By Dahlia A. Walker-Huntington
HOLLYWOOD – The current “hot button” issue, if media coverage is any indication, is immigration: From rallies all across America to the May 1 “Day Without
Immigrants,” we have seen largely Latino protests highlighting the need of positive immigration reform.
Many are disappointed that Caribbean immigrants in South Florida have not been taking to the streets. While I, too, would have loved to have seen Caribbean people in the streets, I am heartened by the fact that there are other ways
to let your voice be heard.
There has been a concerted effort in the Caribbean community to communicate the importance of personal contact with your elected representative. Phone calls, e-mails and letter-writing campaigns have been circulated on the Internet; and information has been shared on local Caribbean radio and Caribbean Web sites.
The push has been to give legal immigrants and U.S. citizens the tools they need for personal lobbying.
A petition to the U.S. Senate has been created and circulated. E-mails imploring action by the Caribbean community have been circulated. Radio show hosts, both locally and internationally, have been enlisted to encourage action on the
part of potential U.S. voters.
The information has been condensed in the form of bullet-points to be stressed during the contact with the U.S. senators.
While this method of lobbying is not as visible as taking to the streets, if acted upon it can be just as effective.
A few months ago, a commissioned study found that the Immigration and Nationality Act is second in complexity only to the IRS code. Any immigrant could have told you that, I bet, and saved all that money.
The immigration system we have is broken. Families spend years apart and the granting of a “green card” is a very subjective process that leaves people vulnerable.
To discredit the contribution of every immigrant, documented and undocumented, to the success of the United States is to be simply hypocritical. To accuse immigrants of driving down wages discredits the fact that while working for
minimum wage, many of these immigrants are able to purchase their own homes and send children to college.
In addition to the contribution immigrants make to the United States, please do not discount the contribution they make to their home countries with remittances. In many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, remittances have either replaced other foreign exchange earning categories or it is hovering at the top.
Sending home 12 million undocumented immigrants — primarily to Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean — would create an entire other set of problems for the region and for the United States.
Building a wall or fence along the Mexican border will not make the U.S. more secure from terrorists — it would only serve to make it more difficult for intending immigrants to cross into the United States. There is a difference
between a terrorist and an immigrant; let us not confuse the two.
Dahlia A. Walker-Huntington is an immigration and family law attorney in Hollywood and an adviser to the Jamaican government on the Jamaican diaspora.
