This past week I’ve been embarrassed to be a documented citizen of these United States; not a new feeling for me, but one I wasn't expecting as I prepared for the vote in the Senate on DADT and the DREAM Act. Embarrassed may not be strong enough. I watched Tuesday’s vote in the Senate with disgust. Both DREAM and DADT (Don’t Ask Don’t Tell) failed.
DADT is along with NAFTA/CAFTA one of the most difficult and damaging legacies of Clinton’s presidency on our national security and our national life together. Since its implementation in 1993, DADT has ruined the careers of over 14,000 lgbt service members through their discharge and has weaked our country’s defense ability by driving out or underground capable members of the armed forces.
The DREAM Act has been on the table for years and would have provided a much needed chance for citizenship for almost a million young people who live without documents in fear of deportation to countries they have never known. On Thursday, at an interfaith immigration event at Christ the Light Cathedral in downtown Oakland I heard the story of one of these young people. Danielle was brought to this country when she was five, is now an undocumented student at Berkeley High School, and has dreams of enrolling at Cal or Harvard within the year. This week's passage of the DREAM Act would have helped her continue to create a future for herself and her family in this country. “I would be a living example of what this nation can provide.” This week's failure was a devastating blow. “Whenever I start to believe in myself,” she told us, “they snatch the dream away from me!”
Sometimes it feels like there is nothing we can do but scream. I wanted to scream this week when both of these measures went down. "Shame!" I wanted to shout to the powerful. "Damn!" "Look at what you have failed to do!" I wanted to quote Isaiah: "Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless." (Isaiah 10:1-2)
"Shame!" "Damn!" "Look at what you could have done!" To the powerful I wanted to shout. To those who take for granted their own dreams and futures, who have never had to worry about documentation or citizenship. To those who have been vested with power but who cannot seem to make anything good or profitable happen with it.
It's not just the failure of DADT or DREAM which gall me.
At the Cathedral on Thursday morning, we heard accounts on a number of other shameful trends in this country relating to our treatment of immigrants and spearheaded by the current administration. Comprehensive immigration reform has stalled in Congress for the indefinite future, nothing is going to get through to provide relief to the millions of people living in our country without documentation. But while the wind is not blowing in the direction of reform, enforcement seems all the rage in the halls of power. More money for the wall; more money for ICE; more money for troups to patrol the border; and more money for deportation. Almost three times as many people are being deported under Obama as compared to Bush.
DADT is along with NAFTA/CAFTA one of the most difficult and damaging legacies of Clinton’s presidency on our national security and our national life together. Since its implementation in 1993, DADT has ruined the careers of over 14,000 lgbt service members through their discharge and has weaked our country’s defense ability by driving out or underground capable members of the armed forces.
The DREAM Act has been on the table for years and would have provided a much needed chance for citizenship for almost a million young people who live without documents in fear of deportation to countries they have never known. On Thursday, at an interfaith immigration event at Christ the Light Cathedral in downtown Oakland I heard the story of one of these young people. Danielle was brought to this country when she was five, is now an undocumented student at Berkeley High School, and has dreams of enrolling at Cal or Harvard within the year. This week's passage of the DREAM Act would have helped her continue to create a future for herself and her family in this country. “I would be a living example of what this nation can provide.” This week's failure was a devastating blow. “Whenever I start to believe in myself,” she told us, “they snatch the dream away from me!”
Sometimes it feels like there is nothing we can do but scream. I wanted to scream this week when both of these measures went down. "Shame!" I wanted to shout to the powerful. "Damn!" "Look at what you have failed to do!" I wanted to quote Isaiah: "Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless." (Isaiah 10:1-2)
"Shame!" "Damn!" "Look at what you could have done!" To the powerful I wanted to shout. To those who take for granted their own dreams and futures, who have never had to worry about documentation or citizenship. To those who have been vested with power but who cannot seem to make anything good or profitable happen with it.
It's not just the failure of DADT or DREAM which gall me.
At the Cathedral on Thursday morning, we heard accounts on a number of other shameful trends in this country relating to our treatment of immigrants and spearheaded by the current administration. Comprehensive immigration reform has stalled in Congress for the indefinite future, nothing is going to get through to provide relief to the millions of people living in our country without documentation. But while the wind is not blowing in the direction of reform, enforcement seems all the rage in the halls of power. More money for the wall; more money for ICE; more money for troups to patrol the border; and more money for deportation. Almost three times as many people are being deported under Obama as compared to Bush.
And while Bush increased electronic enforcement strategies through a program called "secure communities," Obama has dramatically expanded "s-com's" reach. Alameda county has recently begun implementation of this devastatingly efficient electronic link between local law enforcement agencies and the ICE/HomelandSecurity databases. S-com electronically checks the fingerprints of everyone detained by local police and sheriff departments against national immigration databases and identifies for deportation (within as quickly as 45 minutes) people who don’t have the appropriate documents to be here. It was originally touted by the federal government as a program to identify “high-level and dangerous” criminals. However, the majority of people identified and deported under s-com have no criminal history whatsoever.
See what I mean? Don't you want to shout! Or give up your documents! Or throw the powerful out! Or, I don't know.
It's not enough for me to be disgusted or embarrassed by the actions of those with power. There is something to be done. It's unclear what. But there is something....and there will be more as this continues to develop and unfold.
All for now!
Pr. Jeff
PS..... as embarrassed I've felt to be a documented citizen of the United States this past week, I've been proud to be a card-carrying member of the ELCA. Our church is doing some extraordinary things! More on this in my next blogpost....
See what I mean? Don't you want to shout! Or give up your documents! Or throw the powerful out! Or, I don't know.
It's not enough for me to be disgusted or embarrassed by the actions of those with power. There is something to be done. It's unclear what. But there is something....and there will be more as this continues to develop and unfold.
All for now!
Pr. Jeff
PS..... as embarrassed I've felt to be a documented citizen of the United States this past week, I've been proud to be a card-carrying member of the ELCA. Our church is doing some extraordinary things! More on this in my next blogpost....
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