Contributing Writers: Azad Ali, Tangerine Clarke,
Nelson King, Vinette K. Pryce, Bert Wilkinson
GENERAL INFORMATION (718) 260-2500
Caribbean L 10 ife, JUNE 25-JULY 1, 2021
By Representative Yvette
Clarke (NY-09)
In this Caribbean-Heritage
Month, let us take the
time to reflect on all the
social, cultural, and economic
contributions many
Black and Brown immigrants
have brought to
this state and country. The
U.S. has reaped the benefits
from our community
members that have migrated
from the beautiful and
rich cultures of the Caribbean
islands, that come
here for better opportunities.
We have an obligation
to honor their history and
sacrifice and move towards
a humane and dignified
immigration reform for all
who will come after us.
As the proud daughter
of Jamaican immigrants,
chair of the Congressional
Black Caucus Immigration
Task Force, and founding
member of the House
Haiti Caucus, I am uniquely
familiar with the issue of
immigration. I have dedicated
much of my life and
career to be a fighter for my
immigrant neighbors and
family members because
I know the true power of
diversity. Power you can see
throughout New York’s 9th
congressional district, and
our nation.
As we respond to and
recover from the COVID-19
pandemic, lawmakers such
as myself are responsible
for enacting legislation that
supports the immigrant
community, our essential
workforce, and our economy.
We cannot simply
reverse the previous administration’s
policies because
the system was broken long
before 2016. Today, we need
to provide long-term certainty
for these immigrants
and their families by creating
a humane and fair
immigration system. This
includes improving current
racial disparities in immigration,
which disproportionately
impacts and targets
Black immigrants.
Throughout my career in
Congress, I have stepped up
to defend Black and Haitian
immigrants from being targeted
for deportation. The
previous administration
disgracefully degraded the
immigrants from Haiti and
the greater Caribbean, El
Salvador, and African countries
without reason or fact.
While we have seen a lack of
action or urgency to extend
protections for many Black
immigrants by the current
administration, we cannot
let up our hope and fight.
This month marks the
ninth anniversary of the
creation of the Deferred
Action for Childhood Arrivals
(DACA), a program that
is under threat in a Texas
federal court. Temporary
Protected Status (TPS)
holders also face a similar
fate with the U.S. Supreme
Court ruling against these
immigrants who hope to
one day obtain permanent
legal status, a solution by
Congress is needed more
than ever. For nearly three
decades, Congress has
failed to enact immigration
reform that establishes
a permanent pathway for
Dreamers, TPS recipients,
and other undocumented
immigrants. The result:
millions of immigrants
have been unable to reach
their full potential as the
American Dream they once
sought to attain slips farther
away from reality.
I co-introduced and
passed the bipartisan American
Dream and Promise Act
(H.R. 6) in the U.S House
of Representatives because
it’s what’s best for my constituents
and the future of
our country. Not only is
providing Dreamers, Temporary
Protected Status
(TPS) holders, and Deferred
Enforcement Departure
(DED) recipients with an
earned pathway to citizenship
the moral and right
thing to do, it will benefit
our state and national
economy as well, helping all
Americans succeed.
Today, New York is
home to more than 4.3
million immigrants who
are taxpayers, entrepreneurs
and business owners,
and critical members
of our workforce. There are
nearly two million immigrant
essential workers
in New York, with York’s
9th congressional district
alone boasting nearly
300,000 immigrant residents.
Simply put, they are
the backbone of Brooklyn’s
culture and society.
I am committed, as I have
been since the day I took
office on city council to now
as a member of the House,
to find humane solutions for
immigration by any method
available to me in Congress.
New York City, and our
entire nation, are looking
for lawmakers to listen and
act in their best interests,
which means enacting permanent
Dreamer and TPS
protections. I call on my
Senate colleagues to not
let politics get in the way,
and do what most Americans
believe to be right, a
pathway to citizenship for
undocumented people.
By Robert A. Scott, Ph.D.,
President Emeritus, Adelphi University
Dear Graduate:
Congratulations to the Class
of 2021! You made it! This is no
small achievement. Did you know
that only one-half of students
who started at a private college
four years ago are graduating
this year? For public colleges and
universities, the rate is one-third.
You not only are a survivor, you
are a success-story.
But you did not achieve this
success alone. Think of your
family, faculty, friends, and other
fans who supported you along
the way.
Graduation is a time of celebration,
for sure. It also is a time
for reflection, to reflect on what it
took to get to this day, what you
will do in your tomorrows, and
how you will repay those who
helped – how you will justify their
faith in you.
Today is not the end of a journey
toward becoming more fully
human. It is not a beginning
either. It is a point, a marker, on
your path to fulfillment. Think of
your markers: first day, last day,
this day: the day you started, the
day you knew you had reached
this milestone, and this day when
you don the cap and gown signifying
academic achievement.
While you majored in a subject,
you learned that knowledge
cannot be boxed, that problems
require an interdisciplinary
approach. You learned, we hope,
that an open mind is an analytical
mind, a mind that knows the
difference between fact, faith, and
fear, empirical evidence, epiphany,
and emotion, especially prejudice.
We hope that you reflect on
the fundamental elements of
advanced education. It consists
in history, that is, what came
before whether in politics or science.
We hope that your historical
approach is open to 1619
and this date’s importance in
U/S. history as well as to 1916
and its significance to Women’s
Rights and national governance.
We hope that your studies have
ignored neither George Floyd nor
Lloyd George, both significant in
world history.
We hope that your education
fostered the development of
imagination, the ability to ask
“Why” and “Why not?”, the inclination
to ask, “What about?” It is
through literature, drama, poetry,
painting, and other arts that
we develop these abilities s to
wonder and to form new ideas,
new images, and new concepts.
Do not let creativity end with
your diploma.
Your education has also fostered
compassion. By this I mean
not just sympathy, feeling sorry
for others, and not just empathy,
imagining yourself in someone
else’s LIHerald.com, June 3, 2021
circumstances. I mean compassion,
the ability not only to feel
sorry and to imagine what it
must be like, but the to do something
to help others, to make a
difference in society.
The fourth dimension of this
education that you take with you
is reflection, the ability and inclination
to think deeply and carefully,
to ask “What can I learn
from this experience?”, to ask
“Why did this happen?”, or to ask,
“What could I have done better or
more of?” To reflect is to consider
what values mean the most to
you. Surely, trust, integrity, and
commitment will be on your list.
What about civic engagement,
voting, and community service?
OP-EDS
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This Caribbean-Heritage Month, we must
urgently pass permanent protections for
undocumented New Yorkers
A Letter to Graduates
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