Earlier this week, President Obama appeared on an Univision hosted television forum on Latinos and Education. While education is an important key in the future of the growing Latino population in the US, now estimated at 50 million, immigration is tied into this future as well. During the forum, Obama said that he still had hope for comprehensive immigration reform including the DREAM Act. All the hope in the world however, cannot obscure the ugly reality of current policy and this week has proven chock full of examples of the double speak the administration is engaging in, especially to the Latino community in all it’s intersections.

False Hope for Immigrant LGB Couples

For 24 hours, immigrant gay and lesbian married couples believed that their struggle to have their marriages recognized and having that recognition work in their favor to access the same right to permanent residency green cards as straight married couples was over.
For 24 hours U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services initiated a temporary hold on on green card applications from married same-sex couples based on President Obama’s declaration that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional. This meant a hold on deportations of foreign nationals in legally recognized same-sex marriages. Quickly though, USCIS declared it’s intention to return to business as usual as per Obama’s deportation first immigration policy.

Christopher Bentley, a spokesperson for U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services, confirmed on Wednesday that the temporary hold on green card applications from married same-sex couples has been lifted after the agency received the anticipated legal instructions on issues that emerged after President Obama declared the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional.

“USCIS has not implemented any change in policy and intends to follow the president’s directive to continue enforcing the law,” Bentley said.

Steve Ralls, spokesperson for Immigration Equality, expressed disappointment that the Obama administration resumed its authority to deport foreign nationals in legally recognized same-sex marriages.

“Our government should be in the business of keeping families together, not tearing them apart,” Ralls said. “The Department of Justice has said it believes DOMA is unconstitutional. Immigration Equality agrees, and we believe it is inappropriate to use that unconstitutional law to separate American citizens from their loved ones.”

US citizenship does not equal safety from being separated from your loved ones, even if you are a U.S. citizen child. Just ask four year old Emily Ruiz.

Deporting U.S. Citizen Children
Over the years here at VivirLatino, there have been numerous stories of parents being deported, leaving their U.S. citizen children behind. What happened to 4 year old Emily Ruiz was the complete opposite. The deportation of this U.S. citizen child, who is the same age as my own younger daughter, should erase any doubt that citizenship is any cloak of safety for Latinos in the U.S., especially those in mixed-status familias.

Ruiz, who suffers from chronic asthma, was sent to Guatemala five months ago to wait out the New York winter and set to come home earlier this month together with her grandfather. After landing in Washington, D.C.’s Dulles airport on March 11, Ruiz’s grandfather, who had traveled in and out of the country for years on a work visa, was detained. According to Emily’s parents, Customs and Border Patrol agents who subsequently contacted Leonel Ruiz asked him about his and his wife’s immigration status. After determining that the Ruizes were undocumented, immigration officials then told Ruiz’s parents that they only had two options: allow immigration officials to send the little girl to a holding facility in Virginia or give the okay for her deportation to Guatemala. Ruiz’s father maintains that he was only given these two options.

Deporting DREAMers

During the Univision telecast one DREAMer pressed Obama on the deportation of DREAM Act eligible students.

I hate to call Obama a liar, but this week alone there are, to my knowledge, two DREAM eligible people are facing imminent deportation, Manolo and Mario Perez. I also wonder what further pressure Obama expects from the community, especially the DREAMers themselves who have held hunger strikes and constantly risk deportation by declaring their status and participating in acts of civil disobedience across the the U.S. While DREAM Act state laws are being pushed, these laws recognize undocumented students as residents for the sake of equal access to in-state tuition rates and scholarships. They do not offer a path to legalization.

Today, The Fair Immigration Reform Movement is launching yet another campaign, asking President Obama to stop the deportations and end programs like Secure Communities and 287G that feed the deportation machine. There have been so many marches, rallies, campaigns that get funding and secure jobs but haven’t secured the safety of our communities. What would be helpful is less kowtowing towards the administration and Democratic party that tries to buy support with promises it clearly has no intention of fulfilling. What we need to figure out ways, as community(s) to protect ourselves and our familias.