By Felicia Persaud
Dear President Obama,
It’s a New Year so wanted to offer you some advice going into the November general election. Take it from one immigrant to the son of another – don’t listen to the claims of the pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action and take the immigrant vote lightly!
Despite what former White House spokesman Bill Burton, is claiming – that Mitt Romney’s rhetoric on immigration issues will damage the party in the general election – don’t take this as advise that you should stay silent on the hot button issue.
In fact, if you really want to whip the Republicans in November, the way they whipped Democrats in the House races in 2010, then make sure you use the next few months, beginning with this month of January and Martin Luther King Day as well as the birthday of America’s greatest immigrant, the late Caribbean national, Alexander Hamilton, to make it clear where you stand on immigration reform.
Your record so far has been disappointing and people are noticing, especially when so many U.S.-born children are being ripped apart from their immigrant parents, who are being detained and deported in droves. Yes, folks in the immigrant community are not stupid! They have noticed the record breaking deportation numbers under YOUR administration, a shame man!
But it’s a New Year and we know as immigrants we really can’t trust the Republicans and the right to do what is right on this issue. So we are giving you one more chance to prove to us that the promises you made to us in all the “Yes, We Can” speeches in the lead up to your win in 2008.
After all, if you really looked at the numbers, you will see immigrant voters, especially blacks and Latinos, overwhelmingly handed you their vote as they believed in your promises.
Now it’s time to help them believe again – but not just with words this time but with some action to prove that you will not take our votes for granted again this November.
As President in chief, there’s so much power you have and you can use it to help the young people who dream of a better life here in this country – save them and immigrants whose only crime is seeking a better life for them and their children – from your ICE men.
With one wave of your pen, you can make a difference and win back the disheartened immigrant bloc of voters. Who cares what the Republicans in the House think?
Take CeeLo Green’s advise and mine too – forget them! You are President! Please act like it and use your power to help, not hurt this community any more.
Your base is not the conservatives who voted in the Republican Iowa caucus last week, for Romney and Rick Santorum, because of their most unequivocal stands against amnesty as they call it on the Right.
Who uses that word anymore right? Except the fossils on the Right whose main concern – let’s say it – is the further browning and blackening of America.
Sure the immigrant voting bloc knows this but this does not mean they will go out in droves and vote for you in November. Unless of course you wake up and smell the coffee and begin the hard work of bringing them back into the fold.
Burton’s claim in the memo he released to POLITICO, that Romney’s demagoguery may have damaged his Republican rivals and caused permanent problems for him with Hispanic voters, may be partly right, but don’t forget – your icy deportation policies, that has seen our federal prisons swell with immigrant prisoners who are not murderers or criminals, will also hurt you.
So please do yourself a favor – end your deafening silence and prove you really care about immigration reform that will help the millions who keep the economic engines of this country running every day, while trying to achieve the same American Dream that the illegals who landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620 managed to attain.
The writer is founder of NewsAmericasNow, CaribPR Wire and Hard Beat Communications.
