Biden Won! What's Next for Human-Centered Immigration Reform

 

PBS News: The challenges Biden will face on immigration reform

For the U.S. Citizen same-sex spouse of a handsome Salvadoran who at only 19-years of age left his family behind to escape gang-related threats in his home country some 15-years ago only to face corruption at the U.S. border and more than a decade of unthinkable legal challenges, income tax robbery by the United States gov't, discrimination, and coercion by a Texas judge that cost us one of the clearest paths to a legal remedy of his undocumented status, human-centered immigration reform has never been more critical!

Campaigning on promises to reform immigration, President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris have a long road to travel to arrive at true reform that must start from the top down - immigration courts! 

Following the past four years of what can only be determined as crimes against humanity, the Trump administration's gross family separation policies as a deterrent for southern-border crossings, one of more than 400 racistly-motivated and inhumane executive actions taken during Trump's tenure - there has never been a more urgent need for reform. With innocent migrant children and family's lives at stake, Biden promised reform on the campaign trail. But true and lasting immigration reform must start by establishing a new Article I - immigration court - free of the constantly shifting political environment that puts millions of immigrant lives in the crosshairs of dangerous policy shifts unilaterally initiated by the President of the day with oversight of the Attorney General and Department of Justice. Immigration policies impacting the lives of millions of immigrants in the nation must never again be leveraged as a hot-button topic for political pandering. But true and lasting reform is not for the faint of heart. In fact, policies on immigration are complex and involve a wide range of interwoven issues to be unpacked including national security, economic impacts, jobs, tech transfer and innovation, crime, social justice constraints, and many other areas of impact on modern society. 

‘We Need to Take Away Children,’ No Matter How Young, Justice Dept. Officials Said

Top department officials were “a driving force” behind President Trump’s child separation policy, a draft investigation report said. - New York Times, Oct 6, 2020

Human-Centered Immigration Reform - Where to Start?

According to a 2019 American Bar Association, Commission on Immigration Report, Reforming the Immigration System, four critical goals of reform must first be tackled. 

• Goal 1: Make immigration judges at both the trial level and the appellate level sufficiently independent, with adequate resources, to make high-quality, impartial decisions free from any improper influence; 

•Goal 2: Ensure fairness and due process and the perception of fairness by participants in the system;

 •Goal 3: Promote efficient and timely decision making without sacrificing quality; and

• Goal 4: Increase the professionalism of the immigration judiciary

Critical at the outset is an understanding of what is broken at the very top - oversight! American immigration and courts fall under the executive branch of the President with direct oversight provided by the Department of Justice and sitting attorney general. This blindly unilateral alignment places the lives of millions of immigrants under the control of political partisanship. More specifically, as seen by the horrendously inhumane policies of the Trump administration, immigrants are pawns in the political oneupmanship of opposing parties. Such efforts - unchecked - have resulted in decades of back and forth maneuvering of life-or-death policies affecting the lives of innocent immigrants seeking refuge, employment, education, or pursuit of the "American Dream" now tarnished by nationalist policies of conservatives emboldened by Trump. 

As Trump's xenophobic and nationalist policies steered American immigration away from humanitarian relief and opportunities for global innovation, knowledge transfer, and cultural exchange, policy shifts and a clampdown on immigration judges that removed judicial discretion while enforcing strict quotas and performance metrics, turned the duties of what should be an independent judicial process into nothing more than rubber-stampers for separation. Under the conservative leadership of the Department of Justice, previously led by Attorney General Jeff Session until his ousting, and more recently led by Trump sycophant Attorney General William Barr, the profession of what should be impartial immigration case review by the hundreds of immigration judges and innocent immigrants seeking their day in court, are caught in a windstorm of politics and deliberatively harmful policies that seek only to further conservative agendas intent on making America white again. The American Immigration Lawyers Association, the previously mentioned American Bar Association, and many other respected organizations and individuals within the judicial system have finally said, "Enough is enough" with the call for an Article 1 - independent immigration court system.

Dismantling the harm caused by the Trump administration will not be an easy task. With more than 400 executive actions taken over a four year period, lives have been lost in the inhumane policies of the dictatorial administration. Seeking to preserve the xenophobic plight of the white man, for Trump, the GOP, and many of his followers, it is my belief immigration policy shifts under Trump were mean spirited and are more about stopping the influx of black and brown people into our nation than it ever could be about stopping human suffering. 

In this shocking (must read) report, "Dismantling and Reconstructing the U.S. Immigration System," scant policy changes are in keeping with the U.S. once known as a "Nation of immigrants!" As demonstrated by the unthinkable change of the USCIS mission statement, under Trump, the administration has turned the nation inward to execute his nationalist agenda.

America is no longer a 'nation of immigrants'

A USA Today report suggests, America is no longer a nation of immigrants. 

"'Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.'
The U.S. is no longer devoted to securing 'America's promise as a nation of immigrants.'

That's according to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) anyway, which changed its official mission statement late Thursday and dropped the language to describe the country.

The federal agency that grants visas and U.S. citizenship now refers to itself as an organization that 'administers the nation's lawful immigration system.' The new mission statement also eliminates the word "customers" to refer to visa applicants."

Enrique's troubles started when he first crossed the border, surrendering himself to patrol agents. Strategically handed "defective documents" as later determined by the SCOTUS, the injustice had only just begun. Unable to speak English, afraid, and alone, the 19-year old may have (for the time being) escaped gang recruitment in El Salvador but was never given a fair and legal chance from the start. Arrival at the U.S. southern border was far from the escape he might have hoped for as the next 15-years would be caught up in lies, corruption, the gov't aiding and abetting of supposed illegal stay within the nation, financial hardship, robbery by a nation that demands the payment of income taxes as a "demonstration of good moral character" while turning its back on any possible benefit to immigrants. The constant fear and ongoing discrimination - all at the hands of the United States government and political whims of the day, are far from what I would call - legal, ethical, good moral character in and of itself, nor freedom! Read the full details of Enrique's journey here. 

Biden Won! So what is next for immigration reform? 

• First, let's start with justice - by providing amnesty to all undocumented immigrants within the nation prior to his 2020 election to the highest office in the land. 
• Second, let us immediately begin measurable and sustainable steps to reform American immigration, starting with the appointment of an Article 1 - independent immigration court. 
• Third, in doing so, return judicial discretion to the bench and, until further policy shifts can be made (if needed/sans amnesty), restore administrative closure as a tool in the toolbox of immigration judges. 
• Fourth, evaluate every means necessary and put into action - measurable and sustainable efforts to infuse humanitarian concern and care for social justice into the American immigration system. Failure to do any of the above first four primary steps is sure to leave immigration the political pawn for future generations.  
• True human-centered immigration reform must include reparations for families who have lost their savings and investments in retirement, housing, etc. while paying costly legal fees to navigate a long broken system established only to the advantage of politicians. Further, disenfranchised U.S. citizen spouses/family members must be made whole in losses suffered in fighting for the freedom of loved ones.
• Finally, immigrants who have paid into U.S. Tax coffers for decades - on the promise that doing so was a demonstration of "good moral character" must be reimbursed for contributions paid into a system that now garners a surplus in tax revenues stollen from immigrants seeking refuge. This white-collar state-sponsored robbery must stop! Fairness and reciprocal "good moral character" must be given to immigrant families harmed by the unequal demand of pay without benefit. Such efforts must be stopped immediately. 
• Overall - immigration laws must be changed and strict compliance of policies followed to ensure border patrol and processing is fair and equitable. Incomplete documents, failure to track immigrant location within the states, failure to advise of hearing dates, times, locations, etc., and failure to treat humans at the border with dignity, must be investigated, prosecuted, and stopped. 

Independent of immigration reform - Immediately Pursue Prosecution For Crimes Against Humanity

• The United States - at the fullest extent of the law - must investigate, pursue, and prosecute Trump and members of the executive branch including Sessions, Barr, Cuccinelli, and Wolf, Trump Jr. and all others in the Trump regime determine to have resulted in war crimes, crimes against humanity, hate crimes, and civil rights infractions, created by their racist agenda. A presidential self-pardon must not be deemed constitutional when millions of immigrant families have suffered harm - including financial harm, sickness, and deaths disproportionately impacting the Latino population afflicted by the nation's turning its back on black and brown communities. 
• Prosecution for the administration's blatant disregard of U.S. Citizen's 14th Amendment right to equal protection under the law must also be pursued on the behalf of U.S. Citizen family members specifically prohibited from receiving COVID stimulus support on the basis of their relationship with a taxpayer who uses a tax ID. 
• Lastly, criminal prosecution must be investigated and brought forth for the administration's direct responsibility in disproportionate infections, financial struggle, and deaths of black and brown families who have suffered grave losses through COVID as the nation systematically looked the other way with malice. Intentionally turning its back on the immigrant population, the administration has consistently demonstrated it's intentional use of family separations and other harmful measures as a "deterrent" for migration. This administration has blood on its hands in the denial of human-centered care and concern of migrant families affected with the disease. They must be prosecuted to the fullest extend of the law for such grave human rights tragedies.