Nightmare

Dreamers wait in limbo because our government can’t govern

The day Jeff Sessions declared DACA to be unconstitutional, undocumented people and supporters gathered in Longmont to tell their stories.

Last week was the week Mitch McConnell kept his promise to debate immigration reform. Four bills on immigration came to the Senate floor.

Three of the four bills considered, two of which provided legal status for Dreamers, received a majority of yes votes. Only the so-called Trump-Grassley bill, which embodied the racist “Four Pillars” of immigration reform suggested by the White House received less than a majority. It got only 39% of the vote. However, because by current Senate rules 60% of the vote is required for passage, none of the immigration bills passed.

Outcomes of four Immigration Bills considered by the US Senate last week. Bennet-Gardner was not given a floor vote.

Our two Colorado Senators, Michael Bennet (D) and Cory Gardner (R), also introduced an immigration bill which would have provided Dreamers a path to citizenship. It was not given a vote.

Possibly the House will debate bills next week, but the issue is even more divisive in the House than it is in the Senate. It does not appear to be likely that the more radical and heavily Republican-controlled House will pass anything favorable to the DACA Registrants. The only bill that has emerged in the house, Goodlatte (R)-McCaul (R), appears to take a position well to the right of the White House. It has the backing of the far-right Freedom Caucus, Ken Buck’s faction in the House. If Buck supports it, he will once again be voting against the interests of his district.

Dreamers defending their economic value. Count on us, they say.

The Interests of his District

While the Republican voters who have twice elected Buck may espouse anti-immigrant sentiments, it is hard to see how the agricultural economy of Eastern Colorado would manage if our undocumented agricultural workers were all to disappear. Sugar-beets, organic produce, Rocky Ford watermelons and cantaloupes, would rot in the fields. Cattle would be bawling, untended and unmilked.

In 2014 these workers paid $140 million in local and state taxes. While the total undocumented population is much higher, Colorado is estimated to host 23,000 DACA-eligible residents, of which nearly 19,000 actually are enlisted in DACA. What would we do without them?

Undocumented women comfort one another as their Mayor vows to protect them.

Solidarity

Colorado, the City of Denver, Weld and Boulder counties, as well as many other counties and municipalities within the state have policies that prevent them from actively cooperating with ICE in locating or reporting undocumented persons, or detaining them without due process.

That is good, but it is not enough for people kept in limbo because it is politically useful for the party in power to do so! Most House and Senate members know that deporting the undocumented would be economically disastrous, but their “base” likes to blame people. Immigrants are easy scapegoats. Ken Buck has a 100% score from anti-immigration group Center for Immigration Studies and a failing 33% score from pro-agriculture group National Farmers’ Union. He is part of the problem. We can fix him.

The Solidarity that Matters Most

We are not doing all we can to help our undocumented brothers and sisters and neighbors. Here is how we know:

• The Congress will not act.
• Republicans still control both Houses and the White House.
• Ken Buck has not changed his mind. (But Gardner did!)
• The future of the people of Colorado (all!) is still in limbo.

We are all, together, still in this nightmare. Here are some facts:

A woman who is not afraid of the dark.

• In CD4, there are 31,066 Registered Democrats who voted in 2016 but not in 2014.
• In Douglas County alone there are over 8000 registered Dems who didn’t vote in 2016 either.
• Of the Dems who didn’t vote in 2014, 8,886 identified as Hispanic.

The votes to defeat Ken Buck are out there. The votes to elect Democratic State Senators, too. A few thousand at a time, we will find them. We just need to be the strongest, most fearless, most active voters on the plains.

Here is your job, your call to action. Talk about voting. Or the issues. All year. Not so much people tune you out, but every now and then, say something.

The non-voters are probably younger than you, and they are probably busy and just barely keeping up with life. Help a little. Be a friend. An extra Grandma or Grandpa. A brother or a sister. Go the extra mile to inform and enable voters. Not just in October and November, but starting now. People who are informed on the issues are more likely to return their ballots.

We must not ever become so frustrated that we give up. We must resist. We must overcome. We must Win the Fourth and turn the Congress. Fearlessly. We are the ones who will end the nightmare.