The nation's Spanish-speaking media spoke with one voice during Biden's inaugural -- now a year ago. Unfortunately, that singular voice spoke false hope of immigration relief to an eager and receptive audience.
Watch as the nation's Latino-interest networks acted in a manner similar to an immigration-interest SuperPAC, heralding the glorious dawn of a new day and a pathway to citizenship in every pot (click "expand" to view transcript):
ANTONIO TEXEIRA: On his first day in office, there is hope for millions of undocumented immigrants because Biden will offer immigration reform with pathways to citizenship, protections for Dreamers and for the construction of the border wall -- to end it.
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MARTÍN BERLANGA: In fact, the news of immigration reform is something that many of us Hispanic journalists have been waiting to report on for decades.
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KARLA MARTINEZ: But for our people, what concerns them most is the immigration issue. He has promised, that in his first days of campaigning, his first 100 days, that he will try to grant the longed-for immigration reform.
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JUAN JOSÉ GUTIERREZ, ACTIVIST: The President, the actual President, not President-elect, Joseph Biden, will send a legislative proposal to Congress to legalize all undocumented workers and their families.
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CRISTINA LONDOÑO: Promises that were made to immigrants are already being kept, with executive orders and the filing of an immigration reform plan.
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NICOLE SUAREZ: And more than one was surprised that Joe Biden announced, even before arriving at the White House, his immigration reform plan that aims to legalize more than 11 million undocumented, and provide them with a pathway to U.S. citizenship.
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BERLANGA: What Biden and Harris have said is that their proposal would restore humanity to the U.S. immigration system.
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DANNY VARGAS: I believe that the will is there, that it should be done in this first year, we have many issues, but immigration reform is definitely something that is pending and that is urgent.
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VANESSA HAUC: Our community is now breathing with great hope Dan, because Biden has said that he will send this immigration reform bill (to Congress)...
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STACHA PRETTO: ... on his first day in office. There’s the list. Among these is an immigration reform plan that would provide a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented.
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ALAN TACHER: But today there is great expectation because right after Joe Biden's oath of office, he is expected to file his proposal for immigration reform.
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JUAN CARLOS LOPEZ: And the incoming administration will file a bill today, a proposal for immigration reform.
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KARLA MARTINEZ: Well, we were thrilled to hear the news of an immigration reform proposal that incoming President Joe Biden would file today, but there is already talk about a delay if Congress goes through with another impeachment trial for Donald Trump.
Of course, the hopes of that day have since faded away. Upon taking office, Biden unwound the border enforcement measures in place. The ensuing border disaster is still ongoing, with multiple record-breaking months and a stream of people continuing to make their way north based on the expectation that Biden would grant them a pathway to citizenship.
Biden *did* fulfill his campaign promises to unwind Trump's border enforcement actions and send an immigration bill to Congress, but this was insufficient both for the activist base and for the media that encourage them. Within days, we'd begin to hear of a "Plan B," which we first reported and consisted of shoving immigration reform into a budget reconciliation bill. This effort ultimately failed.
Biden's immigration plans ended up as did the rest of his proposals, which is to say, up in flames. The networks that sold hopium to their viewers on Inauguration Day spent the rest of the year having to (reluctantly) report on the border crisis, runaway inflation, the supply chain crisis, the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, looting gangs, subway murders, and doing whatever they could to act like they had no role in the disaster that was to come.
But we remember. We always remember.
