By Gonzalo Santos | MAR. 29, 2022 | Photo by Rod Thornburg
It's nice to have the wonderful First Lady Dr. Jill Biden honor us with a visit to Villa La Paz to pay tribute to Cesar Chavez’s legacy and attend a naturalization ceremony during her second visit to Kern County. All very inspiring and most welcome. Thank you for coming again to our immigrant-enriched county – the backbone of our local economy.
As a proud Mexican immigrant, I became a U.S. citizen in 2013. Over the past 50 years I have never shied away from speaking truth to power - in this country or in Mexico. I believe I must take this opportunity to address how infuriating and demeaning it is for me to witness (once again) immigrants being thrown under the bus in the BBB proceedings last year in the Democrat-controlled Congress and White House.
We have been promised before just and enduring immigration reforms from the Democratic Party, with no tangible results when it has had control over both chambers of Congress and the White House. And we have held fast and true in our support of the party in the face of persistent, callous, cruel, wall-to-wall Republican obstructionism and sabotage to any and all relief efforts.
History is repeating itself. It is even more appalling to see how the Dems who are up for reelection this year have seemingly dropped any/all efforts on immigration reform, and scarred from confronting the Republican narrative have fallen for it by beefing up for next fiscal year the already-bloated budgets of CBP & ICE which go to fund the American Gulag of for-profit detention centers. The Dems now seem to be defaulting to the same disingenuous campaign evasions, simulations and charm offensives of past election cycles – as if NULL RESULTS and BETRAYED PROMISES do not have consequences!
The Latino electorate is not so easily manipulated anymore - if it ever was. The Latino vote today is so disenchanted with the Democrats (and the Republicans, too!) that they can no longer be counted upon to even come out to vote in November – and some are even joining the GQP who are fully taking advantage, cynically, of the Democrats' lackluster performance on immigration. I know they are much worse, but tell that to my people with a straight face!
It would actually be much more inspiring if Dr. Jill went back to Washington and made her husband understand that he urgently needs to fulfill his repeated campaign promise to get immigration reform passed with a pathway to citizenship for ALL 11 million people. Such bold action from the President would be greatly celebrated here in Kern County – at least among the diverse non-white ethnic/immigrant communities.
I implore the First Lady to convince her husband of the truth of the matter: Latinos and others immigrant communities are fed-up, frustrated and disappointed with the empty promises and lack of bold action on their immigrants' behalf. Soon, the time will come when my community abandons the Democrats the way they’ve abandoned us, indeed making things hard for them in November unless he and his party provide tangible results now.
Time has now run out and there is no more room for excuses or evasions. The time for bold action is now, in the few remaining months before Latinos, Asians and others go to the polls entirely disenchanted with his administration: President Biden and his party he can EITHER amend the filibuster to allow robust immigration reform to be reintroduced and passed in the Build Back Better bill languishing in the Senate, OR he can take bold action himself by issuing a GENERAL PRESIDENTIAL PARDON to all 11 million undocumented immigrants and the deported parents of U.S.-born children.
Now THAT would fill us with much more pride and joy and gratitude for your visit, Dr. Jill! Consider this our way to get your husband elevated to permanent, iconic status among Latinos and Asian Americans and help him avoid heading to certain defeat for himself and his party this November.
