Many Latinos Don’t Trust Joe Biden Because of Barack Obama
An issue many Americans still fail to understand.
As critics in the immigrant-rights community labeled Barack Obama as “deporter in chief,” enforcement advocates routinely accused him of being soft on unauthorized immigrants.
Changes to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) enforcement activities and practices under Obama increased penalties for unauthorized border crossers by putting more of them in forced removal proceedings instead of voluntarily returning them across the border, a longstanding practice.
“Instead of criminalizing women and children who arrive at our borders in desperation, let’s address the problem driving this phenomenon and help foster stable, nonviolent societies in the Central American nations from which these refugees are fleeing.” — Joaquin Castro to Jeh Johnson (June 2014)
The Obama administration’s record is characterized by much higher removals than preceding administrations. Its prioritizations were achieved by a slow yet deliberate policy as noted by the administration’s November 2014 executive actions on immigration. The administration’s process of focusing and targeting enforcement resources set the stage for the Trump administration to act as it has — albeit in a less humane fashion.
But when it comes to Joe Biden, immigration reform is a weak point that promises no tangible change. He claims that the Obama administration “didn’t lock people in cages” and “didn’t separate families,” when in fact, it did. Many will argue that it was done in limited cases, but they can only do so in comparison to the Trump administration. Which isn’t really an argument.
As Biden continues to stumble on questions about Obama’s less than stellar record on immigration, he refuses to express whether he would do anything differently. Biden responds to questions about his views on those policies by saying that he was the vice president and does not speak about his private conversations with the then-president.
Former Obama officials also defend his record saying the administration only targeted recent arrivals and violent criminals. But statistics show that they also included parents of US citizen children, many with no criminal record. Obama didn't implement sweeping executive actions meant to protect immigrants already in the US until late in his second term.
A fact not lost on the Latino community.
Many Latinos saw the delayed action as simply an opportunity for him to protect his legacy and nothing else. They argue that he should have taken on immigration reform while in his first two years in office — when Democrats had a legislative majority in Congress.
Instead, Obama acted only when there were questions about his record-setting deportation numbers, his caging of women and children, and his lack of action towards immigration reform when he had the chance.
Another issue of contention was the Obama administration’s promise that it would only be deporting high-priority unauthorized immigrants such as convicted criminals, not immigrant workers with US-born children. But approximately 80,000 of the 400,000 immigrants deported each year of Obama’s first term were parents of US citizen children.
Obama consistently argued that he lacked the legal authority to take any broad steps to change immigration policy. Then, in 2014, he announced new executive actions leaving many Latinos disenfranchised and asking why he took so long to act. But he waited until after the mid-term elections that year before making the announcement. Those delays left many in the Latino community questioning the motives of the Obama administration.
Even then, in 2016, Obama’s “holiday raids” targeting predominantly Central American refugees in the US provoked outrage and terror among asylum-seekers and their loved ones. A handful of Democratic lawmakers — as well as immigration reform activists — condemned those raids as “disgusting”.
Joe Biden, who has stood silently on these troubling issues, is being criticized by many and has significantly lower approval numbers among younger and more left-leaning Latino Democrats. Largely because of his use of demeaning language and his problematic approach to immigration policy.
In the July 31 Democratic debate, Biden said that undocumented immigrants needed to “get in line” and that the US has been right to “cherry-pick” high-skilled immigrants with advanced degrees; language that is more commonly used by anti-immigrant conservatives. Immigrant rights activists have shared widespread criticism. Some of whom have pointed out that he was echoing far-right talking points on how migrants should be admitted to the US.
“It is unacceptable for a candidate vying to be the Democratic nominee for POTUS to use language like that used by VP Biden when talking about immigration during the second debate. We immediately reached out to the campaign and were told it was being addressed.” — Mayra Macías, executive director of Latino Victory.
Activists viewed the “get in line” language as that of immigration hard-liners arguing that it’s designed to obscure that there really is no “line” for many hopeful migrants to stand in if they don’t have a family member or employer sponsoring their immigration. They also say that Biden’s line about advanced degrees deemphasizes family reunification and has a racial component as well.
His support for the Obama administration’s deportation policies has also drawn criticism from the Latino community. In December, Biden unveiled his immigration plan which would reverse many of the Trump administration’s immigration policies — including its Remain in Mexico policy and ending Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
Biden also expressed some sympathy for families that have been torn apart by deportations at a December town hall in Las Vegas saying, “The idea that anyone will be deported without actually having committed a felony or a serious crime is going to end in my administration.”
But many argue that Biden’s plans don’t go far enough. His immigration policies won’t include decriminalizing border crossings — something Sanders and Warren both support.
We have also seen what happens when Biden is questioned about these specific policies. He tends to attack the person questioning him. When Carlos Rojas, an immigrant rights activist asked him whether he would continue the deportations that happened under Obama, Biden responded with, “you should vote for Trump,” angering many Latinos across the country.
“By now, it is clear that the immigrant community cannot trust Biden.”— Carlos Rojas, Movimiento Cosecha
Look, we get it. Trump’s zero-tolerance policy ensured that everyone caught entering the country would be referred for criminal prosecution. It’s a policy that means separating adults from any children who accompanied them for an extended period of time. But Trump and Obama are equally responsible for massive numbers of questionable deportations.
The Trump administration’s drive toward Obama-like numbers has been slowed by keeping migrants detained for prolonged periods. Migrants previously eligible for release on bond are now being ordered held while winding through an increasingly backlogged immigration hearing process.
The Trump administration may fall short of Obama-like deportation numbers, but only because more migrants are being held in detention centers than ever before. The majority of which (70%) have no criminal records, according to statistics provided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
However, Biden’s reluctance to disavow Obama’s policies will continue to make immigration a sticking point for many Latino voters.
Arturo is a first-generation Cuban American, anti-racist politics nerd, journalist, and founder of The Antagonist Magazine. If you’d like to learn more about the issues covered here, follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You can support his work here.
