appeasing conservative surgardaddies?
by melani sutedjaNew head of Homeland Security might mean new measures towards immigrant deportation and reform.
Et tu, Janet?
President Obama's pick to head the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Janet Napolitano, signaled some hope to the issue of immigration reform. The former Arizona governor, who opposed government attempts to curb illegal immigration via building a borderfence or using state crackdowns, marked a new political climate away from the post-9/11 politics of the Bush administration.
Yet, her recent policies are proving otherwise.
Despite earning initial support from pro-immigrant organizations for her willingness towards comprehensive reform (and originally, allowing to give driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants), Napolitano has recently backtracked into a more conservative swing towards tougher employer sanctions and border security.
In her recent border immigration and security directive, Napolitano aims to shift focus from deporting undocumented immigrants, to targeting the employers who hire these workers.
"I expect to increase the focus on ensuring that employers of unlawful workers are prosecuted," Napolitano said.
She will pursue it through the Electronic Employment Verification system, which according to the government website, allows employers to verify the "employment eligibility of new hires and the validity of their Social Security numbers."
Napolitano also aims to oust "criminal aliens" out of the country by improving computer systems in which police would automatically know the immigrant status of criminals after they have been detained. Once the sentence has been served, the police can deport them if necessary.
As I sit here researching her politics, I'm wondering whatever happened to her push for immigration reform through earned citizenship programs or legality systems. I call bull.
True, she isn’t outright deporting undocumented workers, but going after employers and villainizing youth who commit petty crimes is just as futile; we can't use sad band-aid solutions to alleviate a much broader issue.
Graciously, Napolitano is also doing her fair share of political flip flopping by shifting her stance on fence construction accordingly to appease her sugardaddies on the political right, while lending a somewhat discerning ear to the left.
"Napolitano wants to get moving on completing the security fence along the southern border," FOX news reports. "Most of the 670-mile fence has been completed, but more than 60 miles -- mostly in Texas -- remain unfinished...The secretary is a huge supporter of the right mix at the right places."
This is the same woman who earlier opposed construction due to its high expenses and ineffectiveness.
“You build a 50-foot wall, somebody will find a 51-foot ladder,” she said back in November of last year. So much for that.
Maybe she's doing her fair share of conservative brown-nosing- that's cool, we all need to get off on some bipartisan lovin' every now and then.
But I wonder how Napolitano really differs from Michael Chertoff, the former OHS Secretary who oversaw Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, attempting to crackdown "illegals" through draconian militancy. Maybe Napolitano won't be separating nursing mothers from their children, as with the Massachusetts workers raid in 2007, but both Napolitino and Chertoff essentially subscribe to the same "rule of law, against foreign terrorists" rhetoric.
Maybe it's no surprise that Napolitano is planning to beef up border security. Nevertheless, many in the Berkeley community react to Napolitano's new policies with skepticism.
Francisca Hernández, a postdoctorate fellow in the humanities at the University of California Berkeley, finds them reflective of the various political contingents pressuring Napolitano. She suggests more pathways to naturalize those already here or wanting to come here, while taking into account factors such as the demands of the US economy, refugee status, and family reunification.
"This would help reduce the competition among the labor force and stabilize as well as raise wages for everyone, not to mention improve the horrific conditions under which undocumented workers often labor," Hernandez said. "It would also reduce, if not eliminate, the underground economies of human smuggling, the violence associated with them, and a host of social problems caused by the current policies.”
And of course, there are probably some out there who’ll still look at me with glazed eyes to say this is a Latino issue. In these Chertoff-esque times, ICE raids don’t discriminate between different shades of brown, honey. The Asian Pacific Islander community is equally susceptible to losing loved ones over a few missing papers.
Early February of this month left an especially bitter scar, when Chinese immigrant Hiu Lui Ng died from liver cancer in an ICE detention center in Rhode Island. The detainee was reported to have been denied medical care and wheelchair access, with jailers “treat(ing) him like an animal, dragging him into a truck like dragging a piece of furniture,” according to his attorney. Ng, who had been staying on an overstayed visa, was swept into a detention center during the process of applying for his green card.
Institutionalized barriers that contribute to the long naturalization process create perpetual foreigners out of those waiting to become naturalized. New policies have even threatened to make the citizenship of legal residents retroactive if they committed “aggravated felonies.”
Fong Tran, a UC Berkeley senior, reflects on the recent deportations within the API community.
“Sending people to a country they don’t belong to,” Tran said. “That’s not right. These 1.5 generation folks are more American than they are their ethnicity because they've lived more of their life here. Being deported when you’re that young is being in a whole new world. Like the many in Phnom Penh- their swagger is American.”
In the meantime, some say there are compromises that can be made. Monica Hernandez, a UC Berkeley junior transfer, says lawmakers can start by helping those already situated within the educational institution- the students.
“It’s a start because it allows students to get their education, pursue a career, and contribute to the country with whatever degree they have,” said Hernandez. “Efforts like the DREAM Act always seem to be associated as a Mexican issue. In reality, it’s an issue that people of all immigrant communities deal with.”
Time will tell whether an issue like immigration reform- amidst the backdrop of domestic economic turmoil and Iraq pullout- will even be a priority within the first few months of the Obama administration. I'm pretty much hoping the fate of those waiting to be naturalized don't sit in the hands of career politicians and petty partisan brown-nosing. Then again, maybe that's just me being cynical.