By Elvira Arellano
President Obama has issued a new executive order through ICE that calls for “protection of parent rights.” For the most part, it protects the rights of parents in ICE custody in relationship to their minor children. If they need to go to court, for instance, in a custody action, ICE must provide for them to appear, even bringing them back from Mexico to appear if they have already been deported.
The order, “Directive 11064.1: Facilitating Parental Interests in the Course of Civil Immigration Enforcement Activities” also provides for prosecutorial discretion for parents of U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident children. It requires ICE agents to receive information that a person is a parent with minor children at the earliest point in the process – at the point of arrest. It also provides that ICE agents should use “discretion” and can choose not to arrest or further prosecute parents who have a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident child or are the sole caretaker of any minor child.
Some organizations are developing “I.D.’s” that undocumented parents can carry so that they can show ICE agents they qualify for “discretion” if they are stopped or if they are arrested. There is no guarantee that ICE agents or prosecutors will actually respect this order but if the community stays on the case it is one more tool to protect our families from separation.
Under pressure because of his broken promise to our community President Obama began the policy of prosecutorial discretion two years ago. Under more pressure and facing reelection he issued the order that allowed dreamers to apply for temporary deferments and work permits (DACA). What should we make of this?
First, it shows that the President does have the power to stop the deportations – now 1400 a day – and even to grant temporary legal status. Second it shows that if the community keeps the pressure on him we can stop many, even most, of these deportations. There is no reason why the President does not extend the deferments he offered to the dreamers to their parents and to the parents of the five million U.S. citizen children now!
It also shows that President Obama has a serious credibility problem in our community. His policies are way out of balance. Yes, his administrative policy for the dreamers has allowed over 500,000 young people to achieve legal status, to work and to get their driver’s licenses. The earlier order for prosecutorial discretion is estimated to have resulted in the suspension of as many as 100,000 deportations. Yet look at the rest of his administrative policies.
Obama established the policy of “secure communities”, empowering local law enforcement, men like sheriff Arpaio in Arizona, to carry out the “search and destroy” raids on our families. He established the policy of I-9 audits on companies, resulting in the arrest, or at the least the loss of employment, of tens of thousands of men and women who were working to support their families. Obama’s “bad” policies have resulted in over 400,000 deportations a year while his “good policies” have resulted in the suspension of only a fraction of that number.
In spite of the “good policies” he implemented under pressure Obama has deported more people each year than any other U.s. President – many more than President George Bush. So “Excuse us” if we don’t believe the President when he says he is all for immigration reform and the stalemate in Washington DC is all the fault of the Republicans.
In the light of his “lack of balance”, it is more likely that Obama and the democrats are just trying to play political games with us again. We shouldn’t be fooled. March on April 5th! The deportations must stop this year – either by act of congress or by act of the President – or we must turn our churches, our communities, our cities and our states into sanctuaries of resistance.
