MIAMI – Immigration legislation that is currently under consideration in the U.S. Senate and House will have sweeping impact in our community.
While the issues were being hotly debated on the floor of the U.S. Senate last week, eighteen members of the Miami-Dade County Fair Immigration Delegation were in the chambers of Congress educating law-makers about our community’s commitment to fair immigration reform.
The multi-ethnic and multi-racial delegation of local business, civic and government leaders included immigrant advocates, members of the Miami-Dade County Community Relations Board (CRB) and representatives of Miami-Dade elected officials and the county’s Hispanic, Asian and Black Affairs advisory boards.
Miami-Dade County is a community of immigrants and the families and friends of immigrants,” said Rev. Harold Vieux, Vice Chair of the Miami-Dade County CRB and leader of the Fair Immigration Delegation.
“We are from many countries and many cultures. Our local elected officials and community leaders have united around immigration reform priorities that uphold our common commitment to equal treatment and due process for all immigrants…It is critical that we stand together now to support fair immigration legislation that unites our community and strengthens our common values”.
Any changes in federal immigration laws will be noticed by nearly everyone here. The U.S. Census reports that while seventy-two percent (72%) of Miami-Dade County’s 2.25 million residents are U.S. citizens; over half of all residents (51%) are foreign born. Nearly thirty percent (27%) of the county’s residents are non-citizen immigrants and twenty-three percent (23%) are naturalized citizens.
On March 29 and 30, Miami-Dade civic leaders and delegates from ten immigrant advocacy organizations were joined by a representative of Mayor Carlos Alvarez for meetings with members of Congress and staff that focused on priorities developed at a recent Fair Immigration Summit convened by the county’s CRB.
Unequal and discriminatory practices in the handling of immigrants in Miami-Dade County have long been a source of tension between members of our diverse population.
The CRB, in collaboration with members of the Board of County Commissioners and with multi-cultural and multiracial coalitions of immigrant advocacy and community service organizations, convened a Fair Immigration Summit in January 2006.
More than 100 local elected officials and community leaders participated. The priorities identified at the Summit are consistent with the county’s legislative agenda and eight members of the Board of County Commissioners, including Chairman Joe Martinez, demonstrated support by allowing their names to be included on the Fair Immigration Delegation’s fact sheet. “This opportunity for comprehensive immigration reform is helping to bring our communities together,” Dr. Vieux said.
As the debate in Congress intensified, three teams of Miami-Dade delegates described fair immigration priorities at more than seventeen meetings with federal legislators and staff. The delegation’s presentations focused primarily on those local priorities that were being most hotly debated in the Senate that day.
A worker visa program with pathways to citizenship, access to higher education for immigrant youth, family re-unification and effective and humane border protection were supported from perspectives of experience and with passion. This support was greeted with enthusiasm by most of the congressional leaders and staff encountered, including several representing Miami-Dade constituents, but was strongly opposed by others.
“It was a learning experience” said Reynaldo Valdez, Chair of the County’s Hispanic Affairs Advisory Board. “I believe that some of these communities are afraid of immigrants. I think we (the Miami-Dade Delegation) demonstrated the strengths of a community that includes Haitians, Cubans, Hondurans, Puerto Ricans, Africans, Europeans and many other nationalities living together in prosperity and in peace.”
Fair Immigration members thanked leaders of the Florida and Miami-Dade Delegations including Senators Mel Martinez and Bill Nelson and Congress members Kendrick Meek and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Meetings were also convened with principal staff representing Florida Congress Members Tom Feeney, Katherine Harris, Ric Keller, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, and Mario Diaz-Balart. The delegation also met at the offices of key Congress members from other states including Representatives Darrell Issa (R-CA), Linda Sanchez (D-CA), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Maxine Waters (D-CA), Peter T. King (R-NY), and Bob Inglis (R-SC).
Organizations represented among the Miami-Dade County Fair Immigration Delegation included: Office of the Miami-Dade County Mayor; Miami-Dade County Community Relations Board; The Hispanic Coalition, Inc.; The Haitian Grassroots Coalition; MIRA Movimiento Politico; Honduran Association; We Count; Florida Immigrant Coalition; JMH Cuban Haitian Refugee Program; Colombian American Service Association; The Women’s Fund; World Mission of Jesus Christ, Inc.
The Miami-Dade County Fair Immigration Delegation legislative priorities are:
· Employment and Worker Protection: Create a worker visa program that adequately protects the wages and working conditions of U.S. and immigrant workers.
· Family Re-unification and Pathways to Citizenship: Provide opportunities for immigrants currently living in the U.S. who want to settle in the United States to apply for permanent residence and citizenship.
· Border Protection and Homeland Security: Oppose the criminalization of immigrants. Support enforcement that is realistic and enforceable. Combine effective and humane enforcement with wider legal channels for those seeking to enter our country.
· Access to Education: Oppose federal provisions that discourage states from providing in-state tuition without regard to immigration status. Permit some immigrant students who have grown up in the U.S. to apply for temporary legal status and eventually obtain permanent status and become eligible for citizenship if they meet certain conditions.
· Temporary Protective Status: Protect Haitians, Central Americans and other immigrants already in the U.S. who have fled conditions of endemic violence, economic devastation and natural disaster in their countries of origin.
· Support the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act (HB3658): “Fix-it” bill will to keep Haitian American children and their families together.
