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RansomThe White House Dreamer Deal Isn't A Compromise. It's A Racist Ransom Note.
The White House Dreamer Deal Isn’t A Compromise. It’s A Racist Ransom Note.
As the White House’s senior advisor for policy, Stephen Miller seems to have one goal: to take a wrecking ball to the Statue of Liberty and shove the remains into the Upper New York Bay.
It’s no secret that Miller, along with Gen. John “Adult In The Room” Kelly, has been penning
some of the most heinous immigration policies coming out of the White
House. One might even wonder if Miller and Kelly, not President Donald Trump, are running the government from the sidelines ― exploiting Trump’s short attention span.
Which
brings us to this moment, when the White House is preparing to erode
America’s reputation as a nation of immigrants and replace it with toxic
immigration policy, which it has disguised as a way to save young
undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children,
known as “Dreamers.” The Trump administration has said it supports
extending a pathway to citizenship for the roughly 800,000 Dreamers that
the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy currently protects
from deportation and for other young immigrants who are eligible but
don’t currently hold the protections ― an estimated 1.8 million people in total.
On Monday, you will hear White House officials present their outline
as nothing short of a heroic attempt to reform our nation’s broken
immigration system. Do not be fooled. What the White House is selling
the American people is nothing but a nativist wish list that would
reduce the number immigrants, especially people of color born in
countries that Trump considers “shitholes.”
Remember,
this is supposed to be a plan to deal with the Dreamer crisis that
Trump himself created by ending DACA, a crisis that affects my family
and me directly.
In addition to a Dreamer fix, the White House plan will likely include an extreme reduction of legal immigration and a complete end to the diversity visa program.
It also would empower more agents to immediately deport people like my
parents or children fleeing violence. The result of enacting all of
these policies? Slowing down the browning of America ― or at least
Miller can hope.
And
then there’s the wall. The “big, beautiful wall,” Trump’s signature
policy goal and maybe the only one he fully understands. What else can a
$25 billion wall be than a big middle finger to Mexico and countries
south of the border? Keep out and stay out, the wall says.
America loves the Dreamers, so this administration is using our lives as leverage to get everything else it wants.
With net unauthorized immigration already down to levels not seen in years, Trump’s wall is just a monument to his racism and xenophobia.
Of
course, this comes as no surprise to anyone who watched Trump’s
presidential campaign. He’s following through on a commitment to a white
nationalist immigration agenda.
The White House thinks its strategy is clever. America loves the Dreamers ― a recent survey found an overwhelming majority
supported legal protections for us ― so this administration is
cynically using our lives and futures as leverage to get everything else
it wants from Congress.
What
Trump, Miller and Kelly don’t seem to understand is that Dreamers are
also American, and we’re not going to let them trample all over our
families and our values to be recognized as such.
We
have all lived through too much pain and fear to merely sell our
families out in this way. As people, not “illegal immigrants” or
bargaining chips, we recognize that the values and promises that this
country has to offer are rooted in the idea that hard work will
eventually give us the opportunity to fully live the American dream. The
same goes for our parents, the original Dreamers who left everything
behind. They took a chance and even risked their lives to provide us,
their kids, with a better life and better opportunities. As Dreamers, we
will demand that their sacrifices not be made in vain.
The
media, and anyone else watching this debate unfold, must resist any
urge to label Trump and Miller’s immigration outline as a “deal.” It’s
little more than a racist ransom note from a group of nativists who are
willing to dangle 800,000 young teenagers and adults over a cliff while
simultaneously replacing core American values with poison. This is as
far as Republicans could ever be from a reasonable and fair negotiation.
Dreamers
have been part of the immigration debate since 2001. We have helped to
define the discussion on immigration over the past few years. There is
no way that Dreamers would turn their backs on the people who raised
them, helped them and encouraged them to be their best. And America
shouldn’t betray Dreamers by paying the ransom that a handful of
xenophobes are demanding in exchange for their protection.
Juan Escalante is an immigrant advocate and online strategist who
has been fighting for the Dream Act and pro-immigration policies at all
levels of government for the past 10 years.
This piece is part of HuffPost’s brand-new Opinion section. For more information on how to pitch us an idea, go here.
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