Pablo Alvarado, director of of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, spoke clearly on Democracy Now this past week on the subject of immigration reform: NOW.–kas
from: http://www.democracynow.org/2014/4/10/as_deportations_top_2_million_should
PABLO ALVARADO: Well, the president obviously made a miscalculation. In his effort to build his enforcement credentials, he has become very aggressive in the enforcement of immigration law, with the idea that by being tough on immigrants he will persuade the extreme right-wing Republicans that are holding hostage this debate in the House of Representatives. Obviously, this debate is not moving forward at all. We have been relying on this strategy for almost 14 years. It’s time to try something new.
And we believe that if the president intervenes right now, it would actually improve the chances of immigration reform. If the president was to extend DACA to the fullest extent possible, suspend deportations, that would actually remove the fear of deportation for so many people who will actually engage in the political process and speak for themselves in this fight for immigration reform. If the president acts, it will send a very clear message to the Republicans. It will tell them, “Look, I am going to legalize people with or without you. If you don’t like it, come to the table of negotiations.” Throughout these years, the Republicans have said, “OK, we’ll give you legalization. Just give us the militarization of the border. Just give us E-Verify.” If the president acts, essentially, the president will be removing that bargaining chip off the table, and then we can have a rational debate with the Republicans.
Right now this debate is not moving forward whatsoever. Both parties are playing politics. And the only one who can actually infuse this debate and move it forward is the president. He can actually intervene and stop the deportations at this moment. President Obama is the one who nationalized the Secure Communities program. He could easily come and, with the stroke of a pen, say, “I’m not going to implement this program anymore.” President Obama already did DACA, the Deferred Childhood for—the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, that essentially prevented the deportation of many, many young people. That was good for the youth. That actually helped us towards immigration reform. What gets is farther away from immigration reform is the policies of deportation, is the criminalization. Giving people relief improves the chances.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Pablo Alvarado, in that vein, this issue of whether the president will act or not—let’s say he doesn’t act. Let’s say he decides that he doesn’t want to take the chance of hurting the Democratic Party in the November elections by creating a crisis. What will be the response of the immigrant rights movement? I mean, I think back to my prior life as a community organizer and as an activist. In August and September of this year, if there is no action, what do you see is the possibility for moving this forward? I mean, what about the possibility of a Freedom Summer, of tens of thousands of young Latinos moving into Washington, D.C., and creating a crisis of mass arrest? I mean, not just a few 500 or thousand, but 5,000, 10,000, 15,000 people filling the jails of Washington, D.C., and forcing the government to deal with this issue.
PABLO ALVARADO: Look, the pain is obviously unbearable. That’s why there are families doing a hunger strike in front of the president. The message—their message is very clear: Give us relief; start with our relatives. If the president doesn’t act, obviously, this crisis, this humanitarian crisis, will continue. The suffering will continue. And again, people are speaking for themselves, because what’s happened so far is that there are many people, there are many lawyers, there are many activists, there are many paid lobbyists in Washington, D.C., who are speaking for people—obviously, that’s not good to achieve political equality. Political equality is about citizenship, and citizenship is about people speaking for themselves. And that’s exactly what’s happening across the country. That’s why there were a hundred events last Saturday of affected communities telling their story. They are letting suffering speak. This will only escalate, if the president doesn’t act, because the pain is simply unbearable. And it’s unfortunate. Right now, there are these families in front of the White House. Believe me, if he doesn’t act, there will be more families that are going to come. There will be more acts of civil disobedience taking place. So the president has a choice right now: He can be the champion that he promised to be, or he can choose to continue to be the deporter-in-chief, because, at the end of the day, yes, we understand that Boehner is blocking the vote in the House of Representatives and that that party has been hijacked by extreme vigilantes. We understand that perfectly. But at the end of the day, Speaker Boehner is not the one who is supervising the deportations; it’s President Obama. And he has the power to act. He has the legal authority to act right now. And in our view, he has the moral obligation. The people who are outside the White House are actually building, are actually helping him to have the courage and to have the moral authority to act.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Pablo, I wanted to follow up on what we were discussing before the break on where we go from here. Congressman Luis Gutiérrez of Chicago put out a statement a few days ago basically warning his colleagues that they had a limited amount of time to act on immigration reform, or the president would act himself. Now, that makes me get a sense that the president has already signaled to Luis Gutiérrez and some other leaders that he will take some kind of an action. But would you—what if the president decides to extend DACA to the—just to the parents of those DREAMers who are already covered by the act—in other words, some kind of a compromise measure of extending legalization, but not a full—I mean, not legalization, but extending a halt to deportations, but not a full extension to the entire community that would be affected? Would that satisfy you in terms of progress on the issue?
PABLO ALVARADO: No. We will not accept cosmetic changes. The intervention the president needs to make right now has to be immediate. It has to be as broad as possible. It has to include, and remove the fear of deportation for as many people as possible. The president can do that right now if he wanted to. And he can go beyond. He can—again, he can end the Secure Communities program. He can easily come out and say, at the bare minimum, “I’m not going to deport the people that are going to become direct beneficiaries under the Senate bill.” He could easily come out and say that. There is bipartisan support for that.
You know, there are other things that he can do. For instance, President Obama continues to collaborate with Sheriff Arpaio, knowing full well that Sheriff Arpaio has engaged in massive racial-profiling tactics. Sheriff Arpaio arrests our community, and President Obama comes and deports them. He could easily step in and say, “I’m not going to collaborate with that sheriff.” So, there are plenty of things that President Obama can do.
Obviously, we won’t accept changes that are just cosmetic, that are symbolic. I think we’re—this debate, there’s been too much symbolism. And at this point, the intervention has to be very, very meaningful and alleviate the suffering the people are going through. And I think that the community has spoken very clearly. For the first time, the Beltway organizations—the Beltway is listening to what people are saying. People are saying the path to citizenship starts with the end of deportations. For the first time, people are talking that way. People are taking their message from the people that are fighting on the ground and from people who are suffering.
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