The last time I wrote about this issue I proposed going not for a clean dream act (one with path to citizenship) because that would doom the cause for the rest of undocumented immigrants but for a extension in exchange for the minimum possible appropriation for Trump’s wall and for gaining time until we know whether the Mueller’s investigation will destroy Trump’s presidency or just shaken it a bit.
I also proposed to get involved in anti-gerrymandering activism as traditionally Dream Act and pro-immigration activism has been isolated from other causes with the tacit approval of these pro-immigrant leaders themselves.
Additionally, I made one last plea to these people to apply real marketing and leave behind the corny choreography that has made so much damage to this cause as I gave examples of misconceptions planted by the xenophobic right that are now normal parameters of the debate (Even Warren and Sanders seem to believe there is a “line" at the end of which undocumented immigrants should go)and mentioned that their marketing is so poor that they don't seem to realize that it lacks a product (a policy proposal that the American public would like to buy). Marketing without a product...
This is going to be an update on those three points:
1. I still remember a Dreamer identified as Nick. I exchanged ideas with him some years ago, when traditional Hispanic leaders pretty much used Dreamers to incorporate them in their choreography (and no fact would depart them from the idea that the cornier the choreography, the closer, somehow, they would get of getting immigration reform passed). In their belief, because in three or four decades the Hispanic vote was going to decide elections, today’s politicians would literally fight to court them.
Nick was one of the Dreamers inclined to fight for the Dream Act as an issue separated from immigration. I tried to convince him that that would not work because their enemy, the xenophobic Right, would keep dragging them to immigration as an issue. Time proved me right then. In those days I did believe that Dreamers, if revolted against the traditional leaders, would bring so much needed intelligentsia to this cause. And then, to my dismay, it came the reductionism of messaging to teary ethnic stories, the walls of cloth that were walls of love, the monetary rewards offered to call Trump a racist, the DAPA dinners, etc. etc. Some displayed such stupidity that, disappointed because their childish magic-thinking was not going to produce any policy change, they decided that making temper tantrums before deportation buses was the way to go, not realizing that Mitt Romney, then Republican presidential candidate, agreed with them. Mass deportations look bad. He was for “self-deportation" (Enforcement by Attrition) instead. And, of course, they didn’t join forces with other groups, especially to those fighting gerrymandering and economic injustice. If you add to that the little interest shown by the Democratic Party on sponsoring new leaders like Hector Perez Garcia, the result was that pro-immigrant and Dream Act leaders became isolated voices to which symbolic acts were offered whenever it was necessary for publicity effects. As there are no constituencies that are one-issue voters willing to decide even primaries based solely on the Dream Act, they had plenty of happy phrases but no traction. Thus, the immigrant intelligentsia, instead of bringing a New Deal with a package of proposals for everybody (at least in constituencies with important immigrant populations), including immigrants, these leaders were happy to over and over seek pity by solely repeating teary ethnic stories well beyond the point they had no marginal results while the far Right used lie after lie to promise the jobs, health, welfare, rainbows and flying ponies they would give the American public if only they gave them their tacit approval to implement the sadistic Enforcement by Attrition strategy against immigrants. As changes in the job market and demographic movements created additional anxieties, their time came and they put this monster, Donald Trump, in the White House. With this, what I called for years the “long, dark night” started.
Of course, I never could get a job on activism for saying things like this. These jobs were reserved for those with a proven record of screwing up.
I don't want to speculate here how many Dreamers really believed that, even though they are the most presentable face of the pro-immigration cause, saving themselves first was going to make saving the rest easier later, or how many decided that a practical decision was needed: saving themselves before it was too late and good luck for the rest. As it didn't work for Nick, it didn't work for them. Worse, had they gotten their way, Trump would have had all the legislative support to unleash the Enforcement by Attrition strategy with full force (and Trump needs to offer his base the corpses of immigrants so that base will stand to defend him from Mueller if it looks bad for him) and Hispanic constituencies would have felt betrayed in the elections to come. With the immigration issue supposedly solved with a clean dream act, Democrats would have had very little arguments to defend undocumented immigrants before other constituencies, now affected by other Trump policies and with much little room to worry for that rest. This, not to mention the fact that amending the Dreamers’ clean dream act during the probation period to make fewer Dreamers eligible would become much easier for Trump.
It’s true that we are in that “long, dark night” and that many people will see their lives destroyed and even die as a result. That is the price for having surrendered to the festive kind of activism these leaders did. But should they make it worse by trying to cut a deal right now, in the worst possible moment? So, here, my advice is the same: create pressure to block Trump’s policies as much as possible, especially at the local level, and, at least now, assemble a real marketing strategy, highlighting what you are willing to give for a fair chance to be legal in America. For instance, don’t make the recurrent stupid mistake of saying how much immigrants already contribute but what you are willing to give as part of the deal (for instance, a significant fine paid in installments to create a fund to retrain native born workers; hours of volunteering in American organizations; minimum standards to prove having learned English; mechanisms to collaborate with the local police to eradicate gangs, etc. etc.). If this doesn't have effect and the Mueller’s probe ends up at best in a slap on the wrist for Trump, I myself would support a clean dream act to save at least the Dreamers, but if the Dreamers want to have moral authority to request the last boats in the Titanic, this must happen first and the effort must be serious.
2. A pro-immigration activism that expects to be effective can’t isolate itself from other issues. Not even in the Hispanic community immigration is at the top of the voter’s considerations (Naleo’s updates this polls periodically). So you have to offer immigration reform as part of a package, of a New Deal for the working man, and here is where Dreamers have to use their intelligentsia less to create the appropriate costume to go with the wall of love (to encircle Trump... that is actually a wall of cloth), and more to gather ideas that can be transformed in policy. For instance, gather ideas to adopt the German system of apprenticeship, help unions re-launch their role at the light of the European experience, take ideas from the Korean and Finish school systems, take ideas from the Canadian and English health system, revisit the role research and development got during the space war, revisit the tax system at the light of trade deals, etc., etc. And then use this to make alliances with other activists that are for economic justice in serious ways. With this, help those who fight gerrymandering as the Alt-Right takes advantage of it to get the most rabid anti-immigrant zealots elected. And here you don’t have to create the wheel again or address every possible issue. But you have to address the other issues that are before immigration in the Naleo polls and have something to offer. And if you add to that a GOTV effort on election day, you will have a chance to make of immigration reform a part of a New Deal. Now, you don't need to tell me that you have all chances against you at this moment. I called that the “long, dark night” years ago, remember it? But even if you fail, you will fail after having brought a good fight, not as the ethnic dancer no politician takes seriously when it counts but as a real fighter.
3. I wish marketing could be reduced to the good or bad taste of some cool protestor. Then, no matter how stupid I saw it, how little I understood it, I would join them in their little dance because it would work. But it doesn’t work. Trump is president. And lots of more benign time has been wasted in the process. So, let’s talk about marketing.
First, you need a product. A package of policy proposals. When I prepared mine, it could have had a chance by itself provided it would have been part of a serious marketing effort. Today, a proposal like mine would have to be redrafted in much harsher terms or, even more important, to be part of a New Deal prepared for Dreamers for America or, at least, for the constituencies where immigrants are a significant part of the population. In the terms mentioned in 2, this may take time but I don't see playing immigration as a stand-alone issue could lead anywhere. Had Obama pushed for immigration reform as soon as he took office, he would have disarmed Trump’s attempt to court the Alt-Right because undocumented immigrants would have had legal status already. The Alt Right had even refused to vote before Trump as they consider the Republican Party too soft for their taste. But with Trump they won. They didn’t believe they could win and now they have won. So, unless Trump is impeached in very traumatic terms, they will stay inside the Republican Party as a cancer threatening with challengers any Republican who doesn't promise to drink the blood of immigrants literally. But if he is impeached in those traumatic terms, you will have your chance to make a case for immigration reform as the first law to pass by the next president in 2021, to make sure that Alt-Right doesn't make a come-back (provided, of course, that you previously did your homework as presented here). Yet, even then, getting involved in a wider coalition to support that proposal I believe is still the best course of action in these difficult times. Give the ethnic stories a rest and prove yourself as part of the American intelligentsia and not as the rejuvenated version of the mediocre traditional leaders you were supposed to replace.