A Culver City immigration attorney says President Barack Obama’s June 15 immigration executive order will improve the lives not only of the approximately one million young people that it will affect but society as well.
Gary Silbiger, a former Culver City councilman, applauded the president’s action, which will halt the deportation of children and young adults who were brought to the United States by undocumented parents.
“Many of these people are hard working, law abiding people who through no fault of their own came to this country with their parents as children,” said Silbiger, who has been an immigration attorney for nearly four decades. “It makes sense for young people with a lot of skills and talent to be allowed to remain here in the United States without having to worry about having to leave their families.”
Latinos- the primary targets of Obama’s order- are the fastest growing minority group in California, according the U.S. Census Bureau.
The president’s order pertains to those under 30 who came to the United States before they were 16, pose no criminal or security threat and were successful students or served in the military can get a two-year deferral from deportation, according to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
Those who qualify will be able to apply for work permits, provided that they are living in the United States now and are able to prove they have been living in the country continuously for a minimum of five years.
The order is similar to the California DREAM Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown on Oct. 8.
The law, sponsored by state Sen. Gil Cedillo (D- Los Angeles) allows children who were brought into the United States who are under the age of 16 without proper immigration documentation and who have attended school on a regular basis to apply for student financial aid benefits.
They must also meet in-state tunition requirments.
A similar federal initiative failed in Congress last year.
Opponents of the president’s new immigration policy rallied to block his action. Rep. Ben Qualye (R- Phoenix), the son of former Vice President Dan Quayle, introduced legislation that would rescind the president’s executive order.
“This end-run around Congress was a direct rebuke to the principle of three co-equal branches of government outlined in our constitution and more broadly, our entire system of laws,” Quayle said in a statement. “My bill, the ‘Prohibiting Back-door Amnesty Act of 2012’ prohibits the implementation of this outrageous edict. I hope Congress will join me in taking immediate action to uphold our nation’s laws.”
Silbiger pointed out there are Latino families in practically every urban community and even in some far flung towns they did not previously inhabit. In Culver City, permit students from others areas of Los Angeles have enrolled in Culver City schools for years.
“It’s quite possible that we have or have had students who fall into this category,” he said.
Culver City Unified School District Board Member Laura Chardiet, a former English as a second language teacher, said the president’s order will bring a sense of relief to the nearly one million families who will be impacted. “Anytime that you can bring some certainty, especially in an uncertain economic time, it’s a good thing,” she said.
The stories of students who have lived for years along the margins of society while taking part in civic activities at school and in their neighborhoods have been chronicled in newspapers and on television before and after Obama’s executive order. For some, the president’s action was long overdue as well as having Congress act on immigration reform.
“It’s been a long time in coming,” said Claudia Vizcarra, a Culver City resident whose children attended El Marino Language School. “There are a lot of people who have been hoping to pursue their dreams but have this huge obstacle to overcome and now that obstacle has been removed.”
Vizcarra knows about dreaming and wondering if she would be able to pursue hers. For several years until she obtained her United States citizenship through amnesty, she lived the life of many immigrants who undocumented parents brought them north of the border when they were young: feeling like an American but without the necessary requirements to work, such as having the ability to obtain a Social Security card.
“I know that life of living in the shadows,” Vizcarra, who works for the Los Angeles Unified School District, told the News.
Vizcarra said she was cautious about who she told about her former status and the constant anxiety that it brought.
“It was intensely stressful to live with the possibility of being deported,” she recalled.
Silbiger feels the executive order will allow young adults and teens to contribute to a nation where they have lived most of their lives and for the most part have assimilated into the culture.
“So many of these children will now feel free to attend college and work without the fear of deportation. Immigration law should be about unifying families, not separating them,” he asserted.
Chardiet concurs. “So many of my former students wanted to contribute to our society,” the school board member said. “This has the potential to not only to be beneficial to their families but also to society at large.”
Vizcarra sees the conversation of the plight of the offspring of undocumented workers who have lived the majority of their lives in the United States as more than a policy discussion.
“I really think about this as a part of our civil rights history,” she asserted. “In a globalized world that we live in today, we can’t help but think about extending (the possibility of citizenship) to undocumented youth.”
