The Democrat's "Plan B" for immigration reform: same old shell game

Sen. Bob Menendez and some others have floated trial balloons saying the Democrats "Plan B"  for some sort of concession to the immigrant rights movement in the Reconciliation Bill is updating the "Registry Date." 

'Registry' allows immigrants to get legal status 

The "Registry Date" was the mechanism used 100 years ago to straighten out the immigration papers of European immigrants. Basically it said if you had been here since before a given date, you should go tell the attorney general so he could just recognize you as being a permanent resident and give you a green card.

The measure was adopted in 1929, and it was meant to be, and essentially was, a statute of limitation on undocumented status. And over the decades, the date was updated several times ... until it stopped benefitting mostly Europeans.

So the last time the date was moved was as part of the misnamed Reagan "amnesty"  of the mid-1980s; and to this day it remains set in 1972, a half-century ago.

The proposal being floated now is for making 2010 the cutoff. That would in theory benefit a majority of the undocumented, but would not begin to redress the harm of the two-decade bipartisan persecution and  criminalization of immigrants.

There are hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of families that have been divided by the Bush-Obama-Trump and now --let's be honest-- Biden criminalization and deportation madness. A registry date change simply ignores the reality of the need to redress that damage.

So welcome as legalization of some --even many-- among the undocumented would be, it is no substitute for a real change in policy.

The Democrat's somewhat disingenuous argument for saying a registry date change fits in a budget reconciliation bill would be that it just updates a deadline for filing a petition for adjusting your status, a mere technicality but --oh happy coincidence!-- it would mean gizillions of dollars flowing into the government because of the filing fee for that petition. So, you see, this is mostly a budgetary measure to raise funds for the feds, like, say, increasing the luxury tax on imported perfume.

The obvious retort is that although disguised as a mere technical change in a deadline, this is in fact a humongous shift in immigration policy. So nice try, but no cigar.

What else should be noted is that the option of updating the registry date has been open since forever to supposedly pro-immigrant Democrats (and yes, to Republicans, too, when there were still some pretending to be pro-immigrant), and they never seriously considered putting it into any piece of must-pass legislation until now, when --oh so conveniently-- the Democrats can shift the blame for it being thrown out on an obscure, unelected official, the Senate parliamentarian. 

So until they prove otherwise, my response to the "Plan B" is that this is just one more three-card-monte con job and I say to Biden, Schumer, Pelosi and their ilk: you bastards, that is one more you owe us.

For the DSA convention: Resolution on immigrant and refugee rights

[I drafted the following resolution for submission to the convention of the Democratic Socialists of America to be held in Atlanta Aug. 2-4. DSA convention rules require 50 signatures from members  for the resolution to be considered, so I urge DSA members who agree with it to sign it. The links to the signature form can be found here on the DSA's members-only discussion board.]  

Whereas: The status of undocumented immigrants has been reduced to that of an inferior caste that faces official, legalized discrimination much as Blacks did during the era of Jim Crow.

Whereas: The goal of these laws and the deportation machine is not to remove those the ruling class denigrates as “illegal aliens,” but to keep the big majority here but “illegal” -- bereft of rights so they can more easily be superexploited and used to attack the rights and drive down the wages and standard of living of all working people.

Whereas: Donald Trump has made attacks on immigrants the centerpiece of his electoral messages, administration policies and efforts to develop a nativist and white supremacist movement.

Whereas: Excluding immigrants from programs like Medicare for All or free tuition to public colleges will undermine the programs themselves and turn them into tools for discrimination.

Whereas: The super-exploitation of poor countries by rich countries, especially by the United States, has created crisis throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America, leading to wars and failed states. Together with the impact of climate change, this is forcing millions of people to become refugees.

Therefore be it resolved:

The Democratic Socialists of America will make defense of immigrant and refugee rights a top national priority of the organization.

The Democratic Socialists of America commit to internal education on the history and political economy of immigration, and how to argue against right-wing positions and respond to provocations.

The Democratic Socialists of America reaffirm our position that no human being is illegal and that all working and oppressed people are welcome in our organization on an equal basis regardless of immigration or citizenship status.

The Democratic Socialists of America stand for full human and civil rights for all immigrants. We demand:

• The immediate abolition of ICE and an end to the persecution, jailing  and deportation of immigrants.
• Legalization of the undocumented as permanent residents,  the same status other immigrants have, including the right to become citizens if they wish.
• Abolition of all anti-immigrant discriminatory laws including those denying equal access to education and social services.
• An end to the militarization of the U.S. border with México, including tearing down the walls, fences and barriers built under the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations as well as those that may be built under Trump.
• Respect for the rights of refugees, especially the principle of non-refoulement, that is, not returning people to places that they are fleeing from.
• An end to the Muslim Ban or other discrimination in the issuance of visas on the basis of the dominant religion, race or ideology of its government.

The Democratic Socialists of America support:

• The struggle of immigrant communities, including around partial, tactical demands such as restoring DACA for “Dreamers” (people brought here when they were minors), as well as against other aspects of their oppression, such as language discrimination.
• The right of immigrants and their communities to lead this struggle and determine its tactics, including in choosing to focus on individual cases, partial demands or specific concessions.
• Diverse initiatives and a multiplicity of tactics, such as moral and material solidarity with refugees on the border, visits to immigration prisoners and help for their families, work in coalitions, as well as militant, direct-action protests and other types of demonstrations.
• Putting pressure on all candidates claiming to oppose Trumpism, especially those who say they speak for working people, to take a firm and unequivocal stance in favor of immigrants, refugees and their communities.