Immigration Reform Advocates Losing Patience with Obama
New America Media, News report, Marcelo Ballvé Posted: Feb 22, 2010
Subhash Kateel thinks impatience with President Obama's immigration agenda has begun to boil over. An immigrant advocate in Florida, Kateel says there is a potent mix of frustration and disappointment percolating through immigrant communities nationwide.
President Obama promised sweeping changes to the immigration system before taking office and raised immigrants’ hopes, says Kateel. Instead of delivering, the administration has maintained the status quo: high-handed enforcement tactics that separate families and funnel immigrants into substandard immigration courts and detention centers.
“Yeah, things are changing,” says Kateel, who works for the Miami-based Florida Immigrant Rights Coalition. “They’re getting worse. That’s what we hear on the ground.”
Kateel is one among many immigrant advocates nationwide who sees a need to reignite the immigrant rights battle with more imaginative and hard-hitting tactics.
Arrests of immigrants — mostly for petty crimes — have increased under Obama, advocates point out. Department of Homeland security budgeting for immigration enforcement, detention and deportation has continued ballooning.
The advocates would like to hold the White House accountable for its broken promises. Plans are underway to attract tens of thousands of activists to Washington, D.C. on March 21 to demand reform.
But besides relying on timeworn tactics like street protests and lobbying lawmakers, the immigrant rights advocates also have turned to more imaginative and radical approaches.
One is the shaming of specific public figures that are perceived as enablers of anti-immigrant activity and sentiment.
Late last year, CNN anchor Lou Dobbs resigned after he was targeted in a high-profile media campaign, “Basta Dobbs,” that painted him as a megaphone for distorted information on immigration.
Last month, over 10,000 people turned out in Phoenix to rally against local Sheriff Joe Arpaio who, thanks to a contract with the federal government, has transformed his office into a de-facto hard-line arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
On the same day, Jan. 16, smaller rallies were held nationwide to coincide with the anti-Arpaio protest.
Faith leaders, young people and more recent immigrants are playing prominent roles in organizing protests like the Phoenix rally.
The Phoenix rally was successful in part thanks to a high level of engagement from young people, says Shuya Ohno, spokesman for the Reform Immigration for American campaign in Washington, D.C.
“I would say youth are leading the way right now,” agrees Katherine Gorell, communications director for the Florida Immigrant Rights Coalition.
Students have recently innovated with their own original protest concepts. Along with four other students from South Florida, 23-year-old Felipe Matos is walking 1,500 miles from Miami to Washington, D.C., to promote in-state tuition at public colleges for undocumented immigrants.
“The government hasn’t done anything for us, so we need to do something for ourselves,” says Matos.
Like two of the other walkers Matos is an accomplished student at Miami Dade College, but is blocked from financial aid and other forms of support due to his lack of papers.
Presente.org, an online Latino organizing group that also helped organize “Basta Dobbs,” is one of the backers of the students’ protest, dubbed the “Trail of Dreams.”
In New York, a five-day road trip this week dubbed “Road Trip for our Future” took 10 immigration activists, many of them first- and second-generation immigrants, on an itinerary that includes farm towns, rust-belt cities, and suburban communities.
The activists held rallies outside lawmakers’ offices and met with local activist groups including, in tiny Pittsford, N.Y.,—“The Raging Grannies,” a troupe of elderly ladies who sang a ditty in favor of immigration reform.
One of the caravanning activists, Gabriela Villareal, is also advocacy policy director for the New York Immigration Coalition. She expressed peoples’ frustration with the immigration system with a personal anecdote. Under current law, it would take 22 years for her to lawfully bring her adult brother from the Philippines to live with her in the United States.
Hunger strikes — that age-old tool of last resort in political protests — have lately become more common in immigrant rights organizing.
Last year, solitary confinement had to be used to break apart hunger strikes at an immigrant detention facility in Basile, LA. And at the beginning of this year Florida activists grouped as “Fast for our Families” went on a fast to protest inflexible deportation policies that the fasters said needlessly separate immigrant families.
The Florida group was joined on Jan. 18 by some 70 fasters at the Port Isabel Detention Center in Bayview, Texas.
Some of the new immigration activism is taking place in states and localities that would hardly be expected to be hotbeds of immigrant rights agitation.
Alma Díaz, a 28-year-old bartender and mother of a three-year-old daughter, helped organize an unexpectedly large pro-immigrant rally in Cincinnati last month in collaboration with workers’ and faith-based groups.
“Lately, this year, and the final months of last year I’ve seen many Latinos … including many who can’t yet speak English, who are informing themselves, and are organizing and making themselves heard on immigration,” says Díaz.
In Utah, Colombian-American Isabel Rojas has begun urging leaders and rank-and-file members of the Mormon Church — of which she is also a member — to take a more explicit stance in favor of immigrants.
The Mormon Church or Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS church for short) has spoken out in favor of compassionate treatment of immigrants, but has stopped short of condemning Utah immigration legislation that critics saw as too harsh.
Rojas hopes that as its immigrant membership continues to swell the LDS Church will join the Catholic Church and some evangelical and protestant denominations in advocating openly for immigrant rights.
But in the meantime, Utah’s get-tough 2009 immigration bill had one favorable consequence for her work with Comunidades Unidas, a grassroots immigrant advocacy group.
“That scare was what got people looking again at re-energizing and reorganizing,” Rojas says.
Related Articles:
Immigration Reform: Litmus Test in 2010 Elections
Prospects for Immigration Reform Legislation
Invisible Among the Dispossessed: Internally Displaced Persons
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User Comments
Vinh Le on Feb 26, 2010 at 11:58:58 said:
Losing Patience? Ha ha ha.
They should try waiting overseas 20 plus years stuck in a $1 per hour job and no US benefits or Citizenship for their children like they have forced legal immigrants to do as a result of all their past amnesties. All these illegals need to do that first then maybe they will understand what losing patience is.
Immigrant Rights Foundtion
www.immigrantrightsfoundtion.org
Milo on Feb 23, 2010 at 23:04:45 said:
Pedro (relative of a friend) was brought here at age 10. He finished school, worked driving trucks and repairing electronics, married an American, and they have a three year old son. All that time they paid taxes. Now he is in detention without trial date for 5 months already. He was leading a normal American life. You who use the location of his birth as an excuse to deny all basic human rights 16 years later are paying to much attention to the hate propagandists. Those generalizations about the "load on the system" are propagandistic half-truths, and don't justify extreme measures like destroying families or banning a person for 10 years or more from visiting their loved ones. There's a statute of limitations for most crimes, but it seems systematic hate for immigrants has no reasonable limit with some people.
val on Feb 23, 2010 at 09:28:32 said:
You know what you retards why dont you ask AMERICAN Like Myself all the problems and depression me and my children are suffering waiting for my Husband 3 years just to come Home Here with me and his Children in the USA.. I am not latin or mexcian. My husband is from macedonia... while i have to wait 6months to a year for a Hardship waiver to be approved or Denied.. that is if they thin my life is hard enough without my husband!!! Mexican can go one day to mexico and get a Decision in 1 hour??? is this fair.... ?? to me or my children who are being forced to be raised without thier father. I never knew america as a place to promote divorce and family separation. We tired to go about it the legal way with my husband voluntary leaving but now where has it gotten us just daily crying and waiting and hoping for what???? so please dont tell me what reform you want DONT SEPARATE FAMILIES like mine and so many AMERICAN WIVES AND HUSBANDS who are living this daily nightmare!!! HELP US, NOT DESTORY US!!!!!!! please explain to my children why they can only see their father threw MSN video and when he will get his VIsa to come live with them.... do that why dont you!!!
anonymouse on Feb 23, 2010 at 06:32:30 said:
I am maried to a american citizen, we been working for my papers for more than a year everytime we went to baltimore ins to get pointers what to pass, we always get denied. coz its a wrong doc. they said.. now something came out me and my wife have a mis undrstanding and turn to seperation, because of the low process i am not legal to stay here in america i want to go home but i am still married and afraid to show up in court. I want to help but hoW?
john on Feb 23, 2010 at 05:39:24 said:
I am losing my patience with out elected leaders. I want the existing immigration laws enforced. To all of you advocates out there I have a question for you. How many illegals is the US supposed to absorb before the citizens can stand up and say 'enough'? 20 million isn't enough is it? How about 100 million? Enough yet? I have watched the company I work for offshore work to India and bring in thousands of immigrants under the visa program. All the while US citizens lose their jobs. Then I get to see millions sneaking across our border and taking jobs that Americans need. These illegals don't just work in the fields so don't even go there with me. They work in factories and in construction as well. These jobs used to be good paying for folks who didn't have a higher education. These illegals form a glut of labor which then forces the wages down. Every time they raid a factory to root out illegals the owners of the factory raise wages to attract legal workers. Americans need to come first in this immigration debate. YOU ARE LOSING PATIENCE? i DON'T CARE. Why no go home and petition your gov't not mine. Take your anchor baby with you so you can be united.
Greg in LA on Feb 22, 2010 at 22:33:45 said:
Obama used the Latino's. The Latino's fell for his lies hook line and sinker.
Didn't 75% of hispanics voted for Obama?
Then when he got in the White House he dumped them faster then you can say "adios".
I don't feel sorry that the Latino's were used and treated so poorly though. They voted for Obama mostly because he wasn't white. Most Mexicans have real hatred of Whites and long for the day when Whites in the USA will be a minority. They think they will then controll the "Gringo".
The funny thing is that Obama just showed the whole country, Most Mexicans are easy to controll and easy to push around. Instead of elevating themselves by assimilating into Americans they would prefer to be pawns and be marginalized by there Mexican and Latino nationalism.
Thank you LaRaza and LULAC. Keep your people marginalized in the barrios, keep your people from assimilating,prospering and learning English, keep your Latin nationalism. Mexicans will end up in the same situation in the USA that they were in Mexico and Central America. That is used like a pawn and then dumped. All because of their Mexican and Hispanic nationalism.
nativessayno on Feb 22, 2010 at 21:52:09 said:
Where is the pov of citizens losing patience from hordes that claim/demand entitlements from us by their smarmy enabler/advocates?
Citizens aren't merited though in a one-sided analysis. Except they do get get to pay billions annually from our coffers for the honor of supporting 20-25 million foreign national immigrant's lifestyle here. Our true thanks....billion sent away anually in remittances and loads of gaming our social services. Patience? Really?
Line up all the Raging Grannies and self-centered law-change-demanding job theives......We just don't care and plan your departures very soon...whip up some patience out of your home country's leaders since that is your only valid cause.
Losing patience is no actual issue or cause...although it does merit plenty of disdain, disbelief and a big harumph for its unbeleivable insular, delusional, self-interested pomposity.
We (citizens) resoundly reject your edicts and impatience with our own exceptional American forbearance! Just wait for what's coming soon...oh, that's right you, you losing your patience.
Delaware Bob on Feb 22, 2010 at 18:49:58 said:
"Immigration Reform Advocates Losing Patience with Obama"
I’m loosing patience with obama, also. I want him to ENFORCE the immigration laws and get these illegal aliens out of this Country and back with their families where they belong.
obama is one arrogant SOB. He just ignores the will of the people. I hope the new Arizona law passed. States will jump on it to get rid of the illegal aliens. The Federal Government has really failed to protect this Country from the INVASION of the illegal aliens and look what it has cost us. BILLIONS upon BILLIONS every year with no end in site. You think amnesty will change everything? WRONG! It will make things worse! The big mistake was when Reagan gave amnesty to what was suppose to be 1 million illegal aliens. It turns out to be 3 MILLION!
LOOK WHAT WE GOT NOW. 20 MILLION.
We are pushing to get the Oklahoma Illegal Immigration Law, HB 1804, passed here in Delaware. We are tire of the overcrowded schools, overwhelmed hospitals, crime, communities being destroyed and everything else.
Sparkle on Feb 22, 2010 at 15:01:18 said:
Are we talking LEGAL or ILLEGAL immigration reform? Like others have stated if you are not here legally then what rights do you have? I reside in NE Brazil a few months each year. I must have a visa and must abide by the rules of the Brazilian government and unless I apply for a permanent visa (cost 250k) then I must leave the country at the end of the six month period a temporary visa provides so what is the problem with the US enforcing laws against persons who have crossed the border illegally? And America is very generous. The fine for overstaying a Brazilian visa is $1,000 per DAY and the law is ENFORCED. At least you CAN protest your situation here. In Brazil you would be deported IMMEDIATELY by the policia for even daring to speak out against their government.
Dave A on Feb 22, 2010 at 10:17:28 said:
US citizens DO NOT WANT AMNESTY!!!!!!
When will illegal aliens and their enablers get that through their thick heads?
l00ker on Feb 22, 2010 at 10:05:58 said:
Let these illegal alien parasites and the fools who 'advocate' and lie for them lose patience, like what are they going to do about the situation, other than start packing and looking for a compass.
Festus on Feb 22, 2010 at 07:51:12 said:
The immigration system in this country is broken and it lacks common sense. I lived in the US for 8 years. I was on H1B when I lost my job i was required to leave same day. That is inhumane. I paid taxes, paid social security, owned houses etc. When I lost my job they told me I was not entitled to unemployment benefits despite the fact that I paid into it. How do you explain A situation where high skilled (H1-B) workers remain on temporary visas in the US for years (in some cases, more than a decade) with no clear path to becoming permanent residents while 50,000 random people are picked around the world and handed permanent resident status questions the fairness of the US immigration system.
Daniela on Feb 22, 2010 at 07:25:32 said:
The main problem is that undocumented immigrants do not even have basic rights. Not even due process (heads up to Ali!). It is time that Obama and the Senate delivers. Too many empty promises and a build-up of frustration and disappointment in our communities!
America on Feb 22, 2010 at 07:11:42 said:
John and Ali,
Think for second why immigrants come here. Americans give them jobs then others want them out. Americans love the bargains in the produce aisle but then complain about those breaking their backs harvesting and picking them. Americans want illegals out but dont care to address American policies that stimulate migrants to come to the US. This has occured with all immigrants coming to the US whether from the south of Europe or eastern Asia. We work, we pay taxes, we deserve representation. Or are we a country of taxation without representation?
love,
El Americano
America on Feb 22, 2010 at 07:08:42 said:
John and Ali,
Think for second why immigrants come here. Americans give them jobs then others want them out. Americans love the bargains in the produce aisle but then complain about those breaking their backs harvesting and picking them. Americans want illegals out but dont care to address American policies that stimulate migrants to come to the US. This has occured with all immigrants coming to the US whether from the south of Europe or eastern Asia. We work, we pay taxes, we deserve representation. Or are we a country of taxation without representation?
love,
El Americano
Jim Nichols on Feb 22, 2010 at 07:05:22 said:
It is great to see an excellent positive article and supportive comments on immigration reform. I read a lot of mean spirited comments form people who I believe are not well informed and do not know any illegal immigrants on a personal basis. I have made it my business to get know many people form Latin American who are undocumented and they are wonderful, loving, hard working, generous people who I am proud to call my friends. They are not on welfare, milking the system but rather are working at whatever job they can find to support their families. Put yourself in their shoes. If conditions were so bad in your country that you could not feed your family and lived in fear every day what would you do. These people know that they broke the law but they felt like they had no choice. Given an opportunity to be documented, they will gladly pay taxes and work to make our country a better place. Some of these people are college graduates who work at labor jobs because they need to have papers to work in their profession where they could make a significant contribution to our country. I encourage you to get out and meet some of these people and look at them as people and not just statistics. Once you do this, I think you will agree with me. If you support immigration reform, please write and call your Congressman and Sentor to encourage them to vote for comprehensive immigration reform.
Robert Gee on Feb 22, 2010 at 06:41:16 said:
This is not a movement for immigration reform; it is a call for the bypassing of U.S. law by foreign nationals. Over one million immigrants were legally admitted to the U.S. in 2009. The immigration laws worked just fine for them. This defeats the argument that the process is too slow or restrictive. The simple truth is that the line is too long and 12 million unauthorized aliens pushed to the head of that line and are now attempting to change U.S. law to suit their selfish agenda. Americans are noted for their generosity and sympathy to underprivileged groups but we are being forced to watch protests by unauthorized aliens chanting that Americans are racists all the while flying the flag of their foreign nation. Protest signs are in Spanish in a predominantly English speaking country. Some of these signs and certainly some advocates blame Americans for the separation of families and the aborted education of their children. I could not think of a worse strategy by a group seeking to have U.S. law set aside. Americans have not separated anybody nor have they aborted the education of a single child. These separations were caused by the illegal behavior of the people involved in those families. How dare you suggest that this is somehow the fault of “racist” Americans? If this is the way you treated the laws in your own country, it is no wonder you had to come here. Members of my family lie buried under the flag of the United States that they fought and died for. I will work unceasingly against you for carrying the flag of a foreign nation on the streets of my country while insulting the American people. The arrogance and ignorance of your “movement” is stunning.
Ali on Feb 22, 2010 at 06:25:03 said:
By the way, the reason it takes 22 years for Ms. Villareal's brother to emigrate from the Philippines is that we already HAVE large numbers of immigrants from that country. Mexico is in a similar situation, already accounting for 15-20% of all legal immigration annually. In short, countries such as the Philippines and Mexico already have a lock on our legal immigration system because of "family reunification".
Ali on Feb 22, 2010 at 06:22:17 said:
Kolosochek on Feb 22, 2010 at 06:08:22 said:
Another way to protest would be to boycot the census. Some politicians might find themselfs without a seet to run for in November. Others will get a hint. If you have a family member in the immigration limbo - boycott the census. I and my family will mail empty census form back with the note to resend it after the sensable immigration reform implemented. I am calling other people to do the same.
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Please do boycott the Census. The Census is used to apportion seats in Congress and states with large numbers of illegal aliens receive more seats and more tax monies than those without because of Census numbers. This means that CITIZENS in states without large numbers of illegal aliens lose representation. I urge ALL illegal aliens and even legal immigrants to boycott the Census.
Ali on Feb 22, 2010 at 06:17:58 said:
One of the caravanning activists, Gabriela Villareal, is also advocacy policy director for the New York Immigration Coalition. She expressed peoples’ frustration with the immigration system with a personal anecdote. Under current law, it would take 22 years for her to lawfully bring her adult brother from the Philippines to live with her in the United States.
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Ms. Villareal, there is no reason for you to be able to bring your brother here AT ALL just because he's related to you. If you're that close to your brother, you can call or visit THERE. Since people from countries such as the Philippines tend to have LARGE families, we'd be inundated with immigrants, often without skills or education, that we'd end up subsidizing. Being "fair" to you also means that other people from other countries or even the Philippines don't get a chance at immigrating.
Kolosochek on Feb 22, 2010 at 06:08:22 said:
Another way to protest would be to boycot the census. Some politicians might find themselfs without a seet to run for in November. Others will get a hint. If you have a family member in the immigration limbo - boycott the census. I and my family will mail empty census form back with the note to resend it after the sensable immigration reform implemented. I am calling other people to do the same.
john on Feb 22, 2010 at 05:35:12 said:
Well if things are so bad here don't be afraid to leave. Even that democraps know that American citizens have had it with these illegals and their arrogant demands. I can't believe that illeglas would demand, demand mind you, not ask for rights. WE have an immigration policy in place. Follow the rules or don't come here.
Emma on Feb 22, 2010 at 05:23:36 said:
I agree that it is time to step up the pressure on the Obama administration and others who aspire to get re-elected or elected.
The message is clear: Failure to enact comprehensive immigration reform will be punished hard at the polls in November and beyond. The immigrant vote should not be taken for granted.
Ali on Feb 22, 2010 at 05:17:15 said:
Illegal aliens have NO RIGHTS in this country, except the very basic human rights that we give even to visitors, such as due process. However, there is NO RIGHT for a non citizen to even be in this country, much less to have the same rights as citizens and legal residents. That this article, and illegal aliens, can't even bring themselves to acknowledge that they are breaking the laws of this country goes a long way to showing why they will not get amnesty. Amnesty is forgiveness for a wrong. Illegal aliens won't even acknowledge that what they have done and are doing is wrong.
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