Hispanics Against Obama?

When President Obama spoke to a leading Hispanic organization days ago about the difficulties that he is encountering in his efforts to make immigration laws in this country more flexible, many in the room spontaneously began chanting: “Yes we can!” The slogan of the annual convention of the National Council of la Raza celebrated on Monday in Washington, D.C., an ironic reminder Obama’s campaign slogan in 2008, represented a rare moment of confrontation between Obama and Hispanic voters. Obama won 67 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2008, and is used to receiving a warm welcome from his Latino audiences.

Many Hispanics are outraged by the deportation of almost one million people because of laws implemented in the last three years under the governance of Obama. They don’t believe their president when he says he can’t do anything to change the immigration laws because the Republicans block all his efforts.

According to many Hispanic leaders, despite the anti-immigration stance of Republicans in Congress, there are many things that the president can do to use his executive branch authority. For example, they say, he could grant extensions to the deportations of students entering college or the army and those who were brought into the country by their parents as children. Obama has supported the “Dream Act” bill which would offer a path to legalization for these students, but this has been blocked by Republicans in the Senate.

“We are disappointed that the president has not done more to reduce the high number of deportations,” said the president of NCLR after Obama’s speech. “We all agree that we must deport violent criminals, but we do not think that it should also be done with people making a real contribution to this country. We do not think that should be a priority at this time.”

The same day Obama spoke to the National Council of La Raza, I received a call from the Argentine consul in Miami, who called my attention to the case of an Argentine student facing imminent deportation. Later, when I spoke to the young Miyen Spinelli, I could not help wonder why the U.S. government, which is in a financial crisis, is wasting time and money on the deportation of good students.

Spinelli, 23, told me he has no criminal record, graduated in the top 15 percentile of his high school class, attained a degree in sports administration at the University of St. Thomas and is preparing to do his masters in international trade.

Shortly before graduating, during a trip to Maine for a soccer tournament with his school team, the car he was riding in, driven by a friend, was stopped by a policeman. They were not speeding nor violating any traffic law. The police officer said he had stopped them to check the Florida registration the car had.

“He asked for my documents, and then called the Border Patrol,” said Spinelli. “I spent six days in jail, I was then handed a deportation order for August 15, and they then placed an electronic ankle bracelet.” When his story appeared in The Miami Herald on Tuesday, July 26, immigration officials gave Spinelli a one-year extension on his deportation order.

Now the young man hopes that in time, the Dream Act will be approved. It is estimated that there are around 825,000 students in the United States who could benefit from the Dream Act. Most of them arrived in the country at an early age. Some are outstanding students in science and engineering, whose skills the country needs more and more.

Other countries, such as Canada, France, England, Germany and Singapore, make every effort to grant legal visas to the best foreign students, or workers whose skills they need in qualified markets. In Canada, about 36 percent of immigrant visas are granted annually in the category of “qualified visas,” as opposed to just 6.5 percent in the United States, according to a recent study by the Brookings Institute.

My opinion: Deporting qualified students and military volunteers is a waste of time and money by the government; it contradicts the tradition of the United States as being a country of immigrants; and it reduces the creative energy of the United States in a time when other countries are applying immigration policies to attract talent.

The anti-immigration zealots of the Republican Party are hurting the country with their opposition to the Dream Act. But until they regain their common sense, Obama should use his executive powers to delay the deportation of qualified foreign students.

As he told his audience a few days ago, “Yes you can!”