For Immediate Release //
June 23, 2016
Contact: Armando Carmona, armando@ndlon.org, (323) 250-3018
Day Laborer Network Reaction to President Obama Speech
Los Angeles, CA — In response to President Obama’s remarks this morning about US v. Texas, Pablo Alvarado, Executive Director of NDLON, issued the following statement:
“President Obama’s response to the impasse in the Supreme Court was woefully inadequate. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s shameful ‘non-decision’ in Texas v. US, immigrants are left to organize in defense of their basic rights in the face of unprecedented hostility. Rather than joining them, the President adopted a defeatist attitude, even going so far as to suggest there is simply nothing more he can do to help immigrants and refugees.
That is flatly wrong. In his last six months, the President can—and must—at a minimum: (1) end his misguided ‘PEP-Comm’ program that criminalizes immigrants by using sheriffs as de facto deportation agents; (2) grant temporary protected status to Central American families fleeing horrific violence in their home countries; (3) stop the record-breaking deportations his own administration has championed and (4) take a strong, principled stand against the xenophobic nationalism sweeping the country during this election season. This is the minimum.
Immigrant families don’t have the option to give up their struggle simply because the Supreme Court got it wrong today. Immigrants must now demonstrate the courage that is lacking among our political leaders, including President Obama.
Ultimately, this morning’s speech will not stand up to historical scrutiny. President Obama’s immigration policy has been incoherent. By his own admission, he relied heavily on border enforcement and deportations in a failed gambit to win legislative reform in a broken Congress. In the current political climate, it is unacceptable to say that nothing else can be done. His own policies contributed to the current mess. The President has six months to start cleaning it up.”
###