Behind Immigration Policy

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MAEGAN ORTIZ, mala at mamitamalamedia.com, @mamitamala
Los Angeles-based independent journalist and organizer, Ortiz contributes to a number of media outlets and publishes VivirLatino, where she recently posted the piece “Why $3.7 Billion is Not Humanitarianism for Unaccompanied Minors at the Border.” Earlier this year, she wrote “Your 8 Biggest Questions About Immigration Reform, Answered” for Cosmopolitan.

DAVID BACON, dbacon at igc.org, @photos4justice
Bacon is author of The Right to Stay Home and three other books on immigration. He is a labor and immigrant rights activist, and part of the Dignity Campaign.

He said today: “President Obama’s decision to delay lifting the threat of deportation from many people is a retreat that will result in more deportations, detentions and firings of people who need equality, legal status and human rights. In the name of protecting Democrats in the midterm election, his decision will instead hurt those families who have been some of his greatest supporters. It does nothing to move forward to solve the problems of migration. More people will come to the U.S. tomorrow, driven by poverty and repression, made worse by our pro-corporate trade agreements and foreign intervention. Beefing up enforcement simply criminalizes them, while the continuation of pro-business guest worker programs provides a blatant subsidy for corporations who want to keep wages down and unions weak. We need pro-immigrant and pro-worker immigration reform, not more delays, draconian enforcement and corporate labor schemes.”