Six broad, initial thoughts about how to defend immigrant rights in concrete law & policy, as it appears likely that Biden will be president and Rs will control the Senate. (Thread)
1. Trump’s electoral defeat is a true victory against racism and fear, but it is a defensive victory. It stems the bleeding, and maybe only temporarily. A very big battle, but not the war. Immigrants will remain under threat.
2. The Democrats’ failure to take the Senate means that hoping for large scale immigration reform legislation is, yet again, likely going to be fruitless. Worthy as it is, it may sap scarce political capital from achievable and also urgent goals.
3. Executive action is key. An urgent priority for Biden. Stop the cruelty immediately. Restructure the enforcement machine. Reopen asylum. Tear down the invisible wall. Reverse engineer Trump, in essence. It’s not as durable as legislation, but it’s high impact and he can do it.
4. Focus on smaller bite/big impact legislation. The pursuit of a grand bargain on immigration isn’t bearing fruit. But there may be opportunities to get high impact fixes to immigration law written into legislation. Take advantage of these opportunities if they arise. They may.
5. Think locally. Don’t depend on national elections alone to protect immigrants. New data shows that by cutting off the jail-to-deportation pipeline using local authority, families are kept together. People who would be deported instead stay in their homes, where they belong.
6. Be very aware that, at most, we won a 4-year window. A breather. A racist demagogue may come to power again. We need to do what we can to make sure that everyone in our community is as protected as possible when that happens.
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