Betrayed again
A few days before the Expanded DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents) became effective, 26 states filed a lawsuit against the President of the United States. A judge from Texas placed a hold on these two programs. DAPA would have provided an opportunity to undocumented parents of U.S. born children to request temporary deferral of deportation and to obtain employment authorization after meeting certain conditions. On May 26 a second court in New Orleans, Louisiana, consisting of three judges, decided to uphold the lawsuits against DACA & DAPA.
Where is the political leadership, the representatives of the people?
In reality, the government has been converted into a support system to assist the corporations and not the people. U.S. immigration legislation is essentially written by corporations themselves, in order to increase profits in the border enforcement and detention businesses and to legally approve a variety of strata of guest workers.
Meanwhile the four to five million that were projected to benefit from the Expanded DACA and DAPA are stuck in limbo, as the system does not have true solutions.
What’s behind the immigration reform fight?
Whereas in the past during the industrial era immigration was historically always to control wages in the U.S., today it’s used to drive wages down by increasing the competition over jobs. With electronic production there are less and less jobs, and employment is no longer expanding.
Current and proposed immigration laws also facilitate fascism by denying citizenship and political rights to a growing sector of workers as normal, and forcing workers to accept routine raids, detention, criminalization, and deportation without legal recourse.
Every hard-fought victory of the immigrant rights movement, from Obama’s Executive Orders, to the various state drivers’ license laws, is being used by the government to carve out specific temporary status for specific immigrants, and divert, divide, and defuse the movement for human rights for all.
Today’s decision to halt Extended DACA and DAPA needs to be resolved. But we should not expect that it would be the politicians that finally make that decision.
It’s going to be up to the people to keep fighting to unite the decisive sections of the working class around the understanding that immigrant rights are human rights, and that immigration is essentially a class issue that affects all of us. Understanding the need to unite efforts to gain what every human being needs to live is the next step towards victory.
A world with more justice and peace awaits us, but we will need to fight for this to become reality, a world for our children and for all without violence.
What is DACA?
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. The first version was announced by the President in 2012 (right before his re-election), and the expanded version is the one that is paralyzed by the lawsuit of the 26 states.
What is DAPA?
Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents.
What state governments are suing the federal government?
Headed by Texas, and supported by Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Maine, North Carolina, Idaho, Mississippi, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Florida, Arizona, Arkansas, Nevada, and Tennessee.
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