A deportation blocked

A PERUVIAN-American student of Chinese descent at the City College of San Francisco (CCSF) remains at immediate risk of deportation, but a request by a California senator--acting in response to pressure from below--will keep him in the country for now.

Shing Ma "Steve" Li, a 20-year-old student who was studying to become a nurse in order to help the immigrant community, got the news that his deportation had been delayed at a detention facility in Arizona, where he has been held since mid-September, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided his mother's and father's homes and arrested all three.

Steve was born in Peru, where his parents fled from their native China in order to escape that country's one-child policy. Steve came to the U.S. with his parents when he was 12, and he grew up in San Francisco.

Apparently at Sen. Dianne Feinstein's request, ICE officials backed off a November 15 deadline to deport Li back to Peru, a country where he has no connections. But this won't end the threat of deportation for either Li or his parents, who would be sent to China, their home country.

Feinstein's bill is the result of weeks of organizing and growing support for Steve.

On November 5, more than 100 students, staff and friends rallied at CCSF, chanting "Bring Steve home!" Student organizations at the community college--and in Los Angeles at UCLA--have been organizing calls and a letter-writing campaign to California's U.S. senators, Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, to ask that they pass a special bill during the lame duck session to stop the deportation. Also, the CCSF Board of Trustees and San Francisco's Board of Supervisors passed resolutions in support of Steve.

Despite this support, the intransigence of the elected officials and the federal government has been appalling.

Steve's lawyer, Sin Yen Ling, had initially requested what is called "deferred action" from ICE--if approved, it would grant ICE the discretionary authority to permanently or temporarily halt his removal. At first, ICE said they hadn't received such a request. The afternoon of the emergency rally, they notified Ling that the request was subsequently denied.

Campaign activists urging the California senators to pass a special bill were initially rebuffed. Feinstein's office at first refused, and Boxer's office claimed that she doesn't pass private bills. According to Ling, all Boxer would have to do is announce that she wants to pass a private bill or pick up the phone and call ICE to halt the deportation.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi felt the need to respond after activists held an emergency rally at Boxer's office two days before the scheduled deportation. She sent a statement to the San Francisco Bay Guardian: "Speaker Pelosi believes that Steve Li's case is a textbook example of the pressing need for comprehensive immigration reform and passage of the DREAM Act. Speaker Pelosi is working with other Members to recommend that ICE grant deferred action in this case."

STEVE'S CASE highlights the profound injustices in the U.S. immigration system--and the hypocrisy of the Democrats, who ignored Steve's pleas for help until the pressure became overwhelming.

In the last few months, the Obama administration said it would focus only on deporting "the worst of the worst" immigrants, referring to those accused of criminal offenses.

According to news reports, ICE is also supposed to refrain from deporting college students who would have been eligible for legalization under the DREAM Act--a measure that would grant a path to citizenship for a minority of undocumented youth if they attend college or join the military. The DREAM Act was taken up in Congress a few months ago, but was attached to a defense appropriations bill, which was blocked by Republicans because of the presence of the pro-immigrant measure.

The million-dollar question is: Why is Steve, with no criminal record and whose former Asian American studies professor called him "pretty much the perfect student," being deported?

In fact, the Obama administration's compassionate statements can't be reconciled with the setting of a quota of 400,000 deportations for 2010, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's public boasting about deportations hitting a record high last month. The administration's stated goal is to deport immigrants--and that's what it is doing. This exposes the farcical attempt to differentiate between "good immigrants" and "bad immigrants."

U.S. immigration policy isn't driven by the needs of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who are deported every year, nor of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. today. It is driven by the needs of corporations and the rich.

This is why the various plans for so-called "comprehensive immigration reform" would actually beef up enforcement--most also contain a guest worker program. In return, undocumented immigrants would get an arduous and very limited path to legalization. That sort of arrangement would suit big business well.

The proposed DREAM Act, which was drafted years ago as a way for undocumented immigrant students to be able to pay in-state fees and tuition and eventually gain legal status, would be a limited reform that helps only a minority of undocumented youth. Student activists, including Steve's supporters, rightfully back the proposal because of its positive provisions, but anyone who supports immigrant rights needs to criticize the way the legislation satisfies another goal of U.S. policymakers--by offering citizenship to undocumented young people who sign up for the military.

Even if it were to pass Congress, which is unlikely after the Republican victory on November 2, the DREAM Act isn't enough. In Steve's case, the legislation wouldn't solve the situation of his parents, who don't face immediate deportation, but who are still being forced to wear electronic ankle bracelets to monitor their whereabouts.

Steve's case shows once again just how brutal, unjust and hypocritical the U.S. immigration system is. Despite what Democratic politicians are saying, the immigration system isn't broken--it is fulfilling the tasks that the U.S. political and business establishment want it to accomplish.

The delay in Steve's deportation is only because of the activism of his friends and supporters, which put pressure on the politicians to take action. It will be up to us to continue the fight to bring Steve home--and to use momentum from this temporary victory to stop the many deportations of others in similar circumstances.