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President Obama is speaking at this hour on his Administration’s new policy on prosecutorial discretion when it comes to “DREAMer” migrants brought to this country when they were young. This clearly tells you the political significance of today’s action.
I don’t understand the argument that this exhibits a slow slide into dictatorship, with an executive branch stymied by excessive veto points at the legislative level making end-runs and weakening our political institutions. That’s certainly happening on a number of fronts, but I don’t see how prosecutorial discretion fits with that. Any reasonable view of the situation would suggest that there’s no way to possibly deport every individual who happens to be in the country illegally. The Administration had a standing order before this announcement – one they weren’t using, by the way – to focus resources on violent criminals and repeat offenders. Nobody denies that the Department of Homeland Security has primary responsibility over this type of prosecutorial discretion. Every Administration prior to this one has practiced such discretion. This Administration, if anything, has practiced less of it, and taken their cues on deportation from what they perceive as a demand from Congress to deport 400,000 individuals a year (based on the budgeting for the various agencies who perform this work).
So using prosecutorial discretion amidst limited resources, practiced by every law enforcement agency in every locality in every state in pretty much every country on Earth, doesn’t strike me as anything resembling the road to fascism or dictatorship. It strikes me as a smart response to recognizing and dealing with those limits, and focusing enforcement where it’s needed.
One thing I think is great about this announcement is how it shows the necessary and proper deployment of political power to bring pressure to bear on allies, not just opponents. It’s true that Latino activists have waged a continuing campaign of resistance to deportation policies; and that this pressure, combined with the necessities of the election campaign, led to today’s announcement. Where I would quibble with Glenn Greenwald is in the implication that “Latinos” did this on their own. In fact, they built a strong and enduring coalition with other groups on this issue, which actually makes it a sweeter victory. In the wake of the announcement, I got statements of support from not just immigration rights advocates, but also LGBT activists, labor leaders (Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO: “The President’s actions bring much-needed security and encouragement to our nation’s youth who can finally live without fear of separation from their families and deportation to a country they barely remember”), religious groups like the Jewish organization Bend the Arc, and a host of others. The main spur to use prosecutorial discretion and deferred action was a letter from 100 law professors showing the ability to use this route.
The DREAM Act was not a lonely fight, and it suggests positive possibilities ahead for networked coalitions working together. It was a movement win.
The only hurdle to this is whether this actually takes place. As I said, the Administration had already shaped a policy to focus resources on violent criminals and repeat offenders, and subsequent evidence in the following year shows that the policy did next to nothing. Presente.org, one of the more militant immigration rights organizations, has a petition out reacting to this announcement that seeks verification for a follow-through of the policy.
We just heard your administration announce that people eligible for the DREAM Act will no longer be deported and will be eligible for work permits. If made real, this is a huge step in the right direction. While we would love to celebrate these words, the truth is that we’re over a million deportations beyond words, at this point. We need to see this announcement made real.
That’s why we want to show you, President Obama, and whomever else is listening, just how many of us stand with DREAMers, and how many of us will continue to fight if even one more DREAMer gets deported. We stand with DREAMers and will continue to fight anyone who stands against them and for anyone that stands with them.
This is also a positive step, because rather than trusting leaders to do the right thing, it suggests that activists will continue to put on pressure after the fact to ensure their goals get met. That was a feature of the fight over Don’t Ask Don’t Tell as well, which led to its success.
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And it certainly takes the ‘news cycle’ attention away from the TPP.
I’m sorry, but I disagree with your conclusion that Obama’s executive order is a victory for Dream Act supporters. At best, it’s another half-assed incremental step in the right direction, a crumb thrown to Hispanic voters in an election year, more smoke and mirrors.
Look at the criteria for those illegal immigrants eligible for what Janet Napolitano calls “deferred deportation.” One, they had to be 16 or younger when they came to this country. Two, they have to have been here at least five years. Three, they have to be 30 years old or younger.
So this group of people, estimated by NPR to be about 800,000 nationally, gets to maybe get a work permit and the glorious(sarc.) opportunity to serve in the American military. Young, healthy, and motivated to reach out for that dangling carrot of American citizenship that isn’t even actually being offered.
A group of people probably too afraid to make waves by demanding such things as living wages, decent working conditions, or collective bargaining rights.
In short, Obama’s just serving the interests of his capitalist masters by securing a cheap labor force in its prime for exploitative employers. If this executive order is motivated by anything other than election year grandstanding, it is a corporatist reaction to the strong working class movement that started in Wisconsin and Ohio, and maybe to Occupy Wall Street as well. IOW, he’s creating what Marx called a “lumpenproletariat,” desperate people who employers can use as scabs to suppress any attempts at organizing labor.
It’s yet another example of advancing corporate interests by the use of state power. Mussolini would be proud.
Agree.
Put differently, continued activism gets crumbs.
“In short, Obama’s just serving the interests of his capitalist masters by securing a cheap labor force in its prime for exploitative employers.”
US immigration policy has ALWAYS been about getting cheap labor for the PTB, which is why Reagan, Bush, and the WSJ, all supported mass immigration/amnesty. Immigration quotas were at their lowest during the New Deal Era when we had a Democratic party that (horrors!) actually cared about working people.
I agree with you in many ways, but to an illegal immigrant in his 20s who’s been here ten years, it will mean the world to be able to get a legal job. What’s his alternative? A black-market job, welfare, or returning to a country he barely knows.
If the choice is between arresting and deporting young people and not arresting or deporting them, the choice is simple. Stop deporting them. The people most affected here seem to get that.
As for bargaining power, that is largely gone no matter what in an economy still severely down and wages and benefits under attack. Unions and the rights to collective bargaining have been under siege for decades,with or without immigration strictures. when you gain a small victory you take it. the people most affected seem to think this is a victory.
Politically,this illustrates that if you want something from the system, you make the political leaders fear you will not support them unless they do something in your interests. this President is vulnerable,so demand what you can,now,because it will be harder after the election.
But but but David! Don’t you know that there’s no hope and we must all give up now?!?
It’s much more fun to go around pretending that a set of crap-colored glasses is better than rose-colored glasses (as opposed to clear glasses).
Exactly. Now is when you make the demands.
I understand. But this legal job is just for two years, and then you can still be deported. For that matter, what about the 35 year old man in your same situation? He doesn’t even qualify for “deferred deportation.”
With at least 11 million illegal immigrants here who don’t want to go back and who do pay taxes, I think there must be a way for them to become citizens without leaving their homes to go back to their country of origin first. But I don’t see that option on any politician’s table.
As usual, your analogy is a false one. I was hoping for a reply from David, who is thoughtful and rational, but instead I got a sophomoric taunt from you.
(Sigh). It’s an imperfect world.
I don’t know why you assume it to be a cheap labor force. Guest workers are a cheap labor force. That’s an exploited class. That’s who we ought to fight for and pay more attention to. These are US-educated kids who are for all intents and purposes American. They are talented students, valedictorians, graduate degree recipients. They don’t have to serve in the military; a high school education suffices. They will be entrepreneurs, white-collar professionals, members of the creative class, etc. We know this because that’s the DREAMer profile that we have seen. I reject the characterization of this group of people as desperate; indeed, they had enough agency to move a massive state bureaucracy in their favor, and don’t plan to stop there.
I don’t know what more could be done at the executive level than a half-assed incremental step. The legislative branch would have to pass a law conferring citizenship on this group. I strenuously object to the cut-off at age 30, but not much else with this announcement.
And you kind of give away your perspective with the use of the term “illegal immigrants.”