Immigration Reform and the Diaspora

What a hard time for illegal immigrants. Attacks are coming from everywhere. This week, Tom Mullis, a New Mexico politician, proposed putting land mines along the New Mexico-Mexico border. In Washington, a group of House Republicans proposed a draft law that would take away American citizenship from children of undocumented immigrants. This country supposedly defends human rights!

President Barack Obama’s immigration reform proposals have become a great dilemma. During this election year (2010), about 150 towns in the United States have passed local laws similar to the laws in Long Island that allow the police to prosecute undocumented immigrants. States such as Texas, Colorado, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, located near metropolitan areas such as New York, are considering the passage of laws similar to the so-called Arizona Act, which allow law enforcement personnel to stop all persons who appear to be undocumented.

On the other hand, Anglo-American analysts argue that Hispanics agree there must be some type of reform. However, the biggest problem is that most congressional Democrats and Republicans cannot afford to approve an “amnesty” to legalize the 11 million illegal immigrants living in Uncle Sam’s land.

According to television networks, about 70 percent of Americans oppose amnesty, but over 60 percent agree with legal immigration. For these reasons, politicians cannot commit to Obama’s plan, at least this year, and no one knows which Republican will dare introduce immigration reform. A good example is Senator John McCain of Arizona, who suffered for supporting immigration reform along with Ted Kennedy. McCain was the Republican candidate who ran against Obama in the presidential elections, and he faces re-election this year. After that and the immigration reform under George W. Bush, all Republicans must think three times before they commit to any type of immigration reform, since the Republicans hope to gain control of Congress, in both the Senate and the House.

Immigration has become the heart of relations between the U.S. and Latin America, due to the economic, political and social effects it produces from the money sent by immigrants to their countries of origin. In El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, these monies are the first source of income for their citizens, while in Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador, these money transfers are an essential part of the nation’s economy.

Therefore, after the tough questioning of President Felipe Calderon last month, there will be a meeting of Central American presidents. This meeting is a timely opportunity to “lobby” Congress for immigration reform, or at least, to make the White House agree not to support a mass deportation of undocumented Central Americans in this time of global economic crisis.

The government of Colombia should be present at this meeting and the Internet blog session from Colombia should be bidding for Alvaro Uribe, Juan Manuel Santos and Antanas Mockus to encourage the Diaspora and meet with Obama in defense of the undocumented.

With all due respect, I must say that the Colombian leadership crisis abroad is much more severe than in the United States, which has a thriving community with average income of $43,450, and is among the most educated of immigrant groups. Those who appoint themselves as leaders spend their time fighting to appear important, insulting, slandering and destroying others, while ignoring important issues. Whatever happened to the guarantees to elect a congressional representative from outside is a true collective shame, as this embarrassment became widely known around the world due to Colombian old gossip. Luckily, Jaime Buenahora was selected as the representative of the Diaspora.

Our lack of unity in not complaining and demanding that the Colombian government work for us cost us the temporary work permit in 2000. The TPS for undocumented Colombians en mass was not approved because then-President Andres Pastrana refused to apply for it. According to the explanation provided by the presidential spokesman, it would have been fatal for investments to declare Colombia a war-torn state.

If it is true that they want to do something, for the Diaspora and the undocumented, it is long overdue for us to do something in a coordinated manner and present it to the new government.