President Joe Biden and V.P. Kamala Harris
The White House January 20, 2022
Today marks the first anniversary of your historic election and closure of the nefarious Trump administration, ending the worst nightmare in the history of the United States and bringing to justice the supremacist cancer in our country, in the aftermath of the fascist insurrection on January 6, 2021.
Despite this fete, you are facing declining poll numbers, a fractured Democratic Party and the miserable betrayal of 2 DINO (Democratic in name only) senators that have blocked your most important policy agenda and jeopardized Democracy, voting rights and the rule of law in our country.
But there is a silver lining and a golden opportunity in this morass, as you realize the potential collapse of your administration and the economy, and as you are forced to take bold action and confront a recalcitrant Republican Party determined to embrace Trump and defend his failed legacy.
As we proposed last week in the CMSC’s newsletter, we need for you to grant a path towards legalization and U.S. citizenship for all Dreamers and their parents and the return of almost 1 million U.S.-citizen children exiled in Mexico and Central America with their deported parents by the Obama and Trump administrations.
President Biden, we call upon you to exercise your Presidential Authority and Pardon all Undocumented Immigrants, currently in the United States as of today, as a form of Comprehensive Emancipation of Essential Workers and Victims of Forced Exile, without risking the possibility of being reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court, or Congress, if the Republicans regain majority in the House of Representatives.
President Jimmy Carter granted amnesty as a General Presidential Pardon to more than 570,000 Vietnam-era draft dodgers on January 21, 1977, during his first day in office to heal the nation from the Vietnam War’s quagmire and welcomed back those that had sought refuge in other nations to avoid prosecution for their opposition to an unjust war.
Your Presidential Pardon authority is as old as the United States of America and has never been contested or challenged in court or in Congress.
To wit, George Washington pardoned the culprits involved in the tax rebellion Whiskey Revolt of 1795. Andrew Jackson pardoned the confederate soldiers after the U.S. Civil War; Teddy Roosevelt pardoned the Filipino insurrectionists after the 1898 Spanish-American War and Gerald Ford pardoned in 1974 all deserters of the Vietnam War.
Given the growing demand from the private sector for immigrant labor and the shortage of workers in today’s job market, the massive participation of Latino and undocumented essential workers during the last 2 years of the COVID pandemic, and a booming economy and recovery under your leadership, your General Presidential Pardon of all Undocumented Immigrants currently in the United States would logical, practical and doable as a means to resolve the political intransigence that you are facing.
~ Prof. Armando Vazquez-Ramos
|
|
By Rafeal Bernal and Rebecca Beitsch | The Hill | JAN. 20, 2022
Photo credit: Omar Ornelas for El Paso Times
|
|
In his first year, the current U.S. President has fallen short on every campaign promise to reform Trump's cruelest immigration practices.
When images of Border Patrol agents on horseback aggressively corralling Haitian migrants filled the airwaves in September, immigration advocates were shocked to see cruelty that rivaled anything they'd denounced under former President Trump.
What followed was not the reckoning on immigration enforcement that President Biden's allies in immigration advocacy expected, but a top-level push to send immigration to the back burner in favor of other policy issues.
“I never would have predicted this White House, within Year One, would be expelling Haitians to a failed state,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, a progressive immigration policy organization.
“In December of 2020 we're talking about a transformative vision. And in 2022, expelling Haitians without a meaningful asylum process. Wow.” READ MORE
|
|
|
Op-Ed by Profe. Gonzalo Santos | JAN. 19, 2022 | Cartoon by Darrin Bell
|
|
EXCLUSIVE FOR EL MAGONISTA: A response to the commentary by Thomas Zimmer on the state of American democracy.
Reading the thoughtful commentary by Thomas Zimmer on the state of American democracy (SEE BELOW), I came to realize that it takes a historian to remind us that over the long arch of American history, the exceptional, relatively brief, state of the American political system has actually been a functional multiracial, inclusive, pluralistic democracy - no more than half-a-century old, and under direct assault today.
The long-prevalent, default state of political life in the United States, since its colonial inception and towards which we are in imminent danger of relapsing again, has actually been living under an exclusively white, Christian, patriarchal system where only white Christian men enjoy full democratic... READ MORE
|
|
|
Opinion by Thomas Zimmer | The Guardian | JAN. 19, 2022
|
|
Without robust federal legislation, it will soon be impossible to stop America’s degeneration into a diluted pseudo-democracy.
It has not been a good start to 2022 for American democracy. MLK Day came and went, and even though Democratic leaders, including President Biden, are finally pushing hard to pass federal legislation that would protect voting rights, they have so far been unable to deliver: while Republicans remain united in obstruction, Democratic senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema keep chasing the chimera of “bipartisanship”.
As Democrats are likely to lose either the House or the Senate in this year’s midterm elections, it might soon become impossible to stop America’s slide into authoritarianism... READ MORE
|
|
|
By Adrian Carrasquillo | NEWSWEEK | JAN. 12, 2022 | Photo credit: Mark Makela
|
|
The California native and first female Veep of color seeks a reset with Latinos after a rough first year.
Vice President Kamala Harris is looking to improve her engagement with the Latino community after an uneven first year that included important outreach to key groups and organizations, but also criticism after high-profile missteps.
Axios reported last week that Harris is looking to bring on a veteran Democratic operative to do outreach to Latino groups, as she makes changes to her team ahead of the November elections. This comes after a year in which the Biden administration promised immigration reform, but Congress did not advance the president's comprehensive legislation.
Harris, who was given the role of working with Northern Triangle leaders in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, was panned last June after saying, "I want to be clear to folks in this region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States-Mexico border: Don't come... READ MORE
|
|
|
By Suzanne Gamboa | NBC News | JAN. 12, 2022 | Photo credit: Bill Clark
|
|
Rep. Pete Aguilar says it's “deeply troubling” that lawmakers “came back after the insurrection and voted to decertify the election.”
The day after Rep. Jim Jordan refused to assist the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Nicaragua swore in Daniel Ortega as president, prompting the U.S. to retaliate with sanctions for what many have said was a rigged election.
Jordan, R-Ohio, a close ally of former President Donald Trump, said in a letter to the House committee that he had nothing worth sharing about the Jan. 6 attack, which President Joe Biden said Tuesday was an attempted coup.
Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., the vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus and the only Latino on the committee investigating the riot, said he sees his job as uncovering what led up to and happened the day the U.S.’s own democratic electoral process was threatened.
Ortega’s hold on power is a reminder of how precious democracy is, which many Latinos, particularly those from countries in political turmoil or with families in them, understand, Aguilar said... READ MORE
|
|
|
By Manu Raju | CNN | JAN. 11, 2022 | Photo credit: Getty Images
|
|
Lone GOP Senator calls out Trump for being the loser that he is.
Senior Republicans are closing ranks behind Sen. Mike Rounds after he endured a scathing attack from former President Donald Trump for acknowledging the reality that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election.
"I think Sen. Rounds told the truth about what happened in the 2020 election," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN on Tuesday. "And I agree with him."
The back-and-forth is the latest sign that many Republicans -- particularly in the Senate -- are eager to move past the former President's obsession with the 2020 elections and instead focus on more fertile ground: The Biden agenda and their efforts to take back both houses of Congress in 2022... READ MORE
|
|
|
By Priscilla Alvarez | CNN | JAN. 14, 2022 | Photo credit: Nicholas Kamm
|
|
Trump made inroads in 2020 among voters in Hispanic areas nationwide. GOP plans to capitalize on that and ramp up its outreach to Hispanic voters.
As ambitious Republicans plot their return to power in the midterm elections and in statewide races across the country, a familiar face is ready and willing to help them capitalize on President Joe Biden's sagging poll numbers on immigration.
Stephen Miller, the architect of former President Donald Trump's immigration policy, is among a group of policy hawks urging Republican Party officials and candidates to exploit what they describe as Biden's glaring vulnerability, after crises on the border.
"I'm very open about the fact that I believe the Republican Party needs to really dig in starting now, and work and put in the work to elevate this issue to the center of our national dialogue," Miller told CNN, adding he's been in discussions with Republican Party officials and candidates who he has prior relationships with.
He's among a group of Trump White House aides who will be formally advising the Pennsylvania US Senate campaign of David McCormick, a Republican hedge fund executive... READ MORE
|
|
|
By Tracy Wilkinson | LATimes | JAN. 18, 2022 | Photo credit: Mandel Ngan
|
|
U.S. President Biden will meet with Mexico’s President Lopez Obrador and Canada’s Prime Minister Trudeau in Los Angeles in June.
WASHINGTON — Los Angeles has been chosen by the Biden administration to host this year’s Summit of the Americas, a key gathering that U.S. officials hope will help mend diplomatic fences in the Western Hemisphere.
The White House announced Tuesday night that the meeting — to be held on U.S. soil for the second time since the forum was created nearly three decades ago — will take place in early June in Los Angeles.
The administration cited the city’s “deep and robust” ties throughout the hemisphere as one of the reasons it was selected, according to a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter ahead of the formal announcement.
President Biden will attend the meeting. Former President Trump skipped the last summit, which was held in Peru in 2018. The summit is scheduled to convene every three years, though it was delayed this time by a year because of the pandemic.
For the Biden administration, holding the meeting in Los Angeles provides ways to show... READ MORE
|
|
WHEN ORDERING YOUR FREE TESTS, REMEMBER:
-
YOU WILL NEVER BE ASKED FOR A CREDIT CARD OR ANY PERSONAL I.D. NUMBERS!
-
BEWARE OF SCAMMERS ASKING YOU TO PAY FOR TESTS UP FRONT.
-
YOUR INFORMATION WILL NOT BE SHARED WITH ANY OTHER GOVERNMENT AGENCIES.
Every home in the U.S. is eligible to order four (4) free at-home COVID-19 tests. The tests are completely free and can be ordered through the United States Postal Service. Orders usually ship in 7-12 days.
Order your tests now so you have them when you need them! Stay safe, wear an N95 mask, get vaccinated AND BOOSTED!
ORDER YOUR FREE COVID-19 TESTS NOW!
|
|
|
By Priscilla Alvarez | CNN | JAN. 14, 2022 | Photo credit: Nicholas Kamm
|
|
Researchers debate how best to counter false narratives—and racial stereotypes.
| | | | |
