(MintPress) — Thirty-seven undocumented immigrants have risked arrest and deportation by taking their message of “No Papers, No Fear” tour across the U.S. With more than 1 million deportations during President Obama’s first four years in office, many within the Latino American community have grown disillusioned with the president’s policies.
However, community organizers and immigration reformers involved in the campaign still have faith that President Obama can work to provide the comprehensive reform immigrant families are advocating for.
Although many of the protesters could face legal retribution for their actions, the prevailing rallying cry, “No papers, no fear,” has allowed immigration reform advocates to work to conquer fear through collective public action.
The tour stops at the DNC
The No Papers No Fear bus left Phoenix, Ariz. on July 29, making stops in 15 U.S. cities, including Denver, Albuquerque and New Orleans, among others, in an effort to connect with immigrant communities. The group has not shied away from public demonstrations, a tactic meant to draw attention to the plight of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S.
While not all those touring on the bus are undocumented, nearly all have family and friends who are considered “illegal” by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). For participants in the campaign, the policies of ICE have informed their work as community organizers, immigration lawyers and activists.
“I’m here because I’m going to ask Obama where he stands. Is he going to be the president with the most deportations of any president? Or is he going to fight for our dignity and for our respect as a community?” asked Yovany Diaz in a recent interview.
The rallying cry, “No papers, no fear. Dignity is walking here,” is central to the claims of the organizers because many families are separated when some relatives are documented citizens while others live abroad, unable to obtain legal entry into the U.S.
For activist Gabriela Alcazar, the decision to advocate for these issues came from her experience as a child, recalling, “The fear and uncertainty that comes with not knowing whether I would get to see my mom.”
Alcazar was born in Chicago, Ill., but her mother was an illegal immigrant from Mexico. Like so many immigrant children, Alcazar was called upon at a young age to help with translating and navigating the bureaucratic immigration process. Because of these experiences, Alcazar advocates for immigrant rights through community organizing.
Even though the fight for reform requires sustained advocacy, Alcazar believes the tour is an important action that “has the potential to shift the tide so that the country is more inclusive of all undocumented people.”
Deportations under Obama
As a rapidly growing constituency in the U.S. electorate, Latino-Americans represent an important demographic in the upcoming 2012 election. According to census estimates, there are currently 50.5 million Latinos in the U.S., 16 percent of the population.
Like all voting blocs, Latinos are by no means unified around a single set of issues. However, most generally favor the Democratic Party. A full 67 percent of Latino voters who cast ballots in 2008 supported Barack Obama, according to the Pew Research Center.
However, this has not dissuaded the Romney campaign from courting the Latino vote during the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Tampa, Fla. last month. Although Gov. Romney experienced modest gains in national polls, Latino support for Romney increased 4 percent following the RNC, according to the Latino Decisions opinion poll.
Thirty-nine percent of independent voters felt that the lineup of prominent Republican Latino speakers, including Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, made a positive impression.
Some of this support may come from more conservative Cuban-American constituencies, historically favoring hardline pro-embargo policies of the Republican Party. Many of the 1.5 Cuban-Americans are exiles or the children of exiles fleeing after Flugencio Bautista was deposed in 1959.
Although overall Latino support for Obama has dipped slightly following the RNC, members of the “No Papers, No Fear” bus tour are encouraged by the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program for young undocumented immigrants.
The program announced earlier this summer went into effect last month, allowing young undocumented immigrants to remain in the country legally for work, school or military service. While lambasted by many conservative lawmakers, those advocating for immigration reform welcome the program as applications have been pouring in.
The program is open to undocumented immigrants ages 15-31 who have lived continuously in the U.S. for at least 5 years. Those with clean criminal records will be allowed to stay legally in the U.S. without fear of deportation for two years with the possibility of renewal.
Although the program will help an estimated 1.7 million youth without documentation, many within the Latino-American community contend that the program is important, but not the comprehensive immigration reform necessary to keep families together, allowing immigrants an easier, less expensive path to citizenship.
The legal immigration process takes about two years under optimal conditions, but frequently takes much longer for some individuals. Additionally, application fees run upward of $400, a fee that many impoverished immigrants can not afford to spend.
These difficult application procedures seem to have dissuaded many would-be immigrants from seeking entry into the U.S. as the number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. decreased slightly in 2011.
According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, there were 11.5 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. at the start of 2011. This represents a decrease of around 100,000 undocumented workers, many of whom left because of the stagnating economy and tough “show me your papers” legislation in states like Alabama and Arizona.
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down most provisions of Arizona’s immigration law, S.B. 1070, in a ruling earlier this summer. The law was considered by many legal experts to be the toughest state immigration law. The court struck down provisions allowing police to racially profile citizens and detain individuals without charge.