From: National Institute for Latino Policy <info@latinopolicy.org>
To: askcarlos@aol.com
Sent: Thu, Dec 17, 2009 3:35 am
Subject: NiLP FYI: Obama Silent on Gutierrez Immigration Bill
Obama Silent on Gutierrez's Landmark Immigration Legislation
By Anis ShivaniWriter
Huffington Post (December 16, 2009)
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) has just introduced a landmark immigration
reform bill, which ought to be the basis of any legislation in the
current Congress: click here to download summary
This is the most important piece of domestic legislation advanced in
many, many years. Interestingly, neither the New York Times nor the
Washington Post feature front page coverage; the news stories all note
that this is just the opening salvo, and the bill as it is is dead on
arrival because Republicans won't support it.
The silence from the White House is deafening--no public show of
support from President Obama, who continues to maintain highly
favorable ratings among Latinos (despite his having ignored, so far,
all the promises he made to the Hispanic community during the election
campaign).
The Democratic party, the establishment news media, and Obama himself
are holding fire for the bill they do want to support, the draconian
Schumer legislation which has already been drawn up (in conjunction
with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, he of the military tribunals
and impeachment), but which awaits an opportune moment early next year
to be sprung upon the public. No doubt, as soon as Schumer releases his
bill, Obama will declare that that's the kind of legislation he can get
behind.
The Senate immigration legislation will bear the same resemblance to
the House bill offered by Gutierrez and his cosponsors as their
pathetic legislation (do a lot of harm, destroy even the nicer parts of
the system) bears to the House health care legislation.
The silence tells us a lot about Obama (as we have learned again and
again over the course of this year): his heart is where the
corporate-funded Democratic Leadership Council once was (he is their
true standard-bearer today), his true soulmate is really Joe Lieberman.
Obama, deep down, loves Lieberman; that's who he really is, once you
strip down the empty rhetoric and futile gestures. He cares not a bit
for the working poor, immigrants, even entrepreneurs and innovators,
those who make this country tick. He was brought in to preserve the
privilege, segregation, and division among classes and races; that's
what he has done with health care, and that's what he plans to do with
the chaotic, utterly counterproductive immigration bill Schumer is
holding back. Latinos, immigrants, take note!
One would have expected Janet Napolitano to say a few kind words about
the House legislation; is it the kind of humane, non-punitive reform
she had in mind when she promised recently that Congress would get it
done next year?
What exactly is so terrible about the Gutierrez bill that has
corporate-Democrats cowering in their shells? It is humane, it is
flexible, it is rational, it is practical, it is optimistic, and it
calls on our great traditions of welcome and openness--features which
will be markedly absent from the legislation Obama is prepared to
support. It is the kind of legislation Ted Kennedy would have been
proud to support. Unfortunately, ours is not the era of the New New
Deal; it is the era of the Bad to Worse Deal; any "comprehensive"
legislation emanating from the Obama administration makes things worse
than they already are, by sneaking in corporate-favored provisions.
Let's take a look at a few of the proposals in the Gutierrez bill.
It suspends Operation Streamline (an euphemism coined by Bush's Gestapo
chief, Michael Chertoff, to describe a program that files criminal
charges against all border-crossers).
It improves detention conditions, by preserving family unity, avoiding
unnecessary separations, and ensuring humane treatment of detainees.
It strengthens protection during enforcement activities, by making such
activities subject to court review, allowing legal access and other
services to detained immigrants, and repealing the 287(g) program,
making the federal government the only enforcer of federal immigration
law.
It prohibits the creation of a national ID card in the proposed
employment verification system.
It makes a number of proposals to reduce the massive backlog in family
and employment visa issuance (itself the primary source of "illegal"
immigration in the country), leaning toward making more visas available
to skilled workers who ought to be welcome in the U.S.
It makes a number of provisions to strengthen family unity, by allowing
judges greater discretion in removal proceedings, for instance when a
U.S. citizen child is involved.
Its provision for legalization is outstanding, and the only general
outline which can work (complicated Schumer-like provisions will not
solve the problem of "illegality"). It establishes a broad criterion of
contribution to U.S. society through education, employment, military
service, or community/volunteer service, rather than some rigorous
employment-only criterion. And it waives bars relating to undocumented
status (such as fraudulent use of Social Security cards), again the
only commonsensical principle that can work.
On the whole, it seeks to return the system to a position of
flexibility, whereby employment and family needs start matching
immigration visas again, so that the root cause of illegal presence is
removed.
The most important legislation of the last half century was arguably
the immigration act of 1965, which opened the doors to new kinds of
immigrants--this, more than anything else that has happened since then,
changed the face of America. Had it not been for that lucky crack of
the doors, had America not been renewed by immigrants in such large
numbers in the intervening years, we would today be a powerless,
geriatric, hopeless society, in worse demographic shape than Western
Europe and Japan. But in the last decade, the pendulum has swung in the
opposite direction, and the door has been all but closed. The most
pernicious phenomenon of the Bush years--the one with the most
irreversible consequences--is this reversal of the immigrant flow, this
suspicion of the other that has found permanent place in the national
imagination.
Obama has never tried to change the discourse with regard to
immigration or any of the aspects of our true relationship with the
world; the fundamental fear equation remains unchanged. In his West
Point speech, Obama morphed completely into Bush, shedding all pretense
of a nice guy image; he's in it to win it--win the wars of terror,
suspicion, and resentment, which have no real source other than our own
frustration at being unable to handle competitiveness from the rest of
the world. Thus he committed us to a path of long-term
self-destruction.
Today, the U.S. government is dedicating enormous resources to
uprooting and deporting college graduates who came here as
children--three or five or seven years old--and lack legal status;
there is no way for them to fix their status, regardless of their
potential to make contributions to American society. This is where we
are today, at the end of Year One of Obama, as all our attention is
diverted to a health care bill designed to further enrich providers and
insurers. That's the kind of tyranny Obama hasn't said a word
about--nor is he likely to.
Obama doesn't need to grandstand by inviting hot-shot bankers to the
White House to lecture them and ask them to lend. Banks will lend money
only if it makes sense for them; yet Obama has failed to address the
underlying causes of the credit squeeze. Instead of talking to his
beloved bankers, perhaps he should have shown yesterday that he stood
with the working person by giving Representative Gutierrez his promise
of support. But his already failed presidency doesn't allow any such
act of imagination.
Instead of seeing human beings as so many units of labor Obama's
favorite corporations can shamelessly exploit, Gutierrez's bill begins
to return us to the rule of law operating in an environment of human
dignity; and that is not something Obama can get behind. Now, weaken it
with the Schumer bill--restrict the requirements for legalization, so
that only a handful qualify; weaken family unification by narrowly
redefining family and giving priority to certain skilled workers; bring
in a temporary worker program, to drive wages down for everyone and
open new loopholes for exploitation; and continue to invest DHS with
draconian powers, deprive applicants of the right of appeal, and
integrate paranoid discourse into every aspect of the law--and that's
something Obama will say we have to get done next year, even in the
midst of the recession--because his corporate masters hired him to do
just that.
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