Dear Editor,
Guyanese immigrant advocates, including lawyers and organizations, as well as other Caribbean people, are very disappointed over President Obama’s decision to put off executive action on giving relief to undocumented immigrants. This decision would impact on Guyanese and other Caribbean immigrants living illegally in the US as many more of them will be needlessly deported as they await the overhaul of immigration laws. Obama has deported more immigrants than Presidents Bush Jr, Clinton, Bush Sr and Reagan combined. The President said he will act after the mid-term elections in November. The President had promised to use executive action that could shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation. The delay will mean tens of thousands of immigrants will be deported.
The President said he was motivated to put off executive action because several Democrats face tough re-election contests in battleground states and could lose if he acts now. He wants to take immigration off the front burner over the next two months. The surge of immigrant children from Latin America had politicized the issue since June poisoning the atmosphere for immigration reform that was promised more than five years ago by Obama. He only started to push for immigration reform last year after the Senate took up the issue.
Immigration reform advocates criticized Obama after the President announced he would not act at summer’s end as he had promised in June. In announcing his decision, Obama said politics did play a role in his decision. He said a partisan fight over how to address an influx of unaccompanied minors at the border had created the impression that there was an immigration crisis and thus a volatile climate for taking the measures he had promised to take. The President’s aides were concerned that if Obama’s immigration executive action was deemed to be responsible for Democratic losses this year, it could hurt any attempt to pass a broad overhaul later on. Democrats are expected to lose seats and polls show Democratic control of the Senate hangs in the balance in key states with strong opposition to immigrants.
The President also said he needed more time to explain why executive action is needed on immigration policy – the Congress has not agreed to take up the issue to legislate reform.
Immigration advocacy groups have criticized Republicans, the President and Democrats for opposing immigration overhaul. House Speaker John Boehner had made it known that the Republican-controlled House would not be taking up any measures to overhaul the immigration system. A report quoted Cristina Jimenez, managing director of United We Dream, as saying Obama’s decision was “another slap to the face of the Latino and immigrant community.”
Also, the report quotes Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, as saying: “We are bitterly disappointed in the president and we are bitterly disappointed in the Senate Democrats. We advocates didn’t make the reform promise; we just made the mistake of believing it. The president and Senate Democrats have chosen politics over people, the status quo over solving real problems.”
There has been partisan fighting over immigration reform since 2002 with Republican and Democratic legislators at varied times in support of or opposed to immigration reform. Bush supported reform but was opposed by his party and many conservative Democrats who feared losing their seats over the issue. Democrats were silent on Obama’s decision. But Republicans slammed Obama for his delayed action. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is also up for re-election, has slammed Obama saying the President’s move to delay action “amounted to Washington politics at its worst.
The president isn’t saying he’ll follow the law, he’s just saying he’ll go around the law once it’s too late for Americans to hold his party accountable in the November elections.” Speaker Boehner, R-Ohio, also described Obama’s decision as “smacking of raw politics. Any unilateral action will only further strain the bonds of trust between the White House and the people they are supposed to serve.”
Needless to say illegal Guyanese and other Caribbean immigrants are deeply disappointed that immigration reform is dead after failed promises from Bush Jr and now Obama. But it is felt by some Guyanese community leaders that Obama has made a wise move to delay action so that he can try once again after the election to urge the Congress to take up the matter. If Congress fails to act, then it is felt he would be in a better position to pursue executive action.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
