OPEN LETTER TO 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

Dear 2016 Presidential Candidates:

As the 2016 race just begins to get its first official contestants, the American people, especially Latino and immigrant communities, want to know where they will stand on one of the most important issues facing this nation: immigration.

Congress has shown, time and time again, that it is completely unwilling to address immigration, allowing only bills attacking Dreamers to pass through the House of Representatives and never touching even the rightward-leaning Gang of 8 bill that passed the Senate with strong bipartisan support.

Ferrying legislation through Congress will not be easy or quick, and will require executive solutions to bridge the gap between now and the enactment of new laws. Mere rhetorical support for immigration legislation built around the same tired talking points will not be enough to win our support or the support of a powerful Latino electorate.

Legal experts from around the country agree that a President has expansive legal authority to act to temporarily protect additional groups from removal — and that this authority is rooted in statute, court opinion, regulations, and precedent. President Barack Obama took such action on immigration but did not go far enough in exercising executive power.

Needless to say, the latest lawsuit against President Obama’s immigration actions are nothing more than political theatrics by the far right of the Republican party and not based on law.

Nevertheless, what will be the fate of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA), programs that provide deportation relief to Dreamers and undocumented parents of US Citizens? Would the candidates strip young people and parents of their only chance to keep their families together while Congress struggles to put together a legislative solution?

There are still, however, many young people and parents of children raised in the U.S. with deep roots in the country that didn’t qualify for DACA and DAPA: these programs should be extended to help keep more talent and families intact and in the US. Additionally, the President should allow Dreamers to serve in the Armed Forces to ensure our military has its pick of the largest talent pool possible to train the next generation of soldiers and officers.

Much like the African-American community, the Latino community in general, and the Latino immigrant community in particular, have had serious issues with both policing and incarcerations: the example of Anastasio Rojas being beaten and tased to death on video by the Border Patrol while on the ground and handcuffed and Arizona’s Joe Arpaio attack on immigrants and Latinos are only two of many examples of racial profiling around the issue of immigration.

At a time when so much criticism is being leveled against a lack of transparency for the police, agencies like the Border Patrol are literally the least transparent, least accountable law enforcement agencies in the country. As a nation that values respect for human rights, the next President must ensure border patrol agents respect the lives and dignity of those they police.

When local law enforcement is used to enforce immigration law, it puts a strong wedge between the community and police, especially when women who go to the police to report victimization or reach out for help wind up detained and then deported by the same police they approached.

We need a President who will break the ties between local and immigration enforcement for all nonviolent offenses, as well as address the broad, systemic problems between police agencies, such as the Border Patrol and Immigration Custom Enforcement (ICE), and minority communities.

Significantly, the bed mandate is an arbitrary policy offensive to contemporary notions of due process written into the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Security Appropriations Act of 2010. ICE has interpreted this as a mandate to contract for and fill 33,400 beds in detention centers, which was increased in 2013 to 34,000.

As an agency DHS is, of course, subject to Executive authority: if the President were to direct DHS to interpret the funding differently, such as interpreting the 34,000 beds as an upper limit rather than a minimum, this could drastically change immigration detention.

While Congress is still re-learning to tie its shoes, the country needs an Executive who will protect our families, that our broken immigration system, and equally broken Congress, have failed.

We, the undersigned, and through this memo, outline the expectations that we have for the next President of the United States. We hope that the person elected will overcome the hyperbolic politics surrounding immigration, rather than being dragged by it. Dreamers will be watching and we will be holding accountable those who refuse to accept our principles that promote unity in our families.

Sincerely,