For well over a year, activists and immigration attorneys have been urging President Obama to use his executive authority to provide relief to DREAM eligible youth. And it’s been documented that the President does have this authority as other Republican and Democratic Presidents in recent history have used it. Should President Obama use his executive authority to provide some relief to DREAMers, this could signal to Latino voters and the immigrant community more broadly that the President still has some “skin in the game” because the DREAM Act failed in 2010 and since he couldn’t deliver on his campaign promise of immigration reform. In fact, the Obama administration has set records for deportations, and over three quarters of Latinos disapprove of how the President has handled the immigration issue.
“I feel like President Obama is taking the Latina/o vote for granted,” Neidi Dominguez, a member of DREAM Team Los Angeles, told Politic365 . “He is actively choosing to not take action and use executive authority to protect undocumented youth, like myself, who know this country as home.”
“There is no legal reason why President Obama has not granted categorical administrative relief to undocumented youth, so it’s clear that his inactivity is fueled by his fear of losing votes and being critiqued by the conservative right wing for granting relief to this group of young people,” added Dominguez.
Should the deportations of young people continue the Obama campaign could have a serious problem on its hands. It’s the President saying he would like to see DREAMers become productive members of our society, yet the actions of ICE agents and others tell another story. With DREAMers spread out across the country ready to take action, Obama for America offices could become the targets of more sit-ins and protests.
|