Wise up, Latinos: Biden is just using us as pawns to get war funding

Politics requires a give for a take.

Advocates are well aware that the overdue need for immigration reform would certainly come with a price tag.

The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 brought relief to millions of undocumented immigrants but came at the expense of new laws that sought to make it more difficult for undocumented workers to get jobs in the future.

The dreaded I-9 form and the need to resort to the black market for fake documentation has led to increased exploitation and criminal penalties for many seeking a better life for themselves and their families.

This was a known trade-off for being able to legalize the status of more than 2.5 million people.

Border funding comes with no carrots

However, no longer does the Biden administration seek a benefit for those who have been in the country for so long.

There is no attempt to codify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, no attempt at any benefit whatsoever for those who have been living amongst us as our cooks, cleaners, gardeners and owners of the restaurants and stores we patronize.

Instead, Biden wishes to discard the Latino community in exchange for funding for wars taking place on the other side of the globe.

The White House this past week proposed some $14 billion in border funding as part of a huge spending package to help Israel and Ukraine in their war efforts, including hiring more Border Patrol agents and asylum staffers to arrest and deport border crossers.

What's Biden's immigration endgame: With that border wall?

As Muhammad Ali once stated, “Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?”

This time the call is not for our community to put on a uniform and fight; rather, the call is for us to allow our community to receive a more difficult path to freedom, increased border enforcement and an attempt to make it more difficult to seek asylum.

When will Latinos stand up to Biden?

While presented as a request for funding for local governments assisting migrants, the reality is that the Republican Party will only be appeased with more tools to keep people out or remove them faster, and a gutting of asylum law as we know it.

President Biden is offering the immigrant and Latino community as a sacrifice so war can be waged against brown people in the Middle East.

The idea of war against a community of color that has had their faces stomped into the ground for decades is repulsive by itself.

The thought that Biden seeks to secure this funding by also appeasing Republicans who wish to deny access to migrants seeking a fundamental human right is absolutely insulting.

He desires support from the Republican Party so much that he is indifferent to the setback he will make towards any possible immigration reform.

At one point does the Latino community take a stand against President Biden and the Democrats?

Ray Ybarra Maldonado is an immigration attorney, human rights advocate and founder of Ybarra Maldonado Law Group. Reach him at ray@abogadoray.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Biden is using immigrants as pawns to help Israel and Ukraine