My paternal grandmother is buried in Guanabacoa, a borough in the eastern part of Havana, Cuba, the city of my birth. The stone marking her grave bears an inscription, but some letters are missing and the stone is in disrepair. I touched and kissed the stone during my visit to it in 2015 when, as the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, I negotiated the first homeland security agreement between our two countries.
I used to oversee our nation’s immigration system. President Trump has betrayed it and America’s ideals
President Trump has driven the Cubans back to an isolated suffering and further removed our country from its position of leadership in the region.
Por:
Alejandro Mayorkas
U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks at the Gran Teatro in Havana, March 22, 2016.
Imagen Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
It was a period of soaring promise for the Cuban and Cuban-American people. As my visit to the graveside drew to a close, I committed to one day replacing the letters and repairing the stone out of respect for my grandmother and my family.
Today, however, the missing letters and broken stone can serve as a symbol of the suffering that President Trump has caused the Cuban people and families throughout Latin America. By deporting Cubans seeking asylum in our country and refusing to grant protected status to Venezuelans in the U.S., he inflicts harm on the very people our humanitarian laws were designed to protect. His cruelty, though, does not fill me with lasting despair. I know there is a more just future. It is the future of Joe Biden as our President.
I have confidence in the dignity and humanity with which Joe Biden will apply our laws to Cuban and Venezuelan families in need of protection because I have seen him lead this way before. Together with President Obama, he stood with the Cuban people – including Cuban families, entrepreneurs, civil society, and human rights activists – as they sought to empower the Cuban people to freely determine their own future. The power of democracy was in full force.
As my mom worked and parented, all in one breath, she instilled in us the values that I carry with me today: “por la familia, todo.” Lee este contenido en <a href="https://www.univision.com/noticias/opinion/por-la-familia-todo-ruben-gallego-sobre-su-candidatura-para-ser-el-primer-senador-latino-de-arizona" target="_blank" link-data="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000147-f3a5-d4ea-a95f-fbb7f52b0000","_type":"ae3387cc-b875-31b7-b82d-63fd8d758c20"},"cms.content.publishDate":1726508089253,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017b-d1c8-de50-affb-f1df3e1d0000","_type":"6aa69ae1-35be-30dc-87e9-410da9e1cdcc"},"cms.content.updateDate":1726508089253,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017b-d1c8-de50-affb-f1df3e1d0000","_type":"6aa69ae1-35be-30dc-87e9-410da9e1cdcc"},"link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.univision.com/noticias/opinion/por-la-familia-todo-ruben-gallego-sobre-su-candidatura-para-ser-el-primer-senador-latino-de-arizona","_id":"00000191-fbe6-d0b9-a3df-ffee82b60000","_type":"ff658216-e70f-39d0-b660-bdfe57a5599a"},"linkText":"español","_id":"00000191-fbe6-d0b9-a3df-ffee82b10000","_type":"809caec9-30e2-3666-8b71-b32ddbffc288"}">español</a>.
"What a sad reflection that the Republican Party has moved from Abraham Lincoln, who <a href="https://www.lincolncottage.org/lincoln-and-immigration/" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.lincolncottage.org/lincoln-and-immigration/&source=gmail&ust=1722615259799000&usg=AOvVaw1h4-6RbvpglrZVIbOjgpuE" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">said </a>immigration was a ‘source of national wealth and strength’ and Ronald Reagan, who <a href="https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/farewell-address-nation" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/farewell-address-nation&source=gmail&ust=1722615259799000&usg=AOvVaw3smYQcjpnK2Yg75NSEOBUf" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">called </a>for his ‘city on the hill’ to be ‘open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here,’ to Donald Trump, who <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-says-immigrants-are-poisoning-blood-country-biden-campaign-liken-rcna130141" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-says-immigrants-are-poisoning-blood-country-biden-campaign-liken-rcna130141&source=gmail&ust=1722615259799000&usg=AOvVaw1u4LrDvU2tKeNxJCdbz96i" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">says </a>immigrants are ‘poisoning the blood of our country".
"Our current immigration laws include so many hurdles that can keep families in limbo, and even being married to a U.S. citizen isn’t always enough to allow someone to get a green card".
"For those of us whose livelihoods depend on it, President Biden’s actions to protect and preserve DACA show a striking contrast with those of Trump and MAGA Republicans. Trump has a record of trying to end DACA and will try again if he wins another term".
"While immigrants by now are accustomed to being the tip of the spear in the GOP’s arsenal of attacks, let's be clear-eyed that the threat now is beyond harming immigrant communities or calling attention to the border. This is about using this issue as a tool to further Trump’s political ambitions, even if that means suppressing the right to vote, undermining our election results, or stoking more political violence".
"This month comes at a special moment in our nation’s history. For the first time, we have more Latinos serving in Congress than ever before. In the Senate, the Democratic Majority has confirmed a historic number of Latino judicial nominees and recently confirmed the first Latina to serve on the Federal Reserve in the Board’s 109-year history".
"This is the clean energy boom unleashed by President Biden: good-paying jobs in a fast-growing industry and lower bills for working families — all while addressing the climate crisis affecting our lives".
Putting presidents, former presidents and coup plotters on trial is an honorable and necessary practice to maintain a healthy democracy. Failure to put on trial presidents or former presidents who broke the law or committed crimes has had devastating consequences in Latin America.
Mexico's migrant policy bears responsibility for the deaths of 39 migrants in the fire at a detention center in Ciudad Juarez. They were in the custody of the Mexican government, in a federal facility.
The successes and the promise of the future ended abruptly when President Trump assumed office.
He halted the advance of American business interests in Cuba, to our detriment and the detriment of the Cuban people in need of jobs and a functioning economy. He has deported Cubans seeking protection in the United States and disregarded claims of persecution, defying our country’s asylum laws and disrespecting the means by which so many of us were able to start our new lives here. He has harmed the Cuban private sector and denied Cuban Americans the capacity to send remittances to their families on the island.
President Trump has driven the Cubans back to an isolated suffering and further removed our country from its position of leadership in the region.
President Trump’s retreat from the power of our democracy is mirrored in his mistreatment of the Venezuelan people. There are approximately 200,000 Venezuelans in the United States who cannot safely return to their country because of the conditions there. U.S. law provides that these individuals can be granted Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, which allows individuals to stay in the U.S. when conditions in their home country prevent them from returning safely due to armed conflict, disaster, or other adverse conditions.
It is a straightforward application of law designed to provide humanitarian relief for displaced individuals. With TPS, these Venezuelans could work and care for their families here and through remittances provide support for their relatives back home. The TPS program has previously been used to help Nicaraguans, Hondurans, Haitians, and Salvadorans, among others. TPS for Venezuela has bipartisan support in Congress. Yet, President Trump has shunned it, denying Venezuelans this most basic protection.
I have helped oversee our nation’s asylum system and the administration of TPS. I have negotiated security agreements with foreign countries and worked to protect the human rights of individuals suffering persecution in countries in our hemisphere and beyond. I know how our laws are meant to be applied to help those in need. Donald Trump has turned his back on it all.
Joe Biden has said that, as President, he will swiftly reverse Trump’s policies that have inflicted harm on Cubans, Venezuelans, and many others. He has said he will restore our asylum laws and grant TPS to Venezuelans in the United States. Joe Biden knows how to harness our values for the betterment of our nation and those throughout our region. His leadership will bring relief to so many who are suffering from the current inhumane immigration policies that have torn lives and families apart, and allow Cuban Americans to support their families once more. The power of democracy will return in full force.
We will have in President Biden an experienced leader who will show us all, and the world, the strength that comes with character and action defined by dignity and humanity. When that shining new day arrives, I will renew my plans to repair the stone by my Abuela’s grave.
Alejandro Mayorkas served as Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from 2013 to 2016. He also previously served as Director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
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