Editor,
Debate over issues like abortion and immigration reform does more than push our red buttons. It often makes us shut down, disown our relatives and unfriend friends on social media. But we have to tackle it.
On Thursday, June 15, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly signed a memo rescinding an Obama-era plan called the Deferred Action for Parents of Childhood Arrivals. It was one of two major reforms promoted to help solve our currently unworkable immigration system. It spared some undocumented immigrant parents of children who are lawful permanent residents from being deported. While DAPA protected parents, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals spared those who had been brought into the United States as babies or young children, often referred to as Dreamers. Both reforms were blocked, either in court or by the Trump administration, leaving millions of people in fear of being separated from their family members.
The loss of these reforms is not only bad for undocumented workers, but it also hurts us here in Valencia County. First, the deportation of immigrants is extremely expensive.
According to the Christian Science Monitor, immigration cases already account for more than half of federal prosecutions. More importantly, mass deportations waste a rich pool of our skilled workers. Immigrants make up approximately 13 percent of New Mexico’s workforce in key industries, generating approximately 389 million in business income, according to Somosunpueblounido.org.
Antonette Sedillo López is the Executive Director of Enlace Comunitario, which works to eliminate domestic violence and promote healthy families in the Latino immigrant community. Sedillo López says our current non-system of keeping the immigrant workforce in the shadows will only “create and perpetuate a subclass of people. We need to apply labor law, diversify permits and train educators and lawmakers about the Equal Protection Clause of our 14th Amendment to the Constitution.”
Creating a more fluid border doesn’t mean we have to reestablish the “bracero” program of the 40s. It does mean that it’s time to finally pass the (Dream) Act (S.1291, 2001), a bipartisan bill. Another bipartisan bill called the Bridge Act would provide a “provisional protected presence” for law-abiding Dreamers, deferring deportation for three years, thereby allowing them to work.
Just as California has stepped up to take the lead in international climate advocacy where our federal government failed, New Mexico must play a vital role in much-needed immigration reform. We share 160 miles of border with another country.
Like a good, tolerant neighbor, we must protect and promote access to the U.S. by using a common sense approach. If you build it, they’ll still come.
Peggy McLoughlin
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