Day Laborer Network Responds to Latest Supreme Court Ruling on Immigration Enforcement Guidelines

(Los Angeles) Following the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision on United States v. Texas lawsuit, challenging the Biden administration’s Immigration enforcement priorities guidelines, Chris Newman released the following statement on behalf of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON):

“For the good of immigrants, for the good of the country, and for the good of his chances at winning re-election, President Biden should use the affirmation from the Supreme Court today as an opportunity to reassert control over immigration policy and the politics of immigration.  The lopsided Supreme Court decision should be read as a green light for President Biden to use the executive branch as a vehicle for a robust and muscular defense of immigrant rights.

The need for presidential leadership is more urgent than ever, as the country continues to be ravaged by a nativism that risks depriving equal rights of an entire generation while tearing the nation apart at the seams politically.  Today, the Court resoundingly affirmed what we all knew:  President Biden has a significant reservoir of untapped legal authority and discretion at his disposal when it comes to immigrant rights.  Particularly because Congress is broken and dysfunctional, the executive branch must use every ounce of its authority and discretion to ensure that immigration policy serves national interest and upholds national values.  At this point, if President Biden still chooses not to use it to do right by immigrant families, his only excuse will be craven political calculation.

For two years, the lunatic governor of Texas has exerted more leadership than President Biden in guiding the direction of national immigration policy.    Meanwhile, sensationalized stories scapegoating immigrants continue to sell My Pillows on FOX News, and the country now has a candidate running, impossibly, to Trump’s right on immigration.  In the upcoming general election, the GOP will make the scapegoating of immigrants its No. 1 issue. 

President Biden must step up to this fight.  If he continues to cower, he will embolden xenophobes and lend legitimacy to their racism.  Instead, he should follow the example of millions of  immigrants who have endured attacks to the benefit of their communities and our country.

Today, NDLON again calls upon President Biden to go to the Rose Garden and do for workers what Obama did for Dreamers.  If there is one single lesson that can be drawn from the fight to win and defend DACA, it is the need to be unafraid of doing and saying the right thing in public.  Biden has been afraid of talking about what could be his best enduring immigration policy, namely offering DACA status for workers who report worksite abuse.   The policy will only be a success for millions of workers who might be eligible, and as a legal matter if and when it is heard by the Court, if President Biden makes the political case. Immigrant work should be honored not criminalized, and it’s time to hear this from the President.

He knows what courage is. He knows what justice looks like. He just needs to show it.”

-Chris Newman, General Counsel for NDLON

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