The anxiety and the blaming by those illegally in the United States aimed at President-elect Donald Trump is misplaced. They should blame President Obama.
During President Obama’s first two years in office, when the Democrats were in control of Congress, the administration chose not to enact a new immigration law. Instead, they focused on Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act. When Obama and the Democrats finally did get around to tackling immigration reform legislation after 2010, the newly elected Republican majority in the House of Representatives refused to pass the Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill.
Had Obama and the Democrats acted in 2009, a far-reaching immigration bill could have been enacted and implemented, and would have now been the law of the land.
So in the article “Deportation Dilemma,” Sandra Dimas, the woman illegally in the United States, who is “scared” of the incoming U.S. president, should blame Obama for her dilemma, not Trump. Remember when Obama boasted, “I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone”? Yes, Obama used his pen. For example, he signed the executive order for Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals, DACA. Obama’s administration also enacted policies to protect those illegally in the United States, but they were only policies — not law. And now the policies can be rewritten by a new administration.
Obama’s executive actions implemented by the stroke of his pen, can now be undone — by Trump’s pen.
The populist, incoming new president, Donald Trump, is supported in his stance on immigration by U.S. immigration law, the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, IRCA. Sec. 115, states, “the immigration laws of the United States should be enforced vigorously and uniformly.” Donald Trump’s clarion call to deport criminal aliens is also backed up by the law of the land. IRCA Sec. 701 calls for “expeditious deportation of convicted aliens.”
Interestingly enough, our neighbor to the south, Mexico, rigorously enforces its immigration laws. Local police officers actively participate in the rounding up and, ultimately, the deporting of those illegally residing in Mexico. There is neither a free public education, social services, nor a driver’s license for an individual illegally living in Mexico. Just incarceration and deportation.
Mexico enforces its immigration laws but the United States, under the incoming Trump administration, is not supposed to enforce U.S. immigration laws?
In the article, Sandra Dimas said that she is “surrounded by fear.” She stated that she and her neighbors are now fearful of being deported, because Donald Trump will be president. But it is not Donald Trump’s fault that Sandra Dimas and her neighbors chose to break the law — to enter and to reside illegally in the United States. These individuals are residing in California because the U.S. government has been derelict in its duty, and has been extremely lax in the enforcement of immigration laws — for decades.
So who should be blamed?
Not Donald Trump. Now, he seeks merely to uphold and enforce the law. President Obama and his administration chose not to enact a new immigration law when the implementation of a new law could have been, easily, achieved with Democrats in charge of Congress and the presidency.
So I say to Sandra Dimas: Blame Obama, not Trump.
Robin Hvidston is executive director of Claremont-based We the People Rising.
