The United States has always had a history of hatred towards anything and everyone who looks different, speaks a different language, practices a different religion or belief, identifies with a different gender, has a different lifestyle or simply does not fit into the usual box. The current debate and series of actions towards the immigrant community in the U.S. is truly nothing new. It’s just more visible, filled with hateful rhetoric and without real solutions. The actions and rhetoric are simply efforts to appease a constituency hungry for it.  

The problem regarding the immigration system is not actually about immigrants, but basically about discrimination and racism. Clearly, both mainstream political parties have done their share to create this situation. Every single president has promised immigration reform, often during election season. This past election cycle, the rhetoric against the immigrant population was even more filled with hate and distortions, making it appear that each mainstream political party was trying to be seen as the most likely to deport immigrants in a very inhumane and disruptive way.  

Obama was voted in by a majority of Latinos and other minorities not just once but twice, with the hope of relief for undocumented immigrants, but instead, to date, he ended up being the President that has deported more people than any other.  Three years after being sworn in, in 2012, he deported 400,000 plus and in the next 4 years under his administration until the beginning of 2017, the number grew to 5 million.  

More recently, instead of proposing actual programs to address the issue, both parties have resorted to name calling and spreading misinformation – from saying that all immigrants from one country are criminals or saying another the immigrant community “is eating cats and dogs,” and saying it with a perfectly straight face.

This lack of will to resolve the border/immigration issue can be traced back to Clinton in 1992 and again, more recently, to Obama, who deported more immigrants than anyone, then to Trump, to Biden and back to Trump–each president maintaining the policies of the president before him and then making the policy progressively worse, while never addressing the roots causes or the consequences of their policies or the humanity of the people involved:

Dehumanization of the immigrant community. It may be cliched, but it is true. No human being is illegal.

The US economy depends on immigrants and their labor, but it is always the immigrant that’s blamed, not the company executives who hire them. 

The rounding up of immigrants by ICE and sending them to Guantanamo or El Salvador without trial is a violation of human rights. It is an overreach when ICE attends vigils in memory of Palestinians who were killed in the genocide to see if they have cause to deport anyone. Instead of fewer detention centers as promised under Biden, there were more, under the Biden administration. 

When will the U.S. political leadership look honestly at US intervention in places like Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Honduras, Cuba, Mexico and more to see how US policies are causing people to leave their homes –either to seek employment or to escape violence in their countries – and adjust those policies accordingly. 

There is a long and elaborate process for amending the US Constitution. It is not acceptable for an Executive Order to change portions it does not like, for example, from the 14th Amendment, Section I, All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) was created by the Obama administration (https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2012/08/15/deferred-action-childhood-arrivals-who-can-be-considered) in June 2012. A deferred action is a policy aimed at protecting qualifying young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, temporarily protecting them from deportation and providing them work authorization with possible renewal every two years. But as an executive order it has not been able to become a law. 

Similarly, TPS ( Temporary Protected Status) was created in 1990 as part of the Immigration Act to provide temporary protected status to immigrants in the United States who are unable to safely return to their home country because of ongoing armed conflict, an environmental disaster, or other extraordinary and temporary conditions. Thirty five years later, the first TPS holders have not got a permanent status or a path to citizenship. How is that possible?? They have a life here, a family and stability.  Many of them never went back and were so young when they came.  Every time there’s a change in administration they are threatened to be kicked out of here. They have to pay a certain amount of money every 18 months, an amount that has increased several times throughout the years, and they have to ask for a humanitarian permit if they want to visit their country for which they have to pay. (https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-temporary-protected-status) 

It’s time for the US government to stop implementing and supporting policies that continue to break families apart, especially when the members of those families are not always reunited. It’s time for state governments to stop implementing and supporting policies that deny people’s basic human rights, like making supplying water to those crossing the border a criminal act, or placing artificial barriers and hazards in the waterways to harm immigrants seeking a better life. It’s time for the federal and state governments to recognize the real contributions immigrants have made to the US and that they have often lived in this country for years as productive law-abiding members of it.  

To that end, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) needs to be abolished, so that immigrants don’t need to live in fear of being picked up at work, school, or just going home at the end of a long day. Specifically, the Green Party of NJ opposes the opening up of a new, huge ICE detention center, Delaney Hall, in Newark managed by the Geo Group, on top of a seriously contaminated site.  CoreCivic which manages the Elizabeth Detention Center, didn’t want to close it when its lease that was up in August 2023 and filed a lawsuit against the state in February 2024 because of the law (A5207) that Murphy signed in 2021 that prohibits both government-run and privately run jails in New Jersey from entering into, renewing, or extending contracts with ICE to house federal immigration detainees.   

What appears to be happening now is that it will be moved to Delaney Hall, a facility that is about four times the size. https://newjerseymonitor.com/2024/04/19/private-prison-company-eyes-newark-site-for-new-ice-jail/ 

https://www.newsweek.com/ice-immigrant-detention-expansion-announced-map-2037263 

Adding  insult to injury, the current administration just named English as the official language of the US, designating it an official language for the first time in US history.This proclamation affects ALL immigrant populations. It creates a second class population and could very well add hardships to the lives of those who speak English as a 2nd language and not just Spanish speakers.   

Whenever any non-English speaker needs a translation or a document in another language at a government office or at a public place they will not be able to get assistance if English becomes the official language.  It is already difficult. Immigrants get services denied all the time. Schools deny assistance to children that do not speak English very often, same as hospitals. Schools receive federal funds to provide translation services but because of their racism, don’t do it.   

NJ approved a law called the Language Access Bill (https://www.njimmigrantjustice.org/languageaccess) last year which mandates government agencies to provide language services in the seven most commonly spoken languages in the state.  The issue now is to make sure that this law is implemented. Hopefully, it cannot be eliminated by the Trump administration. 

One 35-year resident of New Jersey comments about discrimination. This resident has been discriminated against too many times to count, because of her accent, when her children were in school, when she took them to doctors’ offices, stores, etc…and she is still being discriminated against after 35 years of living in New Jersey. She has helped families register their children in school after being denied just because the schools didn’t want to provide any assistance to them.  Schools are supposed to communicate with parents in their own language but most of the time they don’t, delaying children´s success.   

Cutting Medicaid will directly affect low income immigrant families in many ways, especially children that are undocumented.  There is a state program in New Jersey called “Cover All Kids”, an initiative to reach all uninsured children in New Jersey under the age of 19. It provides NJ FamilyCare coverage to all income-eligible kids in New Jersey. As of January 2023, New Jersey has expanded coverage to all income-eligible children, regardless of immigration status. Cover All Kids became New Jersey law in 2021”  https://nj.gov/coverallkids/faqs/ 

If Medicaid is cut, all these children will lose their medical insurance.  It also affects those senior Green Card holders that for one reason or another haven’t become citizens and cannot get federally paid Medicare.  If they don’t qualify  for a pension and /or Medicare, the state will pay for it only if they qualify for Medicaid.  We are talking about seniors that need medical care constantly and are possibly not working anymore but depend on their families.   

Finally, if the federal and state governments don’t stop terrorizing and intimidating immigrants, these workers will be too scared to show up to work and crops will be left  

to rot in the fields. With hunger rates in the US and around the world already too high, this is, in its way, a criminal consequence of a hateful immigration policy. The impact on the US economy will also be devastating to all who live within its territory.  

Additional proposals for restructuring immigration: 

• Give permanent status to TPS and DACA holders  

• Support DAPA (https://stilt.com/immigrants/deferred-action-parents-of-americans-lawful-permanent-residents-dapa/) 

• Allow asylum seekers to enter and apply/start a process once in the country 

• Provide shelter for asylum seekers and refugees when entering the country for at least a year 

• Freeze the prices of all immigration processes 

• Prohibit the detention of asylum seekers and separation of families 

• Abolish ICE and BP 

• Make DHS hire more immigration agents to accelerate and shorten the processes 

• Close the detention centers for immigrants and stop deportations 

• Prohibit police to aid immigration officers 

• Provide funds for community programs to help newcomers  

• Give a permanent status to all undocumented living and working in US 

• Change the foreign policies and trade agreements that have caused massive migration 

• Tighten labor laws so that undocumented workers have the same rights 

• Prohibit any type of discrimination against immigrants in any governmental agency, school or health center regardless of their immigration status 

• Demilitarize the borders 

• Provide funds and resources to border towns to help newcomers 

• Make it mandatory to provide translators and notices in as many languages as possible in schools, hospitals, and governmental agencies for foreign-speaking immigrants 

• Reenact the 245( i) Adjustment for undocumented who entered without a visa 

• Punish any Border Patrol or Immigration officer that commits any human rights violations 

• Create a program for seasonal workers, making sure they are paid under the law and that they have good living conditions 

• Lift all U.S. sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela.  

• End U.S. imperialism in the Americas, which is one of the leading causes of economic instability and migration