Chaumtoli Huq
On this Fourth of July, 11 million undocumented immigrants –Americans –wait with eagerness as the Senate bill S. 744, also known as the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 passed by a vote of 68-32 on June 27, 2013. Over 300 amendments had been introduced since May 7, 2013. Fourteen Republicans voted to support immigration reform including John McCain, Mark Rubio and Lindsey Graham. The stakes are high for the Republican Party, particularly in the House of Representatives. Republicans must decide whether to: support immigration reform or let it fail in the House. If Republicans fail to support legalization, they will lose every single national election for the next few decades. Even Karl Rove recognizes that 56% of the American public support legalization. If legalization passes, Republicans will be forced to reckon with 11 million voters who, mostly Latino and Asian, have voted largely Democrat. The Republican struggle in 2013 is to figure out how to remain relevant as people of color become the majority while still maintaining their core conservative values. As evidenced by the recent bill out of the House Judiciary Committee called the Safe Act, also known by advocates as the Hate Act, Republicans in the House are clinging to their core conservative values like their guns and religion.
The Safe Act, authored by Chairman Bob Goodlatte and Trey Gowdy, aim to criminalize 11 million undocumented immigrants. Wait, haven’t we seen this before? In 2006, the House introduced the Sensenbrenner Bill that called for the criminalization of 11 million undocumented immigrants. Did immigrants get mad? They sure did. Republicans know how to piss off Latinos as immigrants took to the streets and rallied across the country from New York to Los Angeles. The Sensenbrenner bill did not go anywhere. Will it now? Doubtful, because the times have changed and the Republicans know it.
In 2010, Arizona set the stage when it passed it “show me your papers” law called SB1070. Five states followed including Georgia, Alabama and Utah passed even worse versions of SB1070. Civil rights lawyers filed suit and the case reached the Supreme Court in 2012. The Obama Administration suspended the 287g program (ICE/police collaboration) in Arizona and any state that enacts its own version of SB1070. The “show me your papers” laws were a racist and xenophobic reaction to the federal government’s inability to fix the broken immigration system.
Where does that leave us now? Well, the Safe Act attempts to codify the “show me your papers” policy, authorizing local police to identity, arrest and deport undocumented immigrants. Did I not mention that times have changed? Yes, and it is high time that the Republicans in the House realize that as well. In June 2013, three states — Colorado, Vermont, and Connecticut — have signed laws permitting drivers with social security numbers to receive licenses and authorization cards. These states have joined Nevada, Maryland, Oregon, and Illinois who have also signed similar laws earlier this year. This trend is a trend away from post 9.11 laws when all states passed driver licenses bills that prevented undocumented immigrants from driving, except for Washington and New Mexico. As I said, Republicans need to get their head out of the sand.
Does this mean that we should call Chuck Schumer and thank his Gang of Eight for the Senate immigration bill? Nope, not at all. To the contrary, the Senate bill is far from perfect. It calls for more border spending, more border agents, new drones, and hundreds of miles of fencing along the Southern border. It creates a new status called the “Registered Provisional Immigrant Status” which provides a 10-year path to a green card for the 11-million who can prove that they were physically present in the U.S. before December 31, 2011. 10 years is a long time, too long in fact. I’ll be a decade older in 10 years. A lot can happen in 10 years.
DREAMers are exempt from the 10-year wait. They need only wait five years and after five years, DREAMers can file for citizenship automatically. DREAMers are the exception to the rule as they should be. They fought long and hard for this moment. All of the undocumented immigrants I have spoken to from the Irish in Queens to the Latinos in Brooklyn do not like the 10-year wait, but if it means work authorization and the ability to see their loved ones in their home countries — they’ll take it. And who am I (a U.S. Citizen) to argue against it?
DREAMers have shown the rest of us what organizing and mobilizing can do to change the political landscape. They rallied, protested and petitioned their way into the hearts of America, not settling until the Obama administration created DACA, a national moratorium on the deportation of undocumented young people. It was an unprecedented moment in immigration history. But the rest of the undocumented immigrant community may not be ready to come out of the shadows in the same way DREAMers did. For a while, I had hoped that the rest of the undocumented community would be inspired by what the DREAMers have changed for all immigrants. I had hoped that they would organize against parts of the bill that would eliminate the ability for siblings to sponsor their brothers and sisters to come to the U.S. I wished that they would rally against the provisions of the bill that would create a merits-based point system that is guided by economics while playing down family ties. The mobilization against a more fair and just immigration reform never happened. Instead, we are all going to be stuck with a big bill that while it provides a path to a green card, it comes with a host of bad provisions that will hurt immigrants in the future. What do the rest of us do? Advocates may have to just litigate and organize towards a better version of whatever comes out of Congress this year. In the meantime, Republicans better be prepared for an America that looks more black, brown and yellow.
Sin Yen Ling is currently an attorney at QLA, the public defender office in Queens focusing on a criminal immigration practice post Padilla v. Kentucky. She is a former attorney of the Asian Law Caucus and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.
