The Immigration Debate – Part 2

On Saturday, President Obama announced that he would delay taking executive action on immigration reforms until after the November election, deferring to the concerns of vulnerable Democrats in this midterm election.

And why are Democrats vulnerable in midterm elections? Because the so-called “Rising American Electorate” (unmarried women, young voters, minorities), key constituencies to Democratic electoral success in presidential election years, fail to show up consistently to vote in midterm elections. The Rising American Electorate and Midterm Drop-off. That’s right Democrats — those of you who cannot be bothered to vote in midterm elections — you are the reason why.

The Washington Post reported, Obama to delay executive order on immigration:

President Obama will postpone action on his promise to remake federal immigration policies through executive authority until after the midterm elections in November, the White House announced Saturday, acquiescing to Democrats’ fears that such a move would damage their prospects for maintaining control of the U.S. Senate.

White House officials acknowledged the deep concerns inside the party and emphasized that the decision to delay was also driven by the calculation that a unilateral move in the heat of the electoral season could doom the chances of more sweeping immigration reform beyond Obama’s presidency — maybe for a decade or more.

In an interview set to air Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Obama defended his decision to wait.

“When I take executive action, I want to make sure that it’s sustainable,” Obama said in a clip released Saturday afternoon. “What I’m saying is that I’m going to act because it’s the right thing for the country. But it’s going to be more sustainable and more effective if the public understands what the facts are on immigration.”

In a statement, the White House vowed that Obama would act before the end of the year. He had previously pledged to act by summer’s end, and the delay was met with widespread denunciations from immigrant rights groups and Republican critics who described the delay as political gamesmanship.

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A White House official, who was not authorized to speak on the record, said, “The reality the president has had to weigh is that we’re in the midst of the political season, and because of the Republicans’ extreme politicization of this issue, the president believes it would be harmful to the policy itself and to the long-term prospects for comprehensive immigration reform to announce administrative action before the elections.”

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[T]he growing list of Democrats calling on Obama to delay his decision helped persuade the White House to change course. Republicans need to win six seats to take control of the Senate, and the GOP has painted Obama — on immigration, health care and other issues — as an imperial president seeking to circumvent Congress after not getting his way legislatively.

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Henry Cisneros, former secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and co-chairman of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s immigration task force, said he understood the frustration and disappointment many Latinos are feeling in the wake of the delay. But he added that an ill-timed executive order would “risk the big game, which is comprehensive immigration reform.”

“I understand completely the pressures the president is under and the real political environment that the immigration advocates must take into account,” Cisneros said. “What we don’t want to do is doom the more expansive immigration reform that is needed.”

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Immigrant rights groups had said they blamed Republicans for Congress’s failure to produce a bill and would seek to mobilize turnout in the fall elections to punish the GOP. Obama’s decision could dampen that effort as those groups turn their anger on the White House and congressional Democrats.

Riiight. Latino voter turnout in midterm elections is already terrible, so immigration rights leaders threaten to boycott the midterm election and to withhold their votes from Democrats? Effin’ brilliant! Give the Deportation Republicans exactly what they want: a GOP majority in the Congress elected by the nativist and racist GOP base, which they and the conservative media will insist is a “mandate” from the American people against immigration reform and for mass deportations. Start packing your bags.

Immigration rights leaders are hurting their own cause with such emotional nonsense. Immigration rights leaders need to be strategic, there is only one course of action: turn out to vote en masse in November to vote the Deportation Republicans out of office, and to elect more Democrats to office –Democrats are your only allies in this fight. If you want political capital and power, you have to demonstrate that you are a constituency with which to be reckoned. When you don’t vote, you only empower your enemies because you have no political capital or power. The haters have nothing to fear from you because you are powerless.

I would remind immigration rights leaders that leaders of the Civil Rights Movement frequently expressed frustration at the pace with which President John F. Kennedy responded to their movement, arguing that he was being too cautious and too slow in confronting entrenched, powerful and frequently violent segregationists. Remember Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous speech?

“I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment,  however frustrating the hour, it will not be long,  because “truth crushed to earth will rise again.” How long? Not long,  because “no lie can live forever.” How long? Not long, because “you shall reap what you sow.  . . . How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

The Civil Rights Movement was led by leaders who had the maturity, wisdom and political savvy to play the long game and to always “keep your eyes on the prize.” Despite their frustrations with legislative delays, they continued to work with President Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson to achieve their goal of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act.

Mature, stategic leadership is needed from immigration rights leaders right now, not raw emotionalism. This is self-defeating: To some, Obama’s immigration delay proves ‘it’s never convenient to help out Latinos.

How many times do I have to explain this? Organize, mobilize and turn out to vote! That is how you gain political capital and power. Demonstrate that you are a constituency with which to be reckoned.