Aura Bogado | The Nation

Edi Arma, who’s lived in Phoenix, Arizona, for thirteen years, is a Guatemalan immigrant fighting deportation. He was originally placed in immigrant detention after a traffic stop in 2009. Arma explained to officials that he’s afraid that his family will be killed if they return to Guatemala. Nevertheless, he was issued a deportation order, which he ignored because he wants to stay with his wife and three children—one of which suffers from severe asthma.

Arma’s case appears to fit the description for relief under the prosecutorial discretion memo issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton. Issued in June 2011, the memo makes clear that agents can exercise broad flexibility when choosing to seek deportation. Arma’s supporters point out that he has no criminal history, he’s a breadwinner who cares for all his three children and he faces immediate danger if he’s sent to Guatemala—where his own brother was killed just a few years ago.  

A Guatemalan immigrant prepares to board a deportation plane in Mesa, AZ, July 10, 2009. (Reuters/Carlos Barria)

Immigration advocates eagerly braced for President Obama’s first press conference of the year this week. Most knew the economy and gun control would be central to the remarks he issued Monday, but hoped immigration reform would be acknowledged as well. After all, The New York Times had published an article over the weekend that detailed the ways in which Obama plans to swiftly push for a complete immigration overhaul in the coming months—including a clear pathway to citizenship. Just last week, the arrest and almost immediate release of a young immigration activist’s mother and brother illustrated the haphazard ways in which Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, often operates. Moreover, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle concede that the Latino vote was crucial to Obama’s re-election. And those voters desperately want Obama to make good on his longstanding promise to reform immigration.

Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence takes part in a news conference outside her teepee on Victoria Island in Ottawa on January 4, 2013. Reuters/Chris Wattie
 

One of the most popular post-election narratives remains that voter suppression efforts were soundly defeated. While the concept is essentially true, it says very little about how voting rights will fare in the near future—or how activists are continuing the work they began to preserve voting rights. Many voter ID measures, cut-offs to early voting and excessive voter purges were blocked or weakened at the state level in 2012, but lawmakers are aiming to propose new measures in 2013.

The Supreme Court, meanwhile, has announced that it will hear a challenge to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 next year. That’s in addition to Arizona v. InterTribal Council of Arizona, which stems from a rule that demands voters demonstrate proof of citizenship when registering to vote. The two cases, which hinge on the Court’s interpretation of federal legislation that bars discrimination and its interpretation of what’s known as the Motor Voter Act, could make sweeping changes to the ways voting rights are—or are not—protected. Those stakes aren’t lost on community groups around the nation that hope to continue their voting rights work, even without the spotlight of a presidential election.

Last Friday morning, a coalition of community, faith-based and civic leaders gathered together at a local North Philly pizza joint that doubles as a breakfast diner. The group has been meeting together since early this year, when it became clear that lawmakers wanted to push through a controversial voter ID measure.