Is Immigration Reform Important To The Black Community?
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- Category: Blogs
- Published: Friday, 17 May 2013 17:30
It is now 2013 and President Obama has made Immigration Reform one of the top priorities in his administration. Many Republican lawmakers in the House and the Senate don’t have large Hispanic populations in their districts so they are against immigration reform. Many believe that immigration reform will die in 2013 because it’s such a complicated issue.
There is a bipartisan group called the “Gang of Eight” who has been working to draft legislation that would help clear the pathway for citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants. President Obama has always been a supporter of comprehensive immigration reform but his hands are tied because, frankly, there are too many options available to fix this problem.
Before any progress can be made on correcting the immigration problem, both parties agree that the border must be secured. There are some legislators who want a border fence erected that will cost billions of dollars but former U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Ralph Bashman said, “It is against common sense to build a border fence in an attempt to control illegal immigration,” arguing that “it is one of the dumbest ideas he heard when he was commissioner.”
President Obama has increased the number of border patrols and illegal border crossings have decreased from a peak of 1 million in 2005, to 350,000 in 2012. But many of the undocumented immigrants enter the country legally and overstay their visas, becoming part of the 11 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. 5 million undocumented immigrants, half the overall projected number, fell into illegal status when they overstayed their visas.
Initially, I was under the impression that the majority of illegal immigrants were Hispanic, and I thought that this was a Brown community problem. But when I started to do my homework, I found that over 3 million illegal immigrants came from the Caribbean, Northern and sub-Saharan Africa, and a small number from Europe and Canada. The majority of these immigrants are Black and they are the most educated immigrant group in the country. The Black immigrants have more college education and higher rates of degree attainment than any other immigrant group in the United States.
There is barely any discussion about Black immigration and immigration is usually associated with the Hispanic community. But immigration is not just a Hispanic problem. It is also a Black problem and they all speak different languages. All immigrants are discriminated against and educated Black immigrants are the most unemployed or underemployed group.
Africa American leaders and the African American community must become engaged in comprehensive immigration reform because it has a greater affect on us than we realize. We have much more in common with the Hispanic and Black immigrant communities than differences and treating immigrants unfairly is no different than treating African Americans unfairly. Immigrants contribute to the economy and educated Black immigrants offer the greatest contribution to the country because they are the most skilled.
In certain political circles the lawmakers are suggesting that it will take 13 years for an immigrant to become an American citizen. Many Republican districts have very little to lose so they will continue to oppose comprehensive immigration reform. The last extensive overhaul of immigration took place in 1986. That was 37 years ago.
We are overdue for an overhaul of the immigration system and it’s time for Black and Brown communities to form a comprehensive immigration coalition. Building a coalition from the ground up will force our lawmakers to get serious about immigration reform. Immigration is a global challenge and the African American community cannot remain on the sidelines and hope to be relevant. We must get involved.
America is a country of immigrants. President Obama is president because of his immigrant father. Some immigrants got here early and others got here later but the greatness in America is in the diversity of its people.
It takes all of us to make America work.