Sunday, September 09, 2018

Immigration? Why trust the Democrats?

Robert Scheer in an interview on the Truthdig website gives us a non-partisan recollection of America's immigration policy.  few have acknowledged how multiple Democratic administrations helped pave the way for the Trump administration’s violence and cruelty.  Immigration attorney Helen Sklar reminds us that it was Bill Clinton who first branded immigrants without the necessary documentation an “unlawful presence in the U.S.”  Clinton’s elimination of laws that made it easier for Mexican immigrants to establish permanent legal status has enabled  Trump to separate families at the border. Sklar also recalls the horrifying treatment of migrants during the deporter-in-chief Obama administration. “There was a lot of damage,” she says, “in the realm of abuse of people in detention by customs and border protection, and ICE.” There are stories coming out now through data production, document production, under the Freedom of Information Act that are showing thousands of complaints have been filed for sexual abuse, battery, abuse of children—under Obama.

 There was a time when people from Mexico could establish the requirements for lawful permanent residence; they could get a green card and live here in peace without worrying about being apprehended and deported.  During this time, what was required was a showing to an immigration judge that they would suffer extreme hardship if they were deported. And it could be a showing of hardship to one’s self, or to one’s U.S. citizen spouse or children. Then there was a bill that came along, it was signed by Bill Clinton, called the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. It was passed in 1996, it went into effect in 1997, and it eliminated that program.  The standard of proof for hardship was raised by virtue of the language of this bill, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act.  In order to essentially eliminate it, the standard of proof was elevated by virtue of a new set of words that was adopted to describe what people had to establish to win.  A pathway to documentation, green cards, that obtained in this country from 1952, you know, at the time of the Korean War; it survived Reagan, it survived Nixon, it survived a lot of people. And then you get to Bill Clinton push through this legislation.  There has not been a remedy for Mexicans to regularize their status ever since. Trump is building on a legal precedent that he inherited

The Democratic Party was generally associated with a much tougher anti-immigration position than the Republicans, traditionally. The Republicans wanted the labor force, they were pro-growth, and so forth. And a part of the labor movement was very anti-immigrant, also was racist for quite a long time. And they were exclusionary.  It was Ronald Reagan legislation that created what’s known as the legalization program.

Full Interview here
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/how-bill-clinton-paved-the-way-for-trumps-war-on-immigrants/

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