Obama Delay Decision Affects Thousands Of LGBT Immigrants-Many Of Whom Will Be Deported

After Congressional Republicans blocked all efforts to reform immigration, President Obama promised to sign an executive order to help undocumented immigrants — which include thousands of LGBT people. Now, he’s backtracking.

Earlier this year, President Barack Obama took Congress to task for failing to resolve the plight of America’s estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants. “If Congress will not do their job, at least we can do ours,” the president said in late June, promising executive action in the vacuum of congressional inaction. “I expect their recommendations before the end of summer and I intend to adopt those recommendations without further delay.”

When Labor Day came and went immigration activists knew there was a problem. Last night and this morning, the White House reached out to immigration leaders to let them know indeed there is: Midterms. 

“Among the actions the president was considering was a move to defer the deportations of millions of undocumented immigrants whose children are U.S. citizens and who have lived in the country many years,” the Washington Post reported. 

But the peril of making such a move just weeks before a crucial midterm election did not just center on the particulars of the immigration issue itself. Democrats worried that it also would feed the Republican storyline that Obama is an overreaching executive–something they have also argued about the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

Activists are clearly angered and disappointed — and unwilling to wait quietly.

Cristina Jimenez, Managing Director of immigration reform group United We Dream, explained that waiting until after the November midterm elections “means the President has agreed to deport more than 70,000 people, more than 1,100 every day.” She says this latest development “continues cementing his legacy as the Deporter-in-Chief.”

Felipe Sousa-Rodriguez, formerly the Co-Director of the LGBT civil rights group GetEQUAL, and now the Deputy Managing Director for United We Dream, reminded America that “267,000 undocumented immigrants identify as LGBTQ.” 

He told The New Civil Rights Movement, “President Obama broke another promise, I hope I can count on LGBTQ people to pressure him to stop deportations.”

“Every day 267,000 LGBT undocumented immigrants live in fear and many deep in two closets, one about their status and another about their gender identity or sexual orientation. LGBTQ people understand what it feels like to have their lives treated like a political football. President Obama, the GOP and the Democratic Party are doing that with immigrants right now. Everyday administrative relief is delayed, 1,100 people are deported, families are separated, and hundreds of LGBTQ remain in horrible conditions in detention.”

“Undocumented LGBTQ people, or undocuqueers, live under the constant fear of deportation, harassment and discrimination,” Sousa-Rodriguez said in a separate statement. “Administrative relief can lift a huge burden off their shoulders, and enforcement reforms can end inhumane practices like solitary confinement for Transgender detainees.”

“President Obama showed leadership after pressure from the LGBTQ movement on the federal contractor executive order,” Sousa-Rodriguez, perfectly poised at the cusp of both movements, said. “It’s time for him to protect our community against deportation and to show leadership on immigration. We can’t live in fear anymore and we can’t live under the pain of two closets. A promise is a promise, President Obama broke his promise to Latinos and immigrants. We won’t stop until our community can find justice.”

 

Image, top by Light Brigading via Flickr. Image, insert by presenteorg via Flickr