends, who are its enemies, and what it will take to win full equality.
To those who tell the militant sectors of the immigrant rights movement that its tactics are untimely as defined by the narrow political goals of Democratic “friends,” we can cite Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” which was a response to similar “friends.”
While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities ‘’unwise and untimely.’ … Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was ‘well timed’ in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.
