DREAM Act and Obama’s Texas Speech Reignite Immigration Debate

Less than one day after President Obama addressed the nation from El Paso, Texas on the need for comprehensive solutions to fix our country’s broken immigration system, United States Sens. Richard Durbin (D-Ill), Harry Reid (D-NV) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ), introduced the DREAM Act in the 112th congress. “These students are hoping and praying that the U.S. Senate will find the courage to pass the DREAM Act which we are reintroducing today,” Sen. Durbin told press today. “We’re not giving up… this is a matter of justice.” A similar bill will be introduced in the House later today by Representatives Howard Berman (D-CA) and Illeana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL). Check out Campus Progress’ statement on DREAM’s reintroduction here.

Last year, the immigrant rights community came incredibly close to getting a victory on this immigration bill. After its historic passage in the House of Representatives, the DREAM Act was unable to overcome a Republican filibuster in the U.S. Senate, falling five votes short of becoming reality.

Since that time, youth activists have played a critical role in protecting and advancing immigrant rights at state and local levels: they’ve secured victories on in-state tuition fights and organized against Arizona SB1070 copycats that spread like wildfire this legislative season.

Young People to President: Stop the Deportations

Over the past few weeks, the President has hosted a series of meetings with key stakeholders, influential media figures, and leaders in Congress to discuss how to elevate the national debate on immigration, and steer it towards concrete bipartisan solutions. One theme has remained constant in these meetings: the President continues to discount his own power to interfere in existing immigration policy, specifically deportations.

This messaging has certainly made an impact: “We like to blame Obama for the inaction, but he can’t just disobey the law that’s written,” actress Eva Longoria told reporters after attending one of the recent White House meetings.

But activists and advocates of the DREAM Act and comprehensive immigration reform know better and expect more. While the President’s initiative to re-spark the conversation around immigration is commendable, there is a lot that can be done on his part to provide some relief for DREAM Act-eligible youth.

Last month, 22 Senators urged the administration to exercise some prosecutorial discretion, and to recognize its authority to protect DREAM Act-eligible youth from being separated from their families while Congress fixes the problem though the legislative process. But the response from the White House created confusion. In a memo [PDF] drafted by a number of immigration and legal experts – including two former INS General Counsels – outlines the numerous options available to the President.

The memo clearly states that at every stage of law enforcement, prosecutors exercise discretion on how they charge individuals with crimes, and whether or not they should drop charges:

In the immigration context, prosecutorial discretion is exercised at every stage in the enforcement process—which tips or leads will be investigated, which arrests will be made, which persons will be detained, which persons will be released on bond, which cases will be brought forward for removal hearings or criminal prosecution, and which removal orders will be executed.

The interesting thing is that President Obama and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano stress this very point every time they talk about who they’re deporting: “we are not [deporting people] haphazardly; we are focusing our limited resources on violent offenders and people convicted of crimes.” This would indicate that they’re already practicing some level of discretion. So why not extend this power to protect DREAM Act-eligible youth?

Campus Progress and the young people we work with applaud his efforts to re-engage the country in the immigration debate, but actions speak louder than words. We need to stop the deportations.

Eduardo Garcia is an advocacy associate at Campus Progress. Follow him @itseddie.

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