On the Immigration Issue, We Must Move from Symbolism and Promises to Action

BY MARIBEL HASTINGS AND DAVID TORRES, AMERICA’S VOICE

For years the issue of immigration reform has become nothing more than lip service in State of the Union speeches. Tuesday night President Joe Biden, in his second address about the status of the country, asked Republicans to make the issue a bipartisan one, like it used to be.

Foreshadowing that this will be an impossible task, he added: “If we don’t pass my comprehensive immigration reform, at least pass my plan to provide the equipment and officers to secure the border and a pathway to citizenship for ‘Dreamers,’ those on temporary status, farm workers, and essential workers.” Still, the reference to the immigration issue was extremely brief and rather vacuous.

Democrats continue to say that this reform is urgent, fair, and necessary; and Republicans continue to say that there will be no reform without border control. At the end of the day, nothing passes.

But within this concept of “nothing passes” exist the lives of millions of peo- ple who, with the power of their work, are the motor of hundreds of communities around the country, keeping schools, businesses, and hospitals running, on top of guaranteeing the generational relief this aging nation of immigrants needs.

Certainly, we must not ignore the reasons for this deadlock, nor that Republicans have been the main obstacle to advancing reform. But that does not justify the inaction or lack of will to invest political capital in some progress.

Tuesday night, as in previous occasions, the speech was not lacking in symbolism like Mitzi Colín López, the DACA beneficiary and activist from West Chester, Pennsylvania, invited by First Lady Jill Biden. It’s about U.S. citizens seeing the faces of those who would benefit from the elusive legalization. In prior opportunities Republicans have also made use of symbolism, but of the anti-immigrant variety, like inviting those who have lost a loved one at the hands of an undocumented immigrant, as if violence was exclusive to people without documents.

Basically, at this point symbolism should have already turned into concrete actions on the matter of immigration. We’ve seen this movie before, especially those who are directly impacted and need a response that allows them to benefit from the plenitude of this country that they have chosen to call home for themselves and their families.

Unfortunately, the reality is not very encouraging. Republicans control the House of Representatives and their agenda is focused on propagating conspiracy theories, promoted by white nationalists that say we are being “invaded” and that the border with Mexico is “out of control,” or that liberals want to “replace” Anglo-Saxon people with minorities in order to hoard political power.

In fact, one of their principal objectives is to impeach the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Cuban-American Alejandro Mayorkas. And although survey after survey, such as the most recent NBC poll, show that most U.S. citizens support continued on page 13