President Obama appears to have had a welcome change of heart on immigration.
In his first term, his administration set a record for deportations of undocumented immigrants, breaking up hundreds of thousands of families.For much of his term, he was relatively quiet on the issue of comprehensive immigration reform. Only during the recent campaign did he take a big step by making it easier for immigrants who arrived here as children without proper documentation to stay in the country.
But now, he's gone much further.
His speech in Nevada on Jan. 29 was a significant demonstration that the second-term president has embraced a mandate that demands rights for immigrants.By making the argument that America has always been a nation of immigrants, he has taken the first step in reversing a tide of anti-Latino sentiment, stoked by Republican politicians as a vote-getting device for years.
Obama reminded us, "Unless you're one of the first Americans, a Native American, you came from someplace else." He added: "It's easy sometimes for the discussion to take on a feeling of us versus them" when it comes to immigration. "A lot of folks forget that most of us used to be them."
The speech also alluded to the role of Latinos in gaining him re-election. The Latino vote for Republicans, which once hovered at 40 percent in President Bush's 2004 re-election, plummeted to a bit more than 20 percent in 2012. Just a few weeks after the election, conservative pundits like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity were sounding a tone of reconciliation - a grudging acceptance that new immigration legislation should be enacted.
Even though most Latinos are not undocumented immigrants and their number-one political issue is not immigration reform, such legislation will be welcomed by millions of Latino citizens. Some have relatives who are undocumented, and othersdon't want to be racially profiled as potential "illegals" or victimized by increasing anti-Latino hate crimes and general anti-Latino sentiment.
Differing with congressional Republicans on how much reform should be tied to militarization of the Southwest border, Obama is threatening to use his bully pulpit to insist on a vote on immigration reform if there are attempts to stall.
But much of this is still problematic. The backlog of visa applications and the slow approval process would make the path to citizenship long and arduous, up to 20 years. The costs are not within the reach of many undocumented who have been in the United States for many years, living paycheck to paycheck, all the while paying payroll and sales taxes.
Seasonal, unskilled agricultural labor is on the fast track, as are those brought here as minors, known as "Dreamers," and elite graduate students with an eye toward a career in engineering or high-tech.Whether the average undocumented immigrant will gain significant advantage in a relatively short amount of time remains to be seen.
But if nothing else, Obama's speech will be remembered as a landmark call for justice for Latinos and other immigrant groups.
ABOUT THE WRITER
Ed Morales is a writer for Progressive Media Project, a source of liberal commentary on domestic and international issues; it is affiliated with The Progressive magazine. Readers may write to the author at: Progressive Media Project, 409 East Main Street, Madison, Wis. 53703; email: pmproj@progressive.org; Web site: www.progressive.org. For information on PMP's funding, please visit http://www.progressive.org/pmpabout.html#anchorsupport.
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� 2013, Ed Morales
