Last
week, local media was abuzz with news of President Obama's
visit to San Francisco. Unfortunately for immigration policy
and for the noble cause of immigrant rights, the media coverage
didn’t reflect the problems brewing for the President in
Latino America. Instead, the media coverage of his visit
reflected the pro-immigration positions put out by the Administration
and then echoed by the multi-million dollar media apparatus
set up by Obama's immigrant rights allies in DC. These groups
are still seen by the press as the official voice of immigrants
in the US. As a result, nothing was said of the increasing
amount of fear and terror President Obama’s policies are
creating among immigrants.
This
unwillingness to mention, much less denounce Obama's radical
immigration policies has so conditioned the ears of journalists
and editors to the faux applause and the Jumbotroned
sound of support, to the sickly "Si Se Puede"
legalization talk, that anyone talking about Obama's repressive
and devastating policies sounds and looks like what a journalistic
hack wrote
about activist Prerna Lal, who is in deportation proceedings:
marginal and out of the mainstream.
Dangerous
stuff. I’ve been traveling alot around the country lately
and am beyond sickened of stories like what’s happening
to Prerna, countless stories of immigrant children forced
to watch in terror as their parents are treated like criminals
and taken away forever by ICE, the agency Obama has the
power to tell “stop it, stop it immediately.”
Failure
to bring the Obama Administration to some reasonable, concrete
relief for DREAMers or around 287g/Secure Communities will
bring the bar of immigrant and Latino respect to even more
dangerous lows. Democratic and Republican pols and their
allies will see that they can get away with continued repression
without paying a political price. Such perception will,
I fear, result in even more unprecedented terror and devastation
of a community perceived to know no lower limits to its
self disrespect when its says “Si Se Puede” in support of
the Administration that is breaking records as the most
violent and repressive in the history of the immigrant US.
Fortunately,
we, not they, are the ones we have been waiting for. I know
and have spoken to many of you who will not allow Obama
and his supporters to glide thru Latino communities as if
he has not been the Commander in Chief of the War on Immigrants.
If things don’t change soon, any and all Obama Latino events
should be subject to disruption, protest, civil disobedience
and any and all other non-violent actions that defend both
immigrants and our self respect and dignity. Even his closest
allies have communicated the need to take action on urgent
matters like deporting DREAMers or 287g/Secure Communities.
If he doesn’t heed them, then he is clearly committed to
moving beyond being a frenemy of immigrants, one deserving
of having his electoral campaign aspirations dropped and
devastated in Latin@ communities with the same zeal with
which he and his administration prosecute the War on Immigrants
in Latin@ communities.
For
the record and to repeat: the ideas shared here are about
politically, nonviolently attacking Obama’s campaign goals
among Latin@s. We cannot again prove that you can humiliate,
attack and terrorize Latin@s and still have Latin@s singing
your praises. Without relief for immigrants, we should make
support for Obama’s re-election or for the election of violent
Republicans synonymous with being what we used to call “vendidos”
or “sellouts” in a previous political era. The moral reality
is there to do so as is the urgent necessity.
Thankfully,
I think the will and courage are there too. I am very proud
of and love those of you who are and will teach Obama and
his allies what living Hope and heart-driven Change look
like. Please do continue enlisting me in your heroic effort
as I find great edification and inspiration in you, your
actions. Gracias.
For
his own dignity and for ours, I hope President Obama does
the right thing and stops the terror and devastation against
immigrants.
Respectfully,
Roberto Lovato
BlackCommentator.com Guest Commentator, Roberto Lovato is a contributing Associate Editor with New America Media.
He is also a frequent contributor to The Nation and his work
has appeared in the Los
Angeles Times, Salon, Der Spiegel, Utne Magazine, La Opinion,
and other national and international media outlets. Prior
to becoming a writer, Roberto was the Executive Director
of the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN), then the country’s largest immigrant rights organization. Click here to
contact him or via his Of América blog or on facebook.
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