Call For Pres. Obama to Halt Deportations With Executive Order

Today’s Guest Blogger is Presente.org. Presente.org is a national organization that exists to amplify the political voice of Latino communities.

Last week, over 20,000 of us called on President Obama to live up to his promises on immigration by halting the deportations of young people eligible for the DREAM Act.

Today there are literally thousands of students facing deportation from the only home they have ever known because the DREAM Act still isn’t law. President Obama has the power to help them—all he has to do is issue an executive order to halt their deportation until the DREAM Act is passed.

Issuing an executive order is a simple action that would have a powerful impact. It would protect thousands of hard working young people and also show voters that the president is interested in more than just talking about immigration reform—it would show that he is serious about action.

Throughout history, many presidents have stepped up to take similar executive actions on critical issues facing our country—especially when those facing oppression needed intervention and relief.

Check out this list of 6 of the most powerful executive orders in history. Once you’ve checked it out, please share it with your friends and colleagues and urge them to join the movement calling on President Obama to halt the deportation of the DREAMers.

PRESENTE.ORG’S SIX FAVORITE EXECUTIVE ORDERS IN HISTORY

6. Equal Employment Opportunity. At the height of the Civil Rights Movement, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Executive Order 11246 which bars discrimination in federal employment because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.1

5. Affirmative Action. On March 6, 1961 President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 10925, which included a provision that government contractors “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.” 2

4. Works Progress Administration. In 1935, at the height of the Great Depression, FDR used Executive Order number 7034 to create the Works Progress Administration, which put more than 8.5 million Americans back to work rebuilding the country one bridge, road, and mural at a time. 3

3. Desegregation of Schools. In 1954 the Supreme Court decided Brown vs. Board of Education. But it would take much more than a court order to end school segregation, as the nation saw in 1957 when Arkansas Governor Orville Faubus refused to comply. Dwight D. Eisenhower’S EO 10730 placed the Arkansas National Guard under Federal control and sent in U.S. army troops to ensure that nine black children could safely attend Little Rock High School. 4

2. The Emancipation Proclamation. Need we say more? The Proclamation freed all slaves living in the Confederacy, though left out the border states of Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia, which had yet to secede. 5

1. The end of DREAMer deportations. Yes, we know. This one hasn’t happened yet. But we fervently believe that the President can follow in the footsteps of his predecessors. And that’s the thing about history—it keeps getting rewritten with every new day!

Please share this list with your friends and family. And if they haven’t yet, please ask them to join the call for President Obama to halt DREAMer deportations.
Please sign a petition here

Thanks and ¡adelante!