28 TIME April 25/May 2, 2022
FOR THE FIRST FEW YEARS OF
Barack Obama’s presidency, the
White House persuaded immigration
activists to hold their fi re. The in-
coming team had to fi rst rebuild the
economy and make sure automakers
didn’t shutter after the 2008 fi nan-
cial meltdown. Then came a massive
health care reboot. Then Supreme
Court nominations, a Republican
takeover of Congress, and the Presi-
dent’s own re-election.
And then. And then. And then.
There always seemed to be some-
thing keeping immigration from the
front burner. By the time it fi nally
emerged as a priority, Obama was in
his second term and politically lame,
by D.C. standards. The immigration
lobby labeled him “the deporter in
chief,” and relationships broke down.
So why does this history matter
in Washington right now? As gun-
violence prevention groups work
to build support, they’re studying
what happens when allies give an
Administration a pass. And they
don’t like the historical precedent of
deferring to the White House, espe-
cially one whose power may have an
expiration date.
“[Biden]’s a friend to the move-
ment, sure. We can call him that.
But he’s not a leader, and that’s what
we really need,” says Zeenat Yahyaof March for Our Lives, the youth
movement that emerged in the
wake of the 2018 high school shoot-
ing in Parkland, Fla.
March for Our Lives, Guns
Down America, and Change the Ref
on April 8 published Biden’s report
card on gun violence, and the grade
is a D+. The timing was matched to
the one-year anniversary of Biden’s
standing in the Rose Garden with
an agenda to curb mass shoot-
ings. “The reality is: a year later
that commitment has proven to
be false,” says Igor Volsky, the co-
founder and executive director of
Guns Down America.
In conversations with leaders of
these groups, it’s clear this isn’t the
verdict they wanted to deliver. But
Biden, who was the Obama era’s in-
house expert on guns, has clearly
come up short on his promises to
curb gun violence. If the White
House doesn’t see the looming po-
litical threat of a fractured coali-
tion, they should. After all, it wasn’t
that long ago that some current Ad-
ministration offi cials were protest-
ing Obama’s immigration policies
at the White House gates.The D.C. BriefBy Philip Elliott
WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENTBy Tara LawMarch for Our Lives protests near the White House on March 1For more insights from Washington,
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