The inauguration of President Joe Biden has brought a new day in America, and Texans who advocate for immigrant communities are among those waking up refreshed.
“I slept so well last night!,” said Antonio Arellano, the executive director of JOLT Texas, a Latino progressive organization, on Thursday.
“It’s been a really great moment for many of us that have been pushing for something like this for a very long time,” said Nabila Mansoor, the executive director of Emgage Texas, a Muslim American organizing group. She added a note of caution: “We don’t think it’s over, though. We think there’s much more work to be done.”
Hours after being sworn in, Biden signed a slew of executive orders, to the chagrin of some Republicans who feel that the new president’s pursuit of unity is contingent on him coddling them.
Most of these executive orders targeted executive actions taken by President Donald Trump, with a number addressing Trump’s actions on immigration.
Trump, who notoriously launched his bid for the White House with a speech slurring migrants from Mexico and who later called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” often resorted to executive action in pursuit of his restrictionist goals and draconian enforcement policies. And what can be done by the pen can be scribbled over just as easily.
To wit: Biden reversed Trump’s Muslim ban, which — in the version that the Supreme Court allowed to stand — restricted travel from seven majority-Muslim countries. He directed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to “review and reset” immigration enforcement priorities, meaning a moratorium on most deportations for the first 100 days of his presidency, at least. He revoked an executive order that would have excluded unauthorized immigrants from being counted in the 2020 Census.
Biden also issued a proclamation ending construction on Trump’s border wall, and a memorandum directing the homeland security secretary “to preserve and fortify DACA,” the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program established by then-President Barack Obama by executive order in 2012. The order shields Dreamers brought to the U.S. as children from deportation.
The new president further announced an ambitious immigration reform plan that would, if passed, provide a pathway to citizenship for immigrants living in the country without legal permission. Not bad for a day’s work.
His actions, like Trump’s, are going to have an outsized impact on states such as Texas with a large population of immigrants. The state is home, for example, to more than 100,000 DACA recipients who have been in legal limbo for the past four years as the Trump administration and Republicans such as Texas Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton moved repeatedly to scuttle the program.
“For Texans it’s a huge win,” said Arellano.“These young men and women who are contributing economically to our state, who are contributing culturally and in so many other ways to the brilliance of Texas, can rest easier now knowing that this administration will prioritize their safety and embrace their contributions.”
The call for comprehensive immigration reform was perhaps most surprising. It indicates that Biden considers the issue a priority worth pursuing even as he tackles the monumental task of getting COVID-19 vaccines to the American public.
“Since Ronald Reagan we haven’t seen something as ambitious in terms of immigration reform in this country,” Arellano said, noting that such a push will mark a key early test of Biden’s ability to leverage his personal relationships with members of the Senate in pursuit of meaningful legislative change.
Mansoor, for her part, hopes that Biden pushes aggressively for immigration reform as well as for the passage of legislation such as the National Origin-Based Antidiscrimination for Nonimmigrants Act, which passed the Democratic-controlled House last year but stalled in the GOP-led Senate. The latter is now evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, but Democrats control the chamber thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote.
“When we tried to push the NO BAN act, we went to Republican congressional leaders, and we found some tepid support but no one willing to put their name on the act,” she said. “It’s important to note that things have changed now in Congress.”
“We know that the trauma that is felt when polices such as the Muslim ban act or the (family) separations at the border happen. People are still suffering from that,” Mansoor added, noting that many families in the Houston area have been unable to visit relatives abroad for years, due to concerns about whether they would be able to return. “You can’t get that time back.”
To her point, some Republican leaders have sharply criticized Biden’s executive actions on immigration, and, true to form, Paxton on Thursday filed suit against the administration over the moratorium on most deportations.
“I won’t tolerate unlawful acts from Joe Biden’s administration,” tweeted Paxton, who remains under indictment for state securities fraud and faces a federal investigation into claims by former aides that abused his office.
But it would be wise, Arellano reckoned, for Republican leaders in Texas — including U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz — to return to a course set by their predecessors
“If you go back to George W. Bush and (the elder) George Bush… both of them ran on very inclusive immigration platforms. Immigration reform was something that they discussed; both of them embraced immigration and talked about treating immigrants as our neighbors,” Arellano continued. “The departure that the Republican party has embarked upon since then due to Trumpism is really sad.”
Sad indeed and — if last year’s election results are any indication — not the brilliant electoral strategy that Trump may have thought.
erica.grieder@chron.com
"bring" - Google News
January 23, 2021 at 06:00PM
https://ift.tt/2Y6zRUH
Grieder: Biden’s early moves on immigration bring hope — and relief — to Houston - Houston Chronicle
"bring" - Google News
https://ift.tt/38Bquje
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Grieder: Biden’s early moves on immigration bring hope — and relief — to Houston - Houston Chronicle"
Post a Comment