To: Congressman Van Hollen
US House of Representatives, Washington DC.
September 19, 2013
Dear Congressman Chris Van Hollen,
THE TWO CORE REQUESTS OF THE AFRICAN COMMUNITY ON THE DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP IN THE US CONGRESS MADE THROUGH CONGRESSMAN CHRIS VAN HOLLEN
We, the African community, in association with Maryland's Democratic Party's Continental African Leadership Council (CALC), wish to thank you immensely for this special audience granted us today- September 19, 2013, to discuss with you on some crucial concerns of our community pertaining to the proposed Immigration Reform Bill-S.744 that has already passed the Senate. We are eternally grateful for the progressive work you have been doing in the senate for the great state of Maryland and also for the good work of the larger Democratic Congressional leadership of whom you are a principal actor.
We are in support of the Congressional Democrats' leading role in the public desire to reform the nation's moribund immigration laws. However, for the fair interest of Black America, the vital issue of Diversity and the Democratic party's own interest, we must urge the Congressional Democratic Leadership to ensure that the final content of what would ultimately become the immigration reform law does accommodate these few provisions:
1. We request that Blacks of Sub-Saharan African and Caribbean descent be given, inter alia, a guaranteed yearly quota in the proposed merit immigration system that equates to a number higher than the quantifiable current yearly sum of all the immigrant categories they are currently entitled/enjoying under the extant immigration laws. For any little discretionary room, without a number certain, gives decision makers the leeway to want to prefer (for whatever indeterminate excuse) other regions to Black Immigrants even as we meet every eligible criterion.
NOTES:
I) That in any partisan electoral contest, the black vote is always there for any progressive candidate, and they are largely Democratic Party candidates;
II) That the black population that was hitherto the second largest in this country has now plummeted, thereby narrowing the core of the Democratic Party's voting block;
iii) That the Congress needs recognize her unique obligation to continuously strengthen the kinship bond between African Americans and her Sub-Saharan African roots owing to the grave historical separation event;
iv) That the proposed 10,000 special immigrant quota under S. 744 to the African and Caribbean regions is obviously infinitesimal and fizzles out in the face of the over 900 million population of Sub-Saharan Africa and over 39 million population of the Caribbean region.
2. We request that Congress should guarantee the immigration of at least some number of siblings of citizens of this country. This is for the wellbeing and stability of even the unit family of any such needing citizen. For, the intra-family network is an empowering and value-vesting structure that is immeasurably beneficial to every citizen or human person. But to satisfy the current desire of congress to vest an economic outlook to the proposed immigration reform, congress may impose a basic economic outlook on sibling eligibility in the form of minimum education requirement, say, a two-year vocational/skill training or its equivalent post primary/high school education on all such entitling siblings, save for one sibling in a family who should be spared of any such conditionality.
NOTES:
I) That to disallow a guaranteed path to sibling immigration will be plainly discriminatory against foreign born and naturalized citizens because native-born citizens are not faced with such destabilizing separation of core family members;
ii) That there are families who may be comprised of only two or a few siblings, and without parents or spouse or kids;
iii) That to stem a seemingly endless stream from this category of immigrants, Congress can cap the number of siblings to, say, four for any citizen who wishes to petition under this category;
iv) Above all, whatever the Congress decides to do with sibling immigration, we also request the 113th Congress to guarantee the unfettered visiting privilege for siblings of our citizens in order for them to seamlessly relate as the usual one family. This will also afford such siblings the basis to decide whether or not to eventually immigrate to join a citizen in the United States.
We believe that these two requests are fair, reasonable and achievable within the broad framework of the popular quest to reform the current inept immigration laws. This is a duty that the Democratic Leadership in Congress, especially the House of Representatives, owe her core voting
constituent-the Black community.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Sylvester Okere ( Executive Director, Continental African Leadership Council (CALC) )
Obinali S. Duru, Esq. (Community Advisor)
September 19, 2013
Dear Congressman Chris Van Hollen,
THE TWO CORE REQUESTS OF THE AFRICAN COMMUNITY ON THE DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP IN THE US CONGRESS MADE THROUGH CONGRESSMAN CHRIS VAN HOLLEN
We, the African community, in association with Maryland's Democratic Party's Continental African Leadership Council (CALC), wish to thank you immensely for this special audience granted us today- September 19, 2013, to discuss with you on some crucial concerns of our community pertaining to the proposed Immigration Reform Bill-S.744 that has already passed the Senate. We are eternally grateful for the progressive work you have been doing in the senate for the great state of Maryland and also for the good work of the larger Democratic Congressional leadership of whom you are a principal actor.
We are in support of the Congressional Democrats' leading role in the public desire to reform the nation's moribund immigration laws. However, for the fair interest of Black America, the vital issue of Diversity and the Democratic party's own interest, we must urge the Congressional Democratic Leadership to ensure that the final content of what would ultimately become the immigration reform law does accommodate these few provisions:
1. We request that Blacks of Sub-Saharan African and Caribbean descent be given, inter alia, a guaranteed yearly quota in the proposed merit immigration system that equates to a number higher than the quantifiable current yearly sum of all the immigrant categories they are currently entitled/enjoying under the extant immigration laws. For any little discretionary room, without a number certain, gives decision makers the leeway to want to prefer (for whatever indeterminate excuse) other regions to Black Immigrants even as we meet every eligible criterion.
NOTES:
I) That in any partisan electoral contest, the black vote is always there for any progressive candidate, and they are largely Democratic Party candidates;
II) That the black population that was hitherto the second largest in this country has now plummeted, thereby narrowing the core of the Democratic Party's voting block;
iii) That the Congress needs recognize her unique obligation to continuously strengthen the kinship bond between African Americans and her Sub-Saharan African roots owing to the grave historical separation event;
iv) That the proposed 10,000 special immigrant quota under S. 744 to the African and Caribbean regions is obviously infinitesimal and fizzles out in the face of the over 900 million population of Sub-Saharan Africa and over 39 million population of the Caribbean region.
2. We request that Congress should guarantee the immigration of at least some number of siblings of citizens of this country. This is for the wellbeing and stability of even the unit family of any such needing citizen. For, the intra-family network is an empowering and value-vesting structure that is immeasurably beneficial to every citizen or human person. But to satisfy the current desire of congress to vest an economic outlook to the proposed immigration reform, congress may impose a basic economic outlook on sibling eligibility in the form of minimum education requirement, say, a two-year vocational/skill training or its equivalent post primary/high school education on all such entitling siblings, save for one sibling in a family who should be spared of any such conditionality.
NOTES:
I) That to disallow a guaranteed path to sibling immigration will be plainly discriminatory against foreign born and naturalized citizens because native-born citizens are not faced with such destabilizing separation of core family members;
ii) That there are families who may be comprised of only two or a few siblings, and without parents or spouse or kids;
iii) That to stem a seemingly endless stream from this category of immigrants, Congress can cap the number of siblings to, say, four for any citizen who wishes to petition under this category;
iv) Above all, whatever the Congress decides to do with sibling immigration, we also request the 113th Congress to guarantee the unfettered visiting privilege for siblings of our citizens in order for them to seamlessly relate as the usual one family. This will also afford such siblings the basis to decide whether or not to eventually immigrate to join a citizen in the United States.
We believe that these two requests are fair, reasonable and achievable within the broad framework of the popular quest to reform the current inept immigration laws. This is a duty that the Democratic Leadership in Congress, especially the House of Representatives, owe her core voting
constituent-the Black community.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Sylvester Okere ( Executive Director, Continental African Leadership Council (CALC) )
Obinali S. Duru, Esq. (Community Advisor)
No comments:
Post a Comment