Today, a group of grassroots leaders are demanding that the Obama Administration fire John Morton, the head of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within the Department of Homeland Security.
Deepak Bhargava of the Center of Community Change, a lead organizer of the immigration rally in Washington, D.C. on March 21st and a leader of FIRM (Fair Immigration Reform Movement), had this to say at today’s press conference:
“This agency has gone rogue and is operating in clear opposition to the direction President Obama has set.”
What gives? It seems the stated priorities of President Obama may not be in sync with the cowboy tactics of ICE agents in the field.
The President gets it. He has always gotten it. In 2008 candidate Obama had this to say to the NCLR convention in San Diego:
“When communities are terrorized by ICE immigration raids, when nursing mothers are torn from their babies, when children come home from school to find their parents missing, when people are detained without access to legal counsel, when all that is happening, the system just isn’t working, and we need to change it.”
Little more than a week ago, President Obama told a gathering of over 200,000 activists that he heard their plea and was standing as a partner with them in fixing the “broken immigration system.” Here’s part of what Obama said, via video, to the marchers:
I’ve always pledged to be your partner as we work to fix our broken immigration system and that’s a commitment that I reaffirm today. Nobody knows the cost of inaction better than you. You see it in the families that are torn apart and the small business owners who try to do the right thing while others game the system. You see it in the workers, who deserve the protection of our laws and the officers who struggle to keep our communities safe while earning the trust of those they serve.
In light of the recent, um, developments this week, I’m wondering if RNC Chairman Michael Steele will be keeping his hard-won meeting with grassroots Latino and immigration reform advocates on Wednesday. These community leaders staged a sit-in at the RNC last Monday, just one day after 200,000 people from across the country traveled thousands of miles to march for real immigration reform in Washington, D.C.
Watch the video from that action:
In case you couldn’t hear it, that’s Joshua Hoyt, Executive Director of ICIRR stating:
Family values are about not destroying families
When it comes to immigration reform, Republicans certainly could use an image boost with Latino voters.
Today, the opinion pages of the Spanish-language press assess the prospects for immigration reform — and note that more demonstrations are underway.
Frustrated op-eds. The editorial “Reform left behind” in La Raza (Chicago) says:
“The president should speak directly to the American people about the importance of immigration reform. He should do what he does best: roll up his sleeves and speak from his heart at town hall meetings and in televised speeches. But what happened after he met with Latino leaders in the White House? The president returned to the public square to sell his plan for health-care reform. He even added other items to his agenda: financial regulation and new changes to the education law No Child Left Behind. It looks like what’s really been left behind is immigration reform.”
Lots happened over the weekend, so here’s a quick roundup of immigration news from around the interwebs.
More March For America highlights:
First and foremost: you just have to laugh (potentially out loud) at NPR’s take on the Roy Beck/Numbers USA mime incident:
“SAGAL: It was an immigration throw down. When anti-immigration activist Roy Beck left his home on Sunday he knew he’d encounter thousands of immigrants and pro-immigrant protestors marching around the mall. But he never expected a hostile troop of female mimes…(laughter)… Beck says that they harassed and insulted him and his bodyguards with, quote, “crushing physical intimidation,” end quote… (laughter) First, we suspect by placing them in invisible boxes…(laughter) …then blowing them backwards with imaginary winds. |(laughter) …This is true. One of the bodyguards got fed up with the mimes, took out a knife and started popping their balloons, leading to his arrest on assault charges. The crafty mimes, however, eluded the cops by climbing an invisible ladder they’d brought with them to freedom.
Next, watch Laura Flanders’ latest GritTV segment, “Courage for Immigration Reform:”
While House members were grandstanding on the floor over health care reform Sunday, and the news networks largely focused on tea party anti-healthcare protests, tens of thousands of immigrants and allies flooded the Washington Mall…
To really fix our broken immigration system, we’re going to need more than vague declarations from the White House. We’ll need real leadership, and the stomach to take on viciousness from protesters the likes of which we haven’t seen before.
The Spanish-language press covers demonstrations in California for immigration reform; reactions to the discovery of deportation quotas at ICE; and reviews of immigration-related appearances on Sunday talk shows.
Marches in California. El Diario-La Prensa reports that 10,000-15,000 people attended a march in Los Angeles sponsored by a coalition of 20 organizations to call for comprehensive immigration reform. EFE, La Opinión, Univision.com, and Contacto have more on the Los Angeles demonstration, while El Mensajero covers a march and other events in the Bay Area.
This post is a weekly feature by Erin Rosa, Media Consortium Blogger:
As the health care debate comes to a close, there’s no better time to introduce comprehensive immigration reform. Hundreds of thousands of immigrant rights supporters from all over the country congregated on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on Sunday to demand immigration reform in 2010. It was the largest political rally to be held since President Barack Obama moved into the White House.
Dressed in white and carrying American flags, the crowd numbered between 200,000 to 500,000 people. The marchers spanned approximately 7 blocks, all the way from the Washington Monument to the steps of Congress. Although many media outlets and lawmakers were were occupied by the historic health care vote taking place in the House of Representatives on the same day, Obama took time from his busy schedule to record a video message to the marchers, in which he discussed the need for immigration reform “this year.”
Obama the guest speaker
“I pledge to do everything in my power to forge a bipartisan consensus, this year on this issue,” Obama said in the video, which was broadcast to the cheering crowd via giant TV screens on the Mall’s perimeter.
As RaceWire notes, Obama explained to reform supporters that “you know as well as I do that this won’t be easy, and it won’t happen overnight, but if we work together across ethnic, state and party lines, we can build a future worthy of our history as a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws.”
The message came hot on the heels of a proposed Senate outline of an immigration reform bill, written a few days beforehand by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC). “For undocumented immigrants already here, the pathway to [a documented] status is basically this: pay a fine, pay back taxes, admit you broke the law, do some community service and then pass a back ground test,” RaceWire’s Seth Freed Wessler notes.
A similar immigration reform bill is in the House, sponsored by Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), but it is unknown when Schumer and Graham will introduce their proposal to the Senate floor. Immigrant advocates want lawmakers to introduce a reform bill in the Senate this Spring so that there will be time to debate the issue in 2010. The Senate outline is just a rough draft and the proposal could change significantly after it goes through Congress.
