. . . But What About Tomorrow?

Janet Napolitano promised yesterday in L.A. to review abysmal immigration detention conditions, so why have migrants and advocates . . .

. . . in 20 states . . . launched a week of vigils, political action and educational events to draw attention to what they say are inhumane conditions in detention centers, where more than 90 detainees have died in federal custody, according to the Detention Watch Network and the Rights Working Group, two pro-immigrant coalitions representing more than 400 organizations.

I'm happy to see that Napolitano will shortly be issuing new guidelines on workplace raids.  I'm happy that we haven't yet this year seen a Postville-style raid designed to shatter hundreds of families and ruin entire communities.  I'm happy that the unions are teaming up to push for immigration reform.

But the reason we are still making noise is because we haven't seen the changes we were hoping to see that lie within the administrative power of this administration.  Napolitano says she brings change from the last administration's policies, but I haven't seen much evidence of it in my daily work with detainees and those at risk of detention.  For instance:

• The widow penalty remains unfixed.
• The HIV travel/immigration ban is still in place.
• The administration remains silent on this year's version of the DREAM Act.
• Families are still being torn apart daily, as the same harsh laws are harshly interpreted by the same officials doing the same work the same way they did it six months ago.
• Children are still being locked up.
• Asylum-seekers are still routinely detained while their appeals drag on for months or years.
• Attorneys for ICE and the DOJ sometimes heed Attorney General Eric Holder's admonition to "do the right thing" and work to serve justice rather than blindly fighting to win regardless of the human consequences, but often they don't.
• The BIA still sucks.

We understand that change takes time.  And that this administration has a lot on its plate right now.  But one of Janet Napolitano's projects is presumably to fix DHS, one of the administration's most dysfunctional agencies.  So far we've heard a lot of talk about reform, but we've not seen much change or heard of plans to make it happen.  What we have seen is a lot of hype about the Mexican drug cartels and renewed commitments to crack down on criminal aliens.  Not helpful.

From my perspective, it is hard to see what exactly has changed about immigration policy in the last three months, and it's just as hard to say whether anything will change in the next three on Obama's watch.

And with the unions bringing new energy to the fight for progressive immigration reform, it's as clear now as ever that immigration reform that ignores the human tragedies caused by the current system will be destined to fail.