September 25, 2021
As trouble mounts on every front, from a barbaric Texas law that deprives women of their bodily autonomy to a spate of laws in 18 states that deprive people of color of their right to vote, Democrats in Congress are tied up in Gordian knots of their own making. Hamstrung by fealty to fusty procedures and paralyzed by posturing moderates, they are incapable of even crafting a strategy to avert the government shutdown being engineered by nihilist Republicans.
Despite the existential threats to our democracy posed by the relentless attacks on voting rights and election integrity, Congressional Democrats are unable to eliminate or even amend the filibuster. The party is hostage to the performative centrism of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who are not only torpedoing voting rights legislation, but imperiling Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda by objecting to its $3.5 trillion dollar price tag. Very few are pointing out the hypocrisy of objecting to spending $350 billion per year over ten years on programs that will help Americans and confront climate change, while not saying a word while the $768 billion National Defense Authorization Act covering one year, passes in the House by a margin of 316 -113.
Last Sunday, our hopes of including immigration reform in the reconciliation bill were dashed when the Senate parliamentarian ruled that “the policy change would far outweigh the budgetary impact scored to it and it is not appropriate for inclusion in reconciliation,”. (Source: “In A Blow to Democrats, Senate Official Blocks Immigration Reform In Budget Bill,” by Claudia Grisales, npr.org, 9/19/21). Given that the proposal was projected “to increase GDP by a cumulative total of $1.5 trillion over ten years and create 400,800 new jobs,” this seems like a political decision made by an unelected bureaucrat. Democrats expressed “disappointment” with the Parliamentarian’s decision, pretending they were powerless to overrule or fire her in order to create a path to citizenship for 8 million undocumented immigrants.
Meanwhile, at the Southern border, a full fledged humanitarian crisis erupted, which only got uglier by the day. Last week, we learned that the Biden Administration responded to an encampment of 15,000 Haitian migrants seeking refuge from their dangerously unstable country by announcing a plan to speed up deportations. The administration shipped 500 migrants back to Haiti in the first 48 hours after announcing its plan, (Source: “Some Haitians at U.S. border released, others deported, as pressure builds on Biden,” by Diana Beth Solomon, Reuters.com, 9/22/21).
The day after we learned of mass deportations, images emerged of white Border Patrol officers on horseback grabbing and berating Black Haitian migrants, while wielding their reins overhead like whips, (Source: “Images of Border Patrol’s Treatment of Migrants Prompts Outrage,” by Eileen Sullivan and Zolan Kano-Youngs, The New York Times, 9/21/21).
The violent anti-Blackness was so sickening that it prompted Daniel Foote, the U.S. envoy to Haiti, to resign. Foote wrote a blistering resignation letter, stating ““I will not be associated with the United States’ inhumane, counterproductive decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees and illegal immigrants to Haiti, a country where American officials are confined to secure compounds because of the dangers posed by armed gangs in control of daily life.”
Foote’s bracing moral clarity does not reckon with American complicity in that instability, but it is a welcome contrast to others in the administration who claim that Border Patrol depravity “is not who we are,” while packing planes to deport more Haitians in the middle of this crisis, (Source: “Biden Condemns Border Patrol Treatment of Haitian Migrants as Expulsions Continue,” by Katie Rogers and Michael D. Shear, The New York Times, 9/24/21). There is a marked contrast between the speed with which this administration relied on a reviled Trump era policy to deport Black migrants and its hesitation to pressure holdout Democrats to act to protect the Constitutional rights of Black citizens. One has to ask – are Democrats more afraid of a truly representative multiracial democracy than of a takeover by fascist white supremacists? All I can say is — actions speak louder than words.
So ashamed!