Hi John,
At the last presidential debate in December, the moderators posed an interesting question: Why should Dreamers trust Democrats? It’s a good question, and one that is near to my own heart; my earliest activism was with Dreamers, and here we are more than a decade later, and immigration reform is, well, still a dream.
I expect immigration will be a topic during tonight's Democratic debates, so I wanted to provide a little history for those who think Democrats are "the party for immigrants". That *might* be true if we’re only comparing Democrats to Republicans, but the cruelty of U.S. immigration policy is a bipartisan affair.
|
|
The fact is, President Trump inherited a well-oiled machinery of immigrant criminalization and death started by Democrats. President Clinton in particular authored four anti-immigrant policies still in place today:
- Operation Gatekeeper
- “Tough on Crime” Bill
- IIRIRA (Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act)
- NAFTA
I've written in detail on these four policies and what they mean for immigrants on Medium, click below to read the full story.
|
|
|
A better response to right-wing populism and anti-immigrant pushback is not to curb immigration, but rather to champion a progressive platform that addresses the economic concerns of the poor. That's why I'm running for Congress, and I hope you'll support me.
|
|
With gratitude,
Agatha Bacelar
|
|
|
|
|
