For Immediate Release
January 12, 2016
Contact: SG Sarmiento, sgsarmiento@ndlon.org
NDLON: Ahead of Final State of Union, President Obama’s Legacy is on Line
Los Angeles, CA—Ahead of today’s State of the Union address, Pablo Alvarado, Executive Director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) made the following statement:
“It’s difficult to have an optimistic vision of President Obama’s last year in office while he is deporting refugee families, potentially to their death, and engaging in a war of attrition against undocumented immigrants, but we remain hopeful for a change in policy, and we remain confident that immigrants will earn political equality afforded previous generations.
“Compounding the mistakes of the past six years—a false reliance on an arbitrary deportation quota, a criminalizing S-COMM policy, and an unprecedented militarization of the of the US/Mexico border—this latest round of raids has terrified the very people he once promised to liberate.
“Rather than confront Donald Trump, President Obama’s deportation policy has capitulated to him. And it has emboldened the neo-nativist and fascist movement that has infected US politics. Among the potentially lasting damage caused by President Obama’s failure is his ratification of the false premise that some immigrants (in this case recent arrivals) must suffer in order for others to have security. Quite to the contrary, the President’s policy is making everyone—immigrants and native born alike—feel less safe.
“Tonight, President Obama should admit his mistake in order to protect the immigrants and refugees he has harmed. He should immediately announce TPS for all Central Americans residing in the US. And he should use his final year in office to reign in the rogue ICE agency he has unleashed, to dismantle the unparalleled deportation machinery he has constructed, and to disentangle the criminal justice system from our broken and unjust immigration laws.
“If he fails to take these steps, and we expect he will, his legacy will be cemented not just as deporter-in-chief, but as a president who triggered a new sanctuary movement opposed not just by the Trump-wing of the Republican Party, but opposed by President Obama himself. Perhaps not while he is still in office, but eventually, both Mr Trump and President Obama will find themselves on the wrong side of history.”
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