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Will Obama’s enforcement strategy backfire with Latinos?
By Roberto Lovato
New America Media
May 11, 2011
As President Obama spoke from the U.S.-Mexico border at El Paso
yesterday, DREAM Act student Julieta Garibay wondered about another
border – the one that stands between Obama and his re-election bid.
“How are we going to keep our dignity while voting for this man who is
hurting our community so much?” asked Garibay, 30, a recent graduate of
the University of Texas at Austin. “He’s deported the most immigrants in
history. His enforcement-only approach (to immigration reform) sounds
just like the Republican approach. And he expects us to vote for him?”
The political strategy at the heart of Obama’s speech – appealing to
Latino voters by lauding immigrants, while appealing to anti-immigrant
voters by playing up record-breaking deportations and other punitive
policies – has brought the Obama administration to the brink of Latino
voter disaster.
For some, like Garibay, President Obama’s record on enforcement speaks
louder than his words. Her response to his speech reflects what could
become one of the greatest threats to his re-election bid: Latino
disillusionment with Obama.
Against the backdrop of a big beige wall of solid rock and American
flags flying in the heat of the desert surrounding El Paso, the
President delivered a speech that tried to balance sounding tough, even
militaristic, on crime and immigration while sounding compassionate
toward immigrants themselves.
“Well, we now have more boots on the ground on the southwest border than
at any time in our history,” said Obama, adding, “The Border Patrol has
20,000 agents -- more than twice as many as there were in 2004, a
build-up that began under President Bush and that we have continued.”
Obama concluded by discussing the sacrifices made by DREAM Act students
like Garibay. “And we should stop punishing innocent young people for
the actions of their parents by denying them the chance to earn an
education or serve in the military," he said. "That’s why we need to
pass the DREAM Act,” which would provide qualifying young people legal
status and a path to citizenship.
But Obama’s actions -- deploying armed Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) agents into the homes of terrorized children and
families – could derail much of whatever good will his speeches foster.
Studies by the University of Syracuse and other institutions document
that under the Obama administration, ICE has deported record-breaking
numbers of immigrants.
No less important than the statistical reality are the less-documented
effects on communities: fear, disappointment and growing anger among
immigrants and non-immigrants alike. A barrage of daily images and
stories of violent immigration raids on homes and workplaces is taking
an effect on Latino neighborhoods throughout the country, neighborhoods
teeming with potential Latino voters.
Following the announcement of the Osama bin Laden killing, polls showed
a slight increase in pro-Obama sentiment among Latinos. At the same
time, however, a recent poll by Latino Decisions, one of the country’s
pre-eminent Latino polling organizations, found that Obama’s immigration
policies could be costing him Latino votes. “Our April poll shows
President Obama doing okay with an overall approval of 73 percent,” said
Matt Baretto, pollster for Latino Decisions and a professor at the
University of Washington. “However, he only has 41 percent of Latinos
saying they are certain to vote for him.”
“Those drifting to vote from ‘certain’ to ‘not sure’ are people who say
immigration reform is the number one issue,” Baretto added. “This is an
issue that affects almost all Latino households because the overwhelming
majority of Latinos are related to or know somebody who is an
immigrant.”
Within the complex world of immigration politics, two issues have arisen
as the litmus test for Obama’s commitment to immigrants: stopping the
deportation of DREAM Act students like Garibay, and fundamentally
altering or abolishing agreements between local police and federal
immigration authorities such as the Secure Communities program in which
the fingerprints of anyone arrested are sent to immigration authorities.
While the President stated in his speech that his administration has
“increased the removal of criminals by 70 percent,” ICE records reveal
that many of those arrested and deported under Secure Communities are
non-criminals.
Obama’s ability to deliver on his promises will determine whether
Latinos perceive him as a friend deserving of political support or the
Commander in Chief of a war on immigrants, deserving of political
protest. Following his El Paso speech, hundreds of DREAM Act students
and their families converged on an Obama fundraiser in Austin to demand
he stop deporting DREAM Act students immediately.
The day after Obama’s speech, the DREAM Act was reintroduced in Congress
by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. Representatives Howard Berman, D-Calif., and
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., plan to introduce a similar bill in the
House.
But until the immigration system is changed, Latinos like the Garibay
family face a constant threat of possible deportation and separation. If
put in a position of having to choose between Republicans militarizing
immigration policy and Obama militarizing immigration policy, some
Latinos will likely choose neither, and stay home -- not because they
don't care, but because they view the choice as an indignity.
“Many people feel deceived by Obama,” said Garibay. “My mom voted for
Obama. So did many of family and friends. But since he hasn’t done
anything but make our lives worse, some of them are starting to wonder
who the Republican running against Obama is. Most of them are
questioning if they even want to vote.”
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