2nd Issue of Letter & Challenge Due to a Lack of Response !
Open letter to Henry Cisneros and debate challenge on protection of immigrants, instead of massive deportations by President Obama
By Professor Armando Vazquez-Ramos, October 14, 2013
Dear Henry,
In response to the bipartisan group that has warned pro-deferred action advocates that “pushing President Barack Obama to halt deportations could kill the broader effort” of immigration reform, I’d like to denounce the position taken by the Bipartisan Policy Center's Immigration Task Force that you co-chair, and challenge you to a debate as soon as possible.
Henry, lets debate Mano-a-mano anytime and anyplace, or virtually via internet.
Nothing personal, just the facts that separate our point of view.
I am one of those pro-deferred action advocates and have co-authored 2 opinion editorials that propose for President Obama to grant deferred action or temporary protective status to all 11 million undocumented immigrants now, given that Congress will fail to approve a sensible and inclusive immigration reform in 2013.
In fact, as we expressed on our July 26, 2013 Op-Ed (“Time for Obama to give ‘help’, not ‘hope’ on immigration reform promise”*), “deferred action is not amnesty, while Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is a long-established administrative function of the Homeland Security Administration. President Obama would temporarily protect the undocumented immigrant until Congress responsibly legislates sensible comprehensive immigration reform, and force Republican legislators to recognize the economic benefits and the political consequences of their continued demonization of immigrants”.
This is exactly the reason why President Obama should grant temporary protection to all eligible undocumented immigrants, and authorize a registration process for all those that would benefit from a legalization process.
How blasphemous and arrogant for our own leaders to reach that conclusion, and to accept that Obama has surpassed the two million deportations mark during less than 5 years in office, exceeding the amount of Mexicans deported during the 1930’s under the decade of the Repatriation Act era.
As we stated in our Opinion Editorial published by the Hispanic Link News Service (***) last week, “history will judge the path Obama follows: emancipator or deporter-in-chief president. He has the authority and moral responsibility to act on his stated values and end the political charade, as Governor Brown has done to the extent of state (not federal) powers. In addition to the fundamental humanitarian rationale for the president’s protective executive action — the far most important reason for acting — he has a potent economic cause. The United States needs the income. Immigrants contribute a net economic benefit that brings in revenue, subduing the crises currently holding Washington hostage”.
In the final analysis, I believe that in spite of two new comprehensive immigration reform bills introduced by democrats, the acrimony between both parties over the shutdown and the GOP’s disdain for President Obama’s health reform, even Democratic Party and union leaders agree behind closed doors on the demise of immigration reform this year.
In my opinion, the Democratic Party has squandered the opportunity to leverage and use the threat of executive action by the President, as a tool to pressure the Tea Party-controlled GOP on immigration reform.
If the president continues to reject that option, as he stated last month on Telemundo, he also puts at risk that Latinos and other members of immigrant communities may abstain in the 2014 congressional elections.
President Obama has the authority and moral responsibility to do this now as a political ‘check mate’ on the political checkerboard to push back the heinous GOP’s intransigence.
In closing, I’d like to ask you: if your grandfather, Don Romulo Munguia (who fled Mexico due to political persecution), had been deported- where would you be now and would you feel the same way about deportations today ?
I trust that you will accept my challenge for a debate between us, or perhaps between panels with you, Eliseo and Hilda, matched with me and 2 other pro-deferred action advocates like NDLON’s Pablo Alvarado.
~ END ~
Professor Armando Vazquez-Ramos is a co-founder of the Cal State Long Beach Chicano and Latino Studies Department and President of the California-Mexico Studies Center (www.california-mexicocenter.org).
Henry Cisneros, was Mayor of San Antonio and former secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development under President Bill Clinton.
References:
(*) Piden a Obama aprobar un TPS para todos los indocumentados, Por: La Opinion, EFE Agosto 16, 2013
**Immigration Reform Group: Halting Deportations Would Hurt Effort, The Huffington Post ~ 10/10/2013
44,000 can’t wait for immigration reform in Congress by Pablo Alvarado - 08/02/13
(*)President Obama’s no-Congress strategy,
(*)Immigration Advocates Will Urge Obama Executive Order if Reform Fails
NEWS MAX, Saturday, August 3, 2013
(*)Stopping Deportations Should Be 'Plan A' for Immigration Reform
August 9, 2013 - Los Angeles, CA
(*)Immigration Activists Shift Focus to Obama By Miriam Jordan, The Wall Street Journal, ~ Oct. 13, 2013
Hispanic Link News Service, Column No. 5465 ~ 10/10/13
