Immigration advocates watching election

Immigrant advocates urged Asian-Pacific communities to watch the upcoming US election closely as they bank on the next president to re-implement immigration relief programs blocked by the Supreme Court.

A recent 4-4 decision by the US top court has effectively put on hold President Barack Obama's executive actions that protect roughly 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation while providing work authorization.

The programs - expanded DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents) - were implemented in November 2014 but were soon stalled by the Fifth Circuit Court as 26 states, led by Texas, convinced the judge that they would suffer financial burdens if the relief programs were implemented.

"It could be that we need to wait until there's a new president who then appoints a new Supreme Court justice, so that we have nine justices sitting on the bench and a tie won't be possible in the future," said Amanda Alvarado Ford, immigration law coordinating attorney with La Raza Centro Legal, at a panel hosted by New America Media and the San Francisco Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs on Thursday in San Francisco.

"That scenario may take two years," she added. "It may be a long battle; we are rolling up our sleeves."

Sally Kinoshita, deputy director of the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, explained that the failure to pass a comprehensive immigration law and the failure to reach a decision by the Supreme Court was because the Congress would not confirm a tie-breaking ninth justice on the Supreme Court.

"Our next president will nominate the next Supreme Court justice, and the next Congress will confirm him or her. So we really need to be looking at who those people are and ensuring that we are voting for people who stand with us," said Kinoshita, encouraging the immigrants to participate indirectly even if they may not be eligible to vote.

While supporters of the programs expressed disappointment, opponents said it was a "win".

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump criticized the programs as hurting African American and Hispanic workers by taking away their jobs and the federal resources to "illegal immigrant labor" and making the Americans less safe.

"It's really a critical election. We need to stand up against the politics that have allowed really a hateful candidate to gain so much prominence in the political system," said Amanda Alvarado Ford.

Annette Wong, director of immigration programs with Chinese for Affirmative Action, said the split ruling was a reflection of what's happening at the national level.

"The political climate around anti-immigrant rhetoric, the xenophobia and the scapegoating of the immigrant community is happening, and sometimes it's very scary for our community," she said.

According to Kinoshita, it is estimated that approximately 400,000 Asian Pacific Islanders are eligible for the programs, and the number of Chinese applicants to DACA was so small that they didn't have accurate data.

liazhu@chinadailyusa.com