David Smith reports for The Guardian:
. . . .
The CAP [Center for American Progress] can also be a critical friend. âDuring the spike in Haitian asylum seekers at the Texas border, when the world saw those reprehensible images of how those asylum seekers were being treated, I didnât hesitate as the president of CAP to speak out against the policies and to personally go to the border to bear witness to what was occurring and to call for and demand different practises in how we adjudicate those matters.â
There has been âtremendous progressâ at the border since then, he says. But Bidenâs approval rating remains stubbornly low and there is a sense of gloom in the air. As the president nears his first anniversary in office, what is Gaspardâs verdict so far? âMy god, can we step back for a second and have some perspective?
âIf someone had told me or anyone on January 5th that 11 months later Joe Biden would have managed to pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill, successfully advanced a historic stimulus bill thatâs led to the fastest 11 month job growth in America that weâve ever had ⌠and was also on the precipice of passing a piece of legislation that will expand access to Medicare benefits, lift up low wage workers who are the frontlines of the care economy, make the most progress on investments in climate change in two generations, I would have taken all of that if youâd offered it to me.â
In his inaugural address, Biden vowed to address the interlocking crises of climate, coronavirus, economy and racial justice. On the last of these, police reform and voting rights have stalled in Congress, raising fears that last yearâs Black Lives Matter protests after the police murder of George Floyd could prove a moment, not a movement, after all.
Gaspard, however, believes the momentum is sustainable. âOf course there was the white knuckle moment of George Floyd and the explosion of pent-up advocacy and rage but now thereâs a lot of good, thoughtful work. Youâre going to have your setbacks but thereâs also been extraordinary progress in a number of states â Missouri, Ohio, California â where you can quantify whatâs changed. That will continue. Civil rights just does not move in a linear way.â
Less than a year after the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol, however, the existential threats to democracy itself persist in a deeply divided nation. Gaspard describes himself as âradically optimisticâ but not âPollyannishâ about the gathering storm.
âThis is a thing I hesitate to say out loud but I really do believe that we should have the understanding that in 2024, when we are conducting elections across the country, there is the potential for us to experience January 6 on steroids, for us to see it in state after state in state capitols.â
âThereâs the potential for that kind of civil disruption if we are not on our side intentional about pushing back now and about making as persuasive an argument for democracy as we can and an argument thatâs manifest in actual legislation and executive orders.â
Reagan famously referred to America as a âshining city on a hillâ; Biden has said the country can be defined in one word: âpossibilitiesâ. It was such promises that enticed Gaspardâs parents here half a century ago. But the turmoil of recent years has tarnished its image. Does he think his mother and father would have made the same choice today?
âWe have seen that America, as an aspirational brand, has taken a hit the last several years. Thereâs a direct relationship between that and the previous president of the United States and how he postured on the world stage and projected us as a closed, hyper sovereign space that did not cooperate in a multilateral way and that led with military might and âAmerica firstâ as opposed to partnership and cooperation.
âThere is a fear that I hear among immigrants that are in our community: they worry that the face of America has changed. When they see things like âthe great replacementâ conspiracy thatâs driving all kinds of not just rhetoric but actual policy on the ground for conservatives, they worry about what kind of violence it can visit on their children. All that anxiety is real.â
But again he sees the glass as half full. âI can tell you Iâm pretty confident that if my parents were faced with that choice today that America is still the place they would see as this shining beacon of hope and opportunity, irrespective of its challenges which are real and more nakedly exposed than they have been in some time.
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Read the full interview at the link.
Gaspard needs to pick up the phone, call his fellow âchild of immigrantsâ in the White House, and remind her that âdie in placeâ and ârot in Mexicoâ arenât âprogressive human rights and racial policies!â
He also might challenge her to rethink the Administrationâs regressive decision to allow AG Merrick âWhat Me Worryâ Garland to run the nationâs largest, and probably second most important, nationwide Federal âcourtâ system with a non-diverse group of many questionably qualified non-life-tenured âholdoverâ judges and a âde facto Supreme Court of human rights and racial justiceâ with horribly performing appellate judges appointed or retained by Sessions and Barr because of their âMiller-thinkâ anti-immigrant philosophies and mis-interpretations of the law.
Patrick commendably went to the border to âbear witnessâ to the miserable Administration policies directed at Haitians and other asylum seekers of color. Now, I think he should show up in Immigration âCourtâ and âbear witnessâ to the systemic denial of due process, fundamental fairness, racial justice, and human dignity (not to mention mediocre judging) being inflicted on immigrants and their lawyers (if they are fortunate enough to even have one) on a daily basis! đ´ââ ď¸ Then, call up President Biden and urge him to live up to his campaign promises!
There are many areas of damage to the American system, particularly the Article III Federal Courts, that are beyond the power of the President to immediately change. But, the Immigration Courts, under the total control of the Executive, are one where immediate progressive change is not only possible, itâs long overdue. If you canât âput your own house in orderâ whatâs the chance of achieving other portions of the vision for a better, fairer, and more just America?
Under Trump and McConnell, The Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation âownedâ the Article III appointment process, while far-right nativist groups FAIR and Center for Immigration Studies (âCISâ) did likewise for the immigration bureaucracy and the Immigration Courts.Â
So, why is it that CAP and other progressive groups havenât been able to achieve progressive reforms and better-quality judicial appointments in the Immigration Courts and the BIA? Progressives appear to have once again been outflanked, out-maneuvered, out-visioned, and out-strategized by far-right xenophobic restrictionist and nativist interest groups!Â
To be perfectly honest, the current Administration policies on refugees, asylees, and human rights in Immigration Court and at the border (the two are intertwined) more closely resemble those of âGauleiterâ Stephen Miller than they do of Patrick Gaspard and other supposedly influential progressives and humanitarians! I predict that future historians will find Garlandâs mis-handling of EOIR to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, âblown opportunitiesâ in American progressivism!
At some point, being progressive and standing up for a racially just America that welcomes immigrants means more than just âtalking progressiveâ or âremaining optimisticâ in the face of lies and evil. It means taking action to combat the forces and enablers of anti-democratic, biased, authoritarianism and hate in America!
đşđ¸DUE PROCESS FOREVER!
PWS
12-27-21