Last Thursday, in a packed college gym in Greenwood, South Carolina, I stood next to Silvia, a local immigrant mother and activist, as she asked Joe Biden a question. I translated for her as she told the crowd about her daily fear of ICE separating her family. It's hard for her to trust Biden, she explained, because he has defended the millions of deportations that took place when he was vice president. Under a Biden administration, could her partner or children be next?
Silvia asked if Biden would use executive action to protect undocumented immigrants from deportation on his first day in office. Biden bluntly said no and went on to defend Obama's record on immigration. As a longtime activist, a 2008 volunteer for the Obama campaign, and a formerly undocumented immigrant myself, I pushed back and reminded him that millions of families were separated while he was vice president.
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