THEMES, Atlande, The polarized politics of immigration

Question 1

Areas of policy

Answer 1

• economics (employment, health, education…)
• demographics
• foreign policiy: matter of national security

Question 2

Immigration as a vector of polarization: 1990s

Answer 2

• midterms 1994: emergence of a new leadership with Speaker Newt Gingrich
• ultra-polarized form of political hardball
• Clinton: attempted to avoid polarization by ceding to pressure to reinforce security at the border and to militarize the means used for this purpose, Nevins, Operation Gatekeeper and Beyond

Question 3

Immigration as a vector of polarization: 2000s

Answer 3

• after 9/11, Department of Homeland Security became one of the largest of all government entities
• Bush initially favorable to a compromise that might have allowed for the regularization of undocumented people in exchange for stronger measures to dissuade migrants from crossing the border
• migration agreement with Vicente Fox but abandonned after 9/11
• Bush sought to promote a bipartisan compromise measure for immigration reform but Republican majority determined to prevent the regularization of any undocumented migrants
• Sensenbrenner Bill (not backed by Bush) adopted in 2005: denied regularization and criminalized the fact of being undocumented (even assistance to an undocumented)
• never signed by Senate
• 2006: reactions, historic wave of mibilizations in hundreds of cities to defend immigrants’ rights
• Bush under pressure: intimidation of undocumented workers (workplace raids, separation of children from their parents…)
• 2006, Secure Fence Act: biprtisan cooperation on border security

Question 4

Immigration as a vector of polarization: Obama

Answer 4

• tempted to attenuate polarization by promoting a “comprehensive” reform solution
• but failure

Question 5

Obama Administration: early objectives

Answer 5

• speech before the 2010 midterms: heritage of a “nation of immigrants” //Kennedy
• hailed the “steady stream of hardworking and talented people that has made America the engine of the global economy and a beacon of hope around the world”.
• the US government was doing what was needed to protect the Mexican border
• “businesses must be held accountable if they break the law by deliberately hiring and exploiting undocumented immigrants.”

Question 6

The Obama administration’s record

Answer 6

• close consensus between Republicans and Democrats in favor of relatively liberal immigration policies (to satisfy the employers’s needs for skilled and educated personnel)
• legal immigration : 1 million/year in the Bush and Obama years
• “front gate” open, Aristide Zolberg
• controversy with the “back door” (undocumented) and “side door” (refugees)
• no major immigration reform taken
• first 2 years: democratic majorities in Congress but other issues (stimulus and ACA)
• risk of polarization, even dividing Democrats
• DREAM Act failure

Question 7

Executive orders and Temporary Relief: DACA and DAPA

Answer 7

• Obama use his executive power
• June 2012, DACA
• 581,000 acquired DACA status in the first two years
• 800,000 youth were shielded from deportation
• “Gang of Eight” Senators: 4 D and 4 R (McCain and Rubio) whose goal was a bill that would have reinforced the border security but also allowed for the regularization of large numbers of undocumented
• November 2014: DAPA but blocked by Supreme Court in 2015 (4-4 because absence of ninth Justice)

Question 8

Enforcement: policing and deporting undocumented immigrants

Answer 8

• major issue: public controversy over status and treatment of undocumented immigrants
• highest point: 12,2 million in 2007
• highest point under Obama: 11,4 million in 2010
• Tea Party David Webb (FOX News contributor), 2014: accused Obama of advocating “open borders”
• 2012: 368,000 deportations (ICE = Immigration and Customs Enforcement emphasized its success on removing convicted criminals)
• Obama: record-breaking numbers of deportations
• Janet Murguia: “deporter-in-chief”
• “Secure Communities”, 2009: program sharing alien fingerprints with Department of Homeland Security and FBI
• administration: more targeted program of deportations, concerning only criminals
• controversy over the possible abuse of the program deporting non-criminal undocumented immigrants: suspension in 2014

Question 9

Polarized federalism

Answer 9

• certain states, counties or cities emerged as champions of a high-enforcement approach to immigration
• police controls, checkpoints OR more protection towards immigrants
• Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070: recquired all police forces to ask for the papers of any immigrants who might inspire “reasonable suspicion” but unconstitutional by Supreme Court in 2012
• Immigration and Nationality Act, clause 287g: Sheriff Arpaio used it to deputizelocal agents who took part in neighborhood raids in search of undocumented persons, regardless of whether or not they had a criminal record

Question 10

Border security

Answer 10

• central preoccupation after 9/11
• Obama administration did not reduce the number of agents: it remained at about 20,000
• Mexican immigration fell because fewer economic opportunities, border enforcement and changing demography
• 2017: Mexicans 25% of the immigrant population
• military technology used in abundance after 9/11 but in 2011, SBInet (Secure Border Initiative Network) cut off because it didn’t add security

Question 11

The treatment of Central American migrants and refugees

Answer 11

• Guatemala, onduras and El Salvador
• 2013-2014 unusual rise
• including 68,000 unaccompanied children and equal number of families
• escaped poor economic prospects and criminal violence
• immigration since the civil wars in the 1980s
• By 2010, nearly 4 million Central Americans were living in the US
• 2014: number not very high but Republicans and anti-immigration lobbying groups treated the situation as a crisis to blame border insecurity
• Texas: Gov Rick Perry called for National Guard troops at the border, administration replied it was not necessary because people were not trying to cross illegally but requested asylum

Question 12

The treatment of Central American migrants and refugees: human rights abuses

Answer 12

• 2014: return to large-scale detention of families
• Artesia Detention Center in New Mexico: complaints of poor living conditions, lack of adequate medical care
• standards: Flores settlement, 1997
• does not flatter the Obama administration
• but worse with Trump who ignored the standards completely and separated children from their families

Question 13

Adressing the problem

Answer 13

• the Obama administration showed greater subtlety in recognizing a relationship between high immigration from CA and chronic social problems in the coutries of origin
• 2009: Obama, with the lead of Clinton, allowed the military coup in Honduras against democratically elected president Zelaya (authoritarianism)
• it did nothing to stem the flowof large numbers of Central Americans fleeing northward

Question 14

The vain quest for compromise in the midst of conflict

Answer 14

• Republicans positioned themselves as the only serious defenders of national security and national sovereignty
• racialist discourses: Mexicans, Central Americans and Muslims incompatible with the national identity