Contempt Toward Migrants

This weekend, thousands of migrants protested in the main U.S. cities to demand that President Barack Obama suspend the deportations of undocumented citizens, while the long-awaited immigration reform is approved.

If we believed that only the Guatemalan Congress forgot about laws, we were wrong because the same happens in the United States, as the proposed reform has been stuck in limbo since it was forwarded to the House of Representatives last year.

In these past few years, the political and social pressure on the president has increased because he is being held largely responsible for the increase in deportations and is being asked to use his executive power to temporarily halt them.

This weekend, The New York Times has added to this pressure in its editorial, emphasizing the following:

“It has been frustrating to watch his yes-we-can promises on immigration reform fade to protestations of impotence and the blaming of others … With nearly two million removals in the last five years, the Obama administration is deporting people at a faster pace than has taken place under any other president … Mr. Obama may argue that he can’t be too aggressive in halting deportations because that will make the Republicans go crazy, and there’s always hope for a legislative solution. He has often seemed like a bystander to the immigration stalemate, watching the wheels spin, giving speeches and hoping for the best.”

In the five years of this Democratic government, the number of people deported totaled more than 2 million, which is more than the figure recorded throughout both of George W. Bush’s terms in office (2 million in eight years) and those of Bill Clinton (did not reach the 1 million mark).

In 2012, when the time came for the electoral campaign, Obama suspended deportations for two years for the so-called “dreamers” – the young people who arrived in the U.S. with their parents without any documentation whatsoever, but who have grown up and studied in the country. The president is being asked to extend this arrangement in order to benefit the rest of undocumented citizens.

Guatemala should be no stranger to this reality if we consider that so far this year (up to April), the U.S. has deported 14,601 Guatemalan men and women. That figure reached 40,647 people in 2012 and 50,221 in 2013.

The government must urgently intensify its actions through the office of the chancellor and its ambassador in Washington in order to halt the deportations of our fellow countrymen. At this point, it is not possible that there is no concrete proposition on the topic. It is surprising how government officials are quick to pass judgment on other issues, but there is a detachment when it comes to the human rights violations that migrants face and the increase in deportations. The economic stability of the country greatly depends on the flow of remittances, 90 percent of which are sent by migrants based in the United States. It is time to express our solidarity with our brothers who work there and who contribute to the development of this country despite their adversities.