President Obama came under fire this week over the 2016 ICE raids targeting Central American asylum seekers who have been slated by immigration courts for deportation. The controversial door-to-door roundups of a reported 121 migrants have provoked seething rage from immigration advocates and condemnations from from leading democratic candidates. Immigrant rights protesters demonstrated in front of the White House on Friday morning and the Supreme Court later in the day.
"President Obama continues to cement his legacy as Deporter-in-Chief. Our communities have been terrified of President Obama’s enforcement policies for most of his term. Today, we continue to live in fear,” Greisa Martinez, Director of Advocacy, United We Dream said according to a statement. “We demand that President Obama halts all raids and provides these families with the relief they deserve. Immigrant youth expect true moral leadership from the Democratic Party [....]”
If moral leadership equals opposition to the deportations, immigrant rights advocates have gotten a strong dose from top Democrats , albeit a few blocks away from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Here are 4 key quotes from leading Democrats in the past few days.
On Thursday, Nancy Pelosi convened a meeting between members of the Democratic Hispanic Caucus and Cecilia Muñoz, the White House domestic policy director. A former immigration advocate herself, the NCLR policy wonk has at time been treated like a “ modern day Malinche .”
1) Trump Supports You -- Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.)
“They said they are seeing the numbers of people from Central America surging,” Gutierrez said of his meeting with Muñoz and other officials, according to the Washington Post . “We told them, ‘After all the work we’ve done together on this issue, why didn’t you share with us that you were doing these raids? We could have worked together.”
"What I said to [Munoz] is, I said, 'Think about it a moment. Donald Trump is praising your public policy on immigration," Gutierrez said of the meeting, according to Politico . "You should need no further evidence of how wrong it is."
2) Process Is Unfair -- Sen. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
"We need to obey our laws. But we also want to, in obeying our laws, make sure that the process is fair to people," Pelosi said on Thursday, according to the AP .
One barrier to that “fairness” cited by immigration advocates? Access to lawyers. Despite the fact that all of the Central American migrants have had their case reviewed by an immigration judge, many have not at access to legal advice and others have lost the chance to present testimony (though sometimes due to neglecting court dates).
3) There’s No Deterrent For People Who Fear For Their Lives -- Rep. Zoe Lofgren, (D-Calif.)
"This was an announcement to send a message to Central America: Don't come here," Rep. Zoe Lofgren, (D-Calif.) told the AP, referring to the Obama administration’s attempts to deter migrants by stepping up enforcement. "But if your mother, your father and your brother have just been murdered, the message is not going to do it and that is the problem."
4) Entitled Political Refugees -- Sen. Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)
"A number of us are extremely concerned. We’ve made contact with the Department of Homeland Security to have them just back off till we can find out a better way to do this," Reid said on Thursday in Las Vegas, adding that the Central American migrants are "political refugees" that "are entitled to stay here."
Right-leaning news outlets and politicians have had a field day Reid’s comments, as well as the raids themselves. For example, the Washington Times led with the headline Democrats to demand new amnesty from Obama for Central Americans , while Breitbart highlighted the arrest of an immigrant reportedly slated for deportation, but in possession of a work permit.
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