On the Friday before Thanksgiving week, I received a call from a woman community leader in San Francisco asking me if I was interested to be in a panel set up to discuss various immigration issues of the Filipino American community. I readily said “absolutely!” and when told it was to be on November 25, 2013, the day of President Barrack Obama’s San Francisco visit, I became doubly excited. Later, I found out the format was changed, the panel discussion was scrapped, and it will just be President Obama speaking directly to the crowd. Geez, I thought it was to be my moment to have an audience with the Commander in Chief of the United States.
Right after hearing about the change in the format, I was told that I could still attend the event at the Betty Ong Recreational Center in Chinatown. Ready to see President Obama, I went to Sunday mass and then proceeded to get my ticket to allow me to be at the event.
It was unusually cold in San Francisco that day. I arrived at the place early but was disappointed to discover that there were hundreds of people already lined up to enter the event place. I asked the volunteer if I could enter right away, and I was told to wait until they allowed us in. One of the volunteers approached us on the line and asked if we wanted a ‘sticker’ to be on the bleachers behind the President while he was speaking. Well, why not? I took the sticker together with the young students standing ahead of me in line. After an hour or so, we were finally allowed in and escorted to the bleachers. The Betty Ong Recreational Center had a big gym where they apparently held such events. The bleachers were for watching sporting events but the place was re-designed for that special day so the President would be standing right in front of the people out to hear him speak. I was glad to find a place on the very top of the bleachers, right behind this huge American Flag.
Having found quite a good spot on top of the bleachers, I started to make friends with those seated around me. On my right was Rey, a retired San Francisco employee; Aparna on my left, a young graduate working in Oakland, California; and in front of me, six young students. I asked the students to which group they belonged and they said they were all members of the organization called ASPIRE, an advocacy group of young undocumented immigrants. After 30 minutes of waiting, the President of the United States of America finally arrived at noon.
“Hello, everybody!” greeted the President. My eyes were wide open with anticipation. I smiled as I waved my hands to welcome the President and he waved back to us who were at the bleachers. Wow, I was in close proximity with the Leader of the Free World. Now, I get to listen about Immigration Reform. I expected he would give us an update on how the immigration reform bill is progressing in the House and I anticipated he would encourage us to help move for its passage and do all that can be done to persuade our legislators to favorably act on the matter. But I also knew that San Francisco is an immigration friendly city and that our representatives, notably former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is a supporter of Immigration Reform. So what else is he going to speak to us about immigration reform?
The Speech
President Obama’s immigration speech reiterated what he had already said in many of his public speeches: “it is long past time to reform an immigration system that right now doesn’t serve America as well as it should.” He emphasized the benefits of passing the immigration reform bill by recognizing achievements of immigrants and how they and their contributions have been beneficial to the U.S. economy.
As I expected, he mentioned the barrier to the passage of the bill: “the only thing standing in our way right now is the unwillingness of certain Republicans in Congress to catch up with the rest of the country (on immigration reform).”
What I did not expect, however, is how this oft repeated speech, in this immigrant friendly city, was received. The President was heckled. While intently listening to the President’s speech, the young immigrant standing in front of me started interrupting the President. He was yelling at the top of his voice, “Mr. President, I need your help. My family has been separated for 19 months now!” In shock with what I was hearing from this young guy, all six student started chanting, “stop deportations, stop deportations!”. Oh God, this is not happening under my nose literally. The President turned to us and said “that exactly is what we were talking about.” He looked like he was engaging the young immigrant in a conversation. Hence, the young immigrant later identified as Ju Hong from South Korea yelled, “Mr. President, please use your executive order to halt deportations for all 11.5 undocumented immigrants in this country right now.” In response, President Obama categorically said that he did not have the power to stop deportation.
Secret Service
Several men in black suits came rushing to the bleachers ready to arrest the six young immigrants. The Filipino, Emmanuel Valenciano, voluntarily submitted himself. As I was standing, I seemed to lose balance and felt the bleachers shaking. Or was I shaking because I was nervous about the commotion? What if they get arrested? As they were about to take Valenciano and Hong, President Obama stopped the security from bringing them out. He was calm in responding to them and said ‘these guys don’t need to go. He can stay there (referring to Valenciano).” I knew that if he were the other Chief Executive, these student advocates would have been arrested in an instance. But President Obama was applauded by the audience for keeping his cool and addressing the matter in the calm way that he did.
Can He Stop Deportation?
In responding to the ‘hecklers’, President Obama categorically said that he has no power to stop deportation because the United States is a nation of law. Under the rule of law, he has the responsibility of making sure that the laws are enforced. But in recent years, President Obama exercised his executive authority not to enforce certain provisions of the immigration law: he did this to certain widows of U.S. citizens, to the undocumented youth through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival, and very recently, parole to members of the military families. The young immigrant has a point.
But I also believe that there is no Chief Executive who will choose to exercise his presidential authority to all 11.5 million undocumented immigrants in such a blanket and all-encompassing way. Not only would it require a great deal of political capital, it would be viewed as a power grab, an encroachment on the other branches of government, a slap in the face of Congress. It would seem that President Obama holds the view that Congress will eventually pass the immigration reform bill without him having to take such drastic measures.
The Heckler and Me
After the speech and after President Obama left, my image was caught on national camera, at times expressing disappointment, and at times nodding at the points the hecklers were making. My friends asked me what I was thinking of and how I felt. I have no problem with the legitimacy of the message. The point was well taken. I could not agree, however, with the manner in which it was delivered. Maybe I am old-fashioned. Maybe I am more clear about who my alliances are and who are not in any position I take. Maybe I believe we should give the President some slack. Maybe President Obama deserved better.
(Atty. Lourdes Santos Tancinco may be reached at law@tancinco.com or at 721 1963 or visit her website at tancinco.weareph.com/old)
