{"id":434426,"date":"2017-09-29T12:01:23","date_gmt":"2017-09-29T18:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=434426"},"modified":"2017-10-01T20:31:06","modified_gmt":"2017-10-02T02:31:06","slug":"young-immigrants-are-right-to-be-fed-up-with-democrats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/09\/young-immigrants-are-right-to-be-fed-up-with-democrats\/","title":{"rendered":"Young immigrants are right to be fed up with Democrats"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMENTARY:\u00a0<\/strong>Imagine this as your origin story: Your parents risked death to carry you across Mexico and into the United States \u2013 maybe fleeing persecution and violence, maybe for economic reasons \u2013 so you could live a safer, healthier, happier life. America largely looked the other way when people like your parents crossed illegally. The nation needed them to pick crops and clean homes.<\/p>\n

\"Heath

Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

Imagine growing up in the United States, being culturally American, and remembering no other home. Your parents worked low-paying jobs off the books, struggling to feed you and get you through school.<\/p>\n

Imagine the love-hate relationship you\u2019d develop with a country you consider home because of the way our political system has treated you over the years:<\/p>\n

A decade ago, reform that might have brought you and your parents out of the shadows failed. Since then, the Democratic Party has said it\u2019s fighting for immigrants while ramping up border security funding<\/a><\/span> and failing to enact meaningful immigration reform \u2013 even when it held the majority in both chambers of Congress.<\/p>\n

Former President Barack Obama offered you a temporary stay of deportation with his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Meanwhile, he deported more people than any president before him<\/a><\/span>. Imagine the complex feelings you might have about getting to stay when others could not.<\/p>\n

Obama also tried to offer your parents a temporary stay of deportation, but the courts stopped him.<\/p>\n

And with some exceptions, Republicans were even less friendly to you and your family.<\/p>\n

Then Donald Trump, who vilified you and your family in speeches, became president. He put your temporary legal status in doubt. Because of DACA his administration knows where you live. He wants to deport your parents, the people who sacrificed so much to give you a better life.<\/p>\n

All you want is to stay in the country you consider home \u2013 with your loved ones.<\/p>\n

You want leaders to fight for that. Instead, you get Democrats like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. They\u2019ve expressed willingness to make a trade with Trump<\/a>: legal status for young immigrants in exchange for increased funding for \u201cborder security,\u201d which presumably would include additional resources to deport others.<\/p>\n

Expecting these young people to support such a deal, as Pelosi has done, is asking them to throw their parents and others under the bus to save themselves.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not a deal I would take.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no wonder young immigrants recently hijacked Pelosi\u2019s news conference<\/a>, some of them holding signs that said, \u201cDemocrats are deporters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, we need to deport some of the millions of people living here without legal status, violent felons in particular. We also need to reform and streamline our immigration system so there\u2019s incentive to come here legally. Our system is such a mess that it\u2019s not practical for people in immediate crisis to do that.<\/p>\n

Our country\u2019s policies and actions often contribute to the crises in other nations that cause people to flee. It\u2019s long past time we admit our own role in this complicated mess.<\/p>\n

Most people in the United States without legal status aren\u2019t violent criminals. They\u2019re our neighbors. They\u2019re hardworking people trying to live their lives and raise their children. They should be allowed to do just that.<\/p>\n

Politicians must stop expecting young immigrants to smile at news conferences and accept morally reprehensible deals. We need a workable solution that values people more than political victory.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not a liberal or conservative position. It\u2019s basic human decency.<\/p>\n

Heath Haussamen<\/a>\u00a0is NMPolitics.net\u2019s editor and publisher.\u00a0Agree with his opinion? Disagree? We welcome your views. Learn about submitting your own commentary\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s no wonder young immigrants recently hijacked Nancy Pelosi\u2019s news conference, some of them holding signs that said, \u201cDemocrats are deporters.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":383420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,10],"tags":[140,135],"class_list":["post-434426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-haussamen-columns","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-democratic-party"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}