Students should support immigrant rights

When he began to advocate for immigration reform in mid-2010, President Barack Obama reminded the American people that “we’ve always defined ourselves as a nation of immigrants.” Four years and more than 1.72 million deportations later, it seems Obama has forgotten his own message. The White House’s only significant step in a reformative direction has been an anemic call last month for a “review” of current immigration enforcement policies. Meanwhile, much-needed overhauls to the nation’s broken immigration system remain stalled in an incompetent Congress.

There is still reason to hold out hope on immigration reform before the 2016 elections, however. Pope Francis has taken up advocacy on this issue. Last Thursday, as part of his European tour, Obama met with Pope Francis in the Apostolic Palace, and immigration policy featured prominently in the conversation. This week, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, one of the Pope’s right-hand men, led a delegation of Catholic bishops to the Mexican-American border to “raise … consciousness about the need for our president and congress to pass immigration policy and reform to address a broken system.”

The church under Pope Francis has already done much to advance the Jesuit commitment to immigrant rights—and so has Georgetown. In June of 2013, University President John DeGioia signed onto a letter from the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities that exhorted members of the House of Representatives to respect “the human dignity and worth of all immigrants, regardless of legal status.” In the previous month, over 200 students affiliated with the Georgetown University Immigration Coalition marched on the Capitol to demand a legal path to citizenship for undocumented aliens living in the U.S.

This coming Saturday, GUIC and MEChA de Georgetown will be at it again as part of a nationwide “not one more deportation” protest. The Voice encourages students to join the marchers as they descend on Lafayette Square, across from the White House. Additionally, students can, and should, show support for the cause via the hashtags #not1more or #2million2many.

Immigrants are the lifeblood of the United States. To this day, people the world over flock to American soil in pursuit of new lives and livelihoods, and, in the process, give so much to their adopted country. How does the government repay this kindness? Not with open arms, but with watchful eyes.

The importance of immigrants to America’s continued vitality is surely not lost on Obama, whose father was a migrant scholar from Kenya. The obstacles he faces in his push to ameliorate immigration policy are enormous, but what he and the nation as a whole stand to gain from reform is even greater—if Obama can uphold his own campaign promises.