REACTION: This is a Non Delegable Duty President Biden

Los Angeles, California – In reaction to news shared in the form of an off-the-record tip to the Washington Post that President Biden plans to reaffirm campaign promises on immigration reform, Salvador G. Sarmiento issued the following statement on behalf of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON):

“Whether intentionally or otherwise, the first 99 days of the Biden administration have been an exercise in lowering rather than raising expectations when it comes to immigrant rights. President Biden has another opportunity tonight to hit the reset button on a national debate on immigration that continues to be poisoned by white nationalism. He has the ability to make his vision for immigration reform clear and coherent rather than how it has been to date, uncertain and illegible.

“We don’t need off the record hints of more empty promises. We need a forceful on-the-record speech repudiating Trumpism and delivering on promises through concrete actions. At minimum tonight, we expect a pronouncement that every person qualifying for legalization under his putative Day 1 bill will be granted deferred deportation for the remainder of his term. Every single person. If the President wants the country to invest its faith in comprehensive legislative reform within a broken congress, at least he can start the debate from a position of strength, rather than a position of weakness. He has the opportunity to do this tonight.

“The one person who can begin to cure the epidemic of unrestrained white nationalism and xenophobia infecting American law and politics is President Biden himself. This is a non-delegable duty. He alone must exercise vested discretion, and he alone must use political capital to repair the catastrophe he inherited from Donald Trump. On this Workers Memorial Day, while we mourn the loss of an untold number of fallen immigrant workers who died so that others in this country could live, we expect President Biden to summon their strength and courage to exhibit the leadership required by the moment. Dale ya presidente.”

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