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Representative Luis Gutierrez has managed to incense immigrant youth again with his latest attempt to get the Obama Administration to show leadership on immigration issues.
In the New York Times, the Latino congressional member is quoted saying
“This is the moment for him to act. And if we stumble, if somehow we fail, let’s fail together. Let’s fail fighting!”
DreamActivists are less than impressed:
Good luck, Representative Gutierrez, but we’re not interested in failing. Perhaps you have the luxury of speculating as to what happens if nothing changes, but for us, it’s unthinkable. We don’t have an answer to the question, “What happens if we fail?” We don’t even ask the question. It’s not a question anymore.
-Flavia de la Fuente, Editor, DREAMACTIVIST, May 2010
Representative Gutierrez is not the enemy but the Congressional Hispanic Caucus strategy of pushing for comprehensive immigration reform has meant putting the DREAM Act on the backburner even when the votes are there to push the bill out of committee onto the floor.
The DREAM Act is a narrowly tailored, bipartisan measure which would create a pathway to citizenship for undocumented youth who have grown up in the United States, graduated from high school or obtained a GED and gone on to attend college or join the military. The legislation was first introduced in 2001 by Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) but despite having majority support, failed to muster enough votes to override cloture in 2007. Currently, the DREAM Act (S. 729 and H.R. 1751) has 39 cosponsors in the Senate and 119 in the House and advocates believe they have the votes to pass the bill.
However, the grassroots popularity of the DREAM Act is also a curse for the legislation. Pro-immigration advocates fear that passing the bill on its own weakens the need for comprehensive immigration reform. They accuse immigrant youth of being selfish and not caring about their parents or the bigger picture. Hence, the DREAM Act has been tied to a bigger bill against the wishes of immigrant youth, the beneficiaries of the legislation.
Of course pro-immigration reform advocates need a reality check based on the reasons listed here. Passing the DREAM Act is long overdue, serves as a litmus test for comparable pieces of legislation and enables undocumented youth to come out of the shadows and fight for more comprehensive solutions.
And that is just a starter list.
Courage requires that advocates for a comprehensive solution to immigration admit the errors in their strategy, which has deferred the dreams of immigrant youth for close to a decade. The least Representative Gutierrez and others in his position can do is support immigrant youth as they lead the fight for the DREAM Act, and eventually, a just and humane immigration reform.
Recently, four brave undocumented students sat down for the DREAM Act in Senator McCain’s office and now face deportation and possibly, torture and death in their countries of origin.
They took this risk because their communities are under attack. They put their lives on the line thinking about friends they have lost in the struggle. For these undocumented youth, living in limbo is more scary than the risk of deportation, and they demand an immediate passage of the DREAM Act as a standalone bill.
The sit-down sparked acts of civil disobedience around the country. From hunger strikes in Michigan calling on Senator Stabenow to co-sponsor the DREAM Act to protests in front of Senator Schumer’s office, calling him to champion the legislation. From Los Angeles youth shutting down Wilshire Boulevard (and making that trend on Twitter) to immigrant youth in Kentucky going on a 65 hour hunger strike, asking Senator Bunning to support the DREAM. These Dream Activists are far from done; in fact, they are just getting started.
If Rep. Gutierrez wants to restore his lost credibility among immigrant youth and show leadership on the issue, he should broker deals and get the necessary votes to restore and pass the DREAM Act as a standalone bill so that immigrant youth and immigrant communities can have a real victory sometime soon.
He can start with actually getting the entire Congressional Hispanic Caucus behind the bill and then pushing Chairwoman of Immigration Subcommittee Zoe Lofgren and Speaker Nancy Pelosi to get the legislation through the House.
Next, Rep. Gutierrez can reach out to Senator Menendez (D-NJ) and Senator Durbin (D-IL) and help secure the votes for passage of the DREAM Act in the Senate.
Would a sit-in at his office compel him to adopt a new strategy? I personally doubt it, but it’s time for the Congressional member to stop throwing tantrums at the White House and show some real leadership for his community.
The time is now. And failure isn’t an option.
The author is a co-founder of DreamActivist and a frequent contributor to Race and Immigrant Rights blog at Change.org.
12 Comments
“The time is now. And failure isn’t an option.”; yes.
The Dream Act sounds like the compromise we got fed on healthcare the Public Option could pass National Healthcare could not.
Despite National Healthcare saving more lives and costing less than the Public Option.
At the last minute Obama betrayed us we compromised ahead of time to get something passed and in return we got even less. We got Obama Care!
Sorry lets make the GOP fight for this one, this time. Compromise will only get us all, even us legal 3rd generation types like myself sent back to Mexico.
No he needs to get a Spine accusing Rep. Gutierrez of not brokering deals is like accusing the Cookie Monster of being Vegan.
The Hispanic Caucus can act as a group and vote against everything until they get what they want.
Think about it the GOP is already trying not to vote for anything Obama wants so yes we have leverage.
We just need the courage to use it.
But truth be told Rep. Gutierrez is playing politics and will sell out both my and yours position on this issue.
After the first African American Mayor of Chicago Harold Washington died a few Hispanic Chicago Aldermen decided to throw their support to the current Mayor Daley in return they became Congressmen.
Rep. Gutierrez has been selling out on the big issues ever since.
Yes Rep. Gutierrez is great at listening and helping his voters with local problems involving government. But on the big issues he always talks big and then arranges a back room deal to surrender grabbing his ankles.
My point if Rep. Gutierrez says he supports a big issue then its not going to pass.
Decouple from pentagon inserted requirements for military service.
You’re a half step ahead of me. DreamActivits would better serve their consistituency if they strongly discouraged involvement with the military.
Just a note from one of the 4 undocumented students who did a sit-in at McCain’s office:
The U.S. Army has a very strong focus on recruitment of low income people of color, beyond undocumented immigrants. That targeted recruitment will continue to happen regardless of whether there is a military provision in the DREAM Act or not. Even if the DREAM Act did not include the military option, as soon as undocumented youth began their path to citizenship, they would be the perfect population to be targeted for recruitment by the Army. The focus of the left on the military option, which is only one of the options for qualifying for the DREAM Act, without listening to the way that undocumented youth are talking about the DREAM Act is irresponsible. I am an undocumented youth, who is also an activist for immigrant rights, and for passing the DREAM Act. I am also anti-war, and within the DREAM Act movement we have often talked about the measures that we need to take to make sure that DREAM youth know what the military is like, and to make sure that college does seem like an option. But also, people need to stop being paternalistic towards undocumented youth. Even though I am opposed to the army, I believe that if people are informed, they have the right to join the army. It is not to any of us to determine what options undocumented people have or do not have. That is paternalistic, and does not listen to the needs and thoughts of those who are directly affected by being undocumented youth. It doesn’t make any sense to oppose the DREAM Act because of the military option, when youth, both documented and undocumented would be getting recruited by the army anyway, and when undocumented young people are dedicating their lives to fighting for this bill, fully conscious of the contents. It is time for the movement to listen to the reasoning and the activism of people who are actually affected by this issue. Undocumented youth need to be at the forefront of immigration activism, and undocumented youth want the dream act. It is time for people to listen.
The Dems will not move on this issue before the election. We need immigration rights marches we need marches bigger than the crowds the Tea Baggers and Immigrant hate groups get.
We also need boycotts GOPers love money more than anything threaten that we break them. The AZ boycott gives us a chance to show our strength.
Jon McCain is for the immigration bill we hurt him by boycotting his wife’s beer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_McCain
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anheuser-Busch#Beverage_products
We both want Immigration laws fixed to be honest I can support you position. But the only way we get change is by showing strength.
Rep. Gutierrez is not a factor pro or against anything on any big cause where he can sell his surrender to get something he wants.
Ignore him
I thought immigrant were getting citizenship for themselves and their families if they served they are not?
The Dream Act is popular, and I support it, because it sidesteps the issue of the decision to break US laws by entering the country without permission, or overstaying a visa.
The Dream Act would only benefit those who were brought here when they were too young to give valid consent. The decsion to break the law, was not made by the innocent children and they should not suffer for the sins of their their parents.
This is why the Dream Act is able to garner bi partisan support. It’s a moral no-brainer. It should not be held hostage to comprehensive immigration reform.
Prerna
You make an excellent argument for your political position.
However, your ‘target’ is misdirected. Thusly, your politics should be directed at Congressman Ed Pastor from Arizona, and Becerra of California.
Now, I am an advocate for “comprehensive” reform, and my starting point is far different than yours. Take, for example, the children born here in the United States to Undocumented Immigrant parents, is my first priority. Thus, these “littlest citizens” have been rounded up due to ICE and have been repatriated with their parents to the respective nations of origin.
Jaango
Right, I am not even sure what CIR does for those children, a lot of whom are actually deported!
Becerra and Pastor are certainly on the target list but we are also calling on our “allies” like Gutierrez to step up to the plate. The urgency here is that we are a few votes away from passing this bill and killing it again means killing the dreams of millions of kids and their parents.
We’d all like to see comprehensive immigration reform but certainly not in it’s latest proposal form that continues to criminalize immigrant communities.
As a teacher who works with immigrants at the HS level, I can attest to the success of the DREAM act. It encourages students to finish HS and go on to a military career or a college education. Isn’t that what we want for all of our HS students, regardless of where they are born? I honestly do not understand all this backlash against children. They’re not the ones who choose to immigrate and they don’t even understand the difference between documented and undocumented until they’re about 15 or 16.