Hilbert Morales
EL OBSERVADOR
President Trump’s assignment to Attorney General Jeff Sessions to do the highly telegraphed DACA curtailment announcement was really an indication of how this President does everything possible to stay in the limelight. This time Trump really did something which the U.S. Congress did not want at all given their legislative gridlock.
While many are organizing opposition or support events such as pubic marches, conducting Town Halls, and preparing to go to court to declare this DACA executive action unconstitutional, recall that when former President Obama announced this DACA program, he indicated that this DACA program might be unconstitutional, but it was allowed to stand and become implemented. That is how legal precedents are established.
President Trump may have given the U.S. Congress a time bomb with a six-month fuse. That is a lot of time during which the U.S. Congress may finally be forced to address the need to agree upon a very essential 2017 Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act.
I have been following immigration issues since I learned in 1960 that my elder sister Rose had come into the U.S.A. with my parents when they legally immigrated from Mexico during 1910. Rose is now a naturalized citizen as are my brothers Seville and Andres (both World War II veterans; now deceased).
Trump has done America a favor because the U.S. Congress…both the Senate and the House of Representatives, are controlled by a Republican Party majority. If the Republicans want to continue to control both chambers of the U.S. Congress, then Republican cliques need to set their differences aside for now in order to address this essential 2017 Comprehensive Immigration Reform which will deal with DACA, foreign guest worker issues (campesinos and construction workers) and the High-Tech H-1B Visas desired by Silicon Valley firms.
Hurricane Harvey has also done its devastation at a propitious time. Congress will have to deal with allocation of billions in aid to restore the Texas-Louisiana area. The area impacted adds up to being the 22nd largest global economy. While the focus of mainstream media has been on family’s being displaced by floods, the underlying issue is that 95% of the destroyed homes will need to be rebuilt. After Hurricane Katrina some 12 years ago, it was the illegal Mexican construction work force which did the bulk of the reconstruction. Will this same skilled construction work force be denied another opportunity to do work which re-establishes an important part of the American domestic economy and its related housing amenities? It would be political suicide if Congress did not find a way to let this skilled Mexican construction work force to do its thing again. The same logic applies to the skilled agricultural work force (Mexican Campesinos) which are needed by American agricultural factory farms where not everything can be done by automated machinery at harvest-time.
It is time for We, The People to insist that Congress do the job which only they can do constitutionally…which is to craft the legislation which does the greatest good for the greatest number…which includes We, The People. It is time to take care of We, The People…not special interests nor those with briefcases full of DARK MONEY. Congressional elected officials must begin to take appropriate actions which will speak louder than their political posturing rhetoric. Voters will take note of their actions within the next six months when they go to the polls during 2018.
Is it possible advocates for DACA, The Dreamers Act, H-1B Visa programs; Agricultural guest workers programs to all agree to act in solidarity to increase the impact of their resources, ideas and energy upon the U.S. Congress?
The U.S. Constitution clearly gives the U.S. Congress the responsibility to craft and enact legislation which is presented to the President for his approval or veto. Can all the many splintered special interests who want to help the undocumented agree to look at the big picture and to get together in partnership with all those other groups who want justice, fair wages, worker’s safety issues, etc.? Solidarity at this point is essential if this opportunity is to be taken advantage of.
Therefore, it is time to focus advocacy on the U.S. Congressional leadership to encourage doing what is right: craft and pass the 2017 Comprehensive Immigration Reform Legislation which mitigates the inhumane cruelty and exploitation.
The Trump Administration has focused a large amount of racial profiling upon the Mexican cohort which is only half of all 11 million undocumented present in America. Hurricane Harvey may have limited the willingness of Congress to allocate money to build THAT WALL (which is a waste of resources).
Let’s advocate for a systemic improvement of all that is wrong which causes and supports continued exploitation of the undocumented simply because these work force members have no legal status and therefore may be taken advantage of by those who are unprincipled, amoral, and greedy.
According to Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, “On 09.08.17, House Republicans blocked the immediate consideration of the bipartisan DREAM Act and signed their names to President Trump’s cowardly assault on (800,000) innocent DREAMers across America (225,000 reside in CA). These DACA recipients had the courage and patriotism to step out of the shadows, but (233) House Republicans don’t have the courage or decency to hold an up or down vote on the DREAM Act. Our American values, our faith, and our basic human decency demand that we prevent the senseless deportation of hundreds of thousands of patriotic young Mexican America youth brought here as minors by their parents or guardians and who have grown up in this nation.”
Let’s do it right for a change…. America will need all those undocumented workers, especially Mexican construction workers, to rebuild Port Arthur, Beaumont, and Houston, TX…. let’s advocate for the U.S. Congress doing the right thing…which is to give these productive illegal undocumented workers the legal status which they merit.
While the emotional commotion reflexive reaction may be caused by this DACA curtailment, there is much more at stake.
