The Obama administration recently proposed a “regulatory change” that would keep families intact longer while loved ones file for legal residency, and the entire Latino community has praised the gesture – or, at least, that’s what members of the mainstream media who claim to know the heart and mind of the Latino community would have us believe.
It’s important to note, that what was announced earlier this month, was just a proposal and not an actual change. Any modification to the rules would first have to go through the long process of public feedback, presidential approval and agency implementation, and as Daniel Costa at the Daily Grito has estimated, a year could pass before any changes come to fruition. By then, there may be a new man behind the Resolute desk, a man not so keen on the idea of allowing unlawful immigrants to remain inside the country while they wait for green cards.
The recently proposed changes are – as with everything Obama offers to the Latino community – too little, too late. Last summer the President ordered the Department of Homeland Security to exercise prosecutorial discretion when processing deportation cases, but it’s something he could’ve done on his first day in office. And now, entering the Obama administration’s fourth year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services proposes a regulatory change that will keep families together; yet, where was this proposal three years ago? Does the approaching presidential election season mean Obama will now become the kind of leader he promised he would be back in 2008, when he had us all drinking the punch?
The situation reminds me of a classic Chris Rock joke that ingeniously describes men who pride themselves on doing what most men do automatically. When Rock’s man brags about providing for his children and having never been incarcerated, the comedian fires back by labeling such a man “ignorant” and “low-expectation-havin’.” And that’s what President Obama hopes Latinos are: ignorant and low-expectation-havin’ voters.
I realize that the financial crisis of 2008 didn’t leave Obama-Nation the solid footing with which to change the world, but that doesn’t excuse the President from doing what he should’ve done during his first moments in office. Obama is both a brilliant man and an alumnus of the Chicago school of politics, where politicians don’t let politics stop them from getting things done. His genius is demonstrated by his foreign policy decisions: the “lead from behind” method he utilized in Libya and the overseeing of a covert operation to take out Osama bin Laden.
His decisions in Pakistan and Libya, have made him a target of critics who accuse the President of abusing his presidential powers; the same is said about certain domestic policies and agendas the President has adopted, namely, health care reform. But Latinos and immigrant advocates don’t ask that the President abuse his powers to ensure that immigration law is fairly enforced; only that he exercises them.
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