People are shaped by their thoughts, perceptions, experiences and their sources of information.This becomes their reality and whatever they think, believe or perceive is written in stone, engraved, if you will, with an iron pen in the rock forever. This is the foundation of prejudice and stereotyping.

 

You become suspicious of anything that disturbs that point of reference and threatens to undermine the world as you have always known it. People who are different from you become scapegoats and easy prey for all that is wrong in your universe and the reason for all your failures and shortcomings.

 

So whenever you see, hear or read anything that reinforces that attitude you swallow it hook, line and sinker.

 

Most people are too lazy, lackadaisical or prejudiced to consider or find out another side of the story.

 

There is only one countermeasure for such debilitating influences.

 

You must expand your mind through education, relationships and spirituality.

 

I challenge you to speak with any missionary or Peace Corps volunteer.  Without exception, I guarantee you that everyone will say, "I will never quite see things the same way again.”

 

Two recent articles about the subject of immigration caught my eye.

 

This was recorded in a commentary by Phyllis Schlafly in the News Chief of Winter Haven, Fl.  

 

Myth: We need a guest worker program to fill our labor shortages and take jobs Americans won’t do.

[Senator Jeff Sessions of Ala.] reports there are more than enough unemployed Americans in fact to do all the jobs that some claim Americans won’t do.

 

The next excerpt was from a commentary by political pundit Patrick J. Buchanan also in the News Chief.

 

Almost all of those breaking our laws, crossing the border and overstaying their visa are young, poor or working class. Between 80 and 90 percent are from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. They are Third World peoples. They believe in government action and government programs that provide their families with free education, healthcare, housing, food and income subsidies.

 

Perhaps, 85% of all immigrants - legal and illegal - more than a million a year now, are people of color.

 

Sessions, Schlafly and Buchanan are Caucasian-Americans. Their following is typically voters in red states or conservatives who are faithful viewers of Fox News and constant listeners of Rush Limbaugh.

 

A great majority of them are ostensibly Christian who repeat and accept everything these personalities proclaim as Gospel truth. 

 

If you are a person with the inclination to regard anyone different from you as a lazy parasite in search of the next handout, it is very easy to accept the above as absolute, unassailable fact.

 

I am amazed to see that in a day when people question the veracity of the Bible that so many  are quick to believe what is said or written by fallible men on television, radio or the newspaper.

 

However, the purpose of these columns are to encourage you to think, form your own opinions based on your individual life experiences and not blindly ingest what is doled out by writers, including yours truly, who has a particular bent or agenda and use them as a pattern for your life.

 

I remind you once again that this is your life. Never allow anyone to steer your ship.

 

With regard to all Mr. Sessions, Ms. Schlafly and Mr. Buchanan have stated, that has not been my experience, nor  have my observations supported their statements. Here is my open letter to the three:

 

                                                  

 

I am a migrant from the Bahamas and my wife is a migrant from Jamaica.

 

We are people of color. I fail to see the relevance to the immigration situation expounded upon by Pat Buchanan, unless it is a thinly veiled reference to the ethnicity of the President and the reason for his election. Perhaps, it is a device to further incense his already disaffected audience. It is no wonder that Barbara Bush considered Mr. Buchanan to be a racist.

 

Moreover, I would like to know which country these immigrants are fleeing that offer free education, free health care, free housing and income subsidies. Does he mean those altruistic, egalitarian gardens of Eden like South Sudan, Rwanda, Syria, Pakistan, Haiti, Bolivia, Afghanistan, India, Cuba or Peru?

 

Perhaps he is confused with the European countries from which his family originated and does offer those kinds of benefits. Governmental safety nets in the Bahamas or Jamaica are virtually non-existent. In addition, Jamaicans are widely known to work 2-3 jobs, always pursuing avenues to improve their condition and station in life. I have also known many who are registered Republicans.

 

Almost without exception, these people he describes are trying to escape brutal, corrupt, repressive regimes in search of an opportunity. Furthermore, when and if you are granted a green card you are told not to apply for governmental assistance for five years and most of us, if not all, complied with that policy.

 

In addition, it is not logical to think any man or woman who had the courage and fortitude to forsake and abandon everything that is familiar to come to a land of opportunity is going to sit down and wait on a welfare check. That is not his mindset. According to Nigerian-American anthropologist and professor John Ogbu, the voluntary immigrant is highly motivated and is a high achiever.

 

My wife and I just don’t fit your description, Mr. Buchanan, and neither did any one of our acquaintance.

 

The illegal alien does not obtain benefits because of lack of documentation and many will not apply for fear of deportation. That begs the question, how did we arrive at the amount of 10 million illegal aliens?

 

Did someone conduct a census?

 

Mark Twain said, "there are lies, damned lies and then there are statistics.”

 

Consequently, many of them are abused by unscrupulous employers who use them, underpay or downright refuse to pay them with threats of informing immigration.

 

I was associated with the Greyhound Bus Company from 1974 to 2011, ending my tenure there as a Commission Agent or Franchisee, in effect operating my own business.

 

My wife was an art teacher at Coral Way Elementary for more than 25 years. That is a bilingual school with many of the personalities previously mentioned.

 

We resided in Miami, Fl., the epicenter of immigration activity and witnessed firsthand the immigrant experience. I will bullet them for you.

 

• How vividly I remember the Haitian father who took classes with his son at Jackson High School so he could help his son with his homework!

 

• How fondly I recall the young  Haitian boy who was abandoned by his family and -while looking for a job - knocked on every business door for 16 blocks on Northwest Seventh Avenue and was eventually hired by a Cuban American shopkeeper who admired his plucky demeanor! He later reported that he was delighted with the young man’s work ethic and could not ask for a better employee.

 

• I recall the frustrations of bright young people, many of them class valedictorians who wanted to go to college and become productive members of society, but were prevented from doing so because they were undocumented. Their fellow students considered this highly unfair and staged rallies in support of the passage of the DREAM Act.

 

• I recently had a conversation with a Bahamian immigrant, a legal resident of many years, who refuses to apply for food stamp benefits because of the stigma attached thereto.

 

• There is the story of the small Jamaican lady who presently resides in Pembroke Pines, Fl . Two years after her husband arrived in New York, he died, leaving her alone to rear seven sons in that big city. With the help of God and extraordinary effort she did it and not one became involved with the criminal justice system. They are all well-adjusted law abiding citizens.  None of them are on welfare.

                                                 

Guest Worker Program

 

Per the Guest worker program in Ms. Schlafly’s column, Sen. Sessions decries the fact that immigrants - legal or illegal - only take away jobs that Americans can do and drive down good American wages. Aren’t you the same people who resist increases in the minimum wage because of the risk of driving  small firms out of business?  I truly understand when the Native American Indian says,  "White man speak with a forked tongue.”

 

 One of the tenets of good business is to deliver goods and services in the most efficient and economic manner. There was a program started in the 1940s wherein farm owners would engage foreign workers to harvest their crops. One day in the 1980s, after seeing bus load after bus load of Jamaican farm workers traveling from that island and dispersing throughout the Northeast to reap apples and other crops, I was puzzled. So I asked J.C. Stokes, the Greyhound sales agent in charge of this operation, the reason for doing so. Note well that he was a white gentlemen from South Carolina and had no hidden agenda. His answer, "the farmers cannot find enough American workers to do the job in the manner preferred at the wages they can afford to make a profit.”

 

Not only is that program still in existence today, American recruiters yearly engage Jamaican hotel staff for housekeeping  jobs in that industry throughout the United States as well as teachers and nurses. (See NEWD’s story about it here)

 

There is an outcry on the island of Jamaica about the departure of so many gifted professionals. There have been attempts by the American government to curtail the program because of high unemployment but they have been blunted by the growers for the reason stated.

 

 

 

Enforcement of Immigration Laws          

 

Miami is home to the Krome Detention Center, the most popular immigration detention center in the U.S. Many illegal aliens are housed there until cleared for deportation. On any given day it is overcrowded and detainees are shipped all over the United States to government-contracted prisons to alleviate the problem.

 

Whenever someone is arrested in Miami-Dade county, their status is verified and - if undocumented - is placed in "Immigration hold” until they are processed by immigration.

 

Border Patrol agents are constantly on the prowl for illegal aliens and they are wily and vigilant and will not understand any breach of immigration law.

 

They are a constant presence at the Greyhound stations and have been known to stop buses anywhere enroute in the state of Florida and demand inspection of documents. If you are unable to prove your identity, you are taken to Krome until you can do so. The law states that if you are a foreigner traveling in the States you must have on your person documentation to prove your legal status.

 

Four incidents are riveted indelibly in my mind.

 

• An illegal entrant from Guyana was detained by immigration officers at the Greyhound station in Miami while I was on duty. This was the exchange I overheard: "If you send me back to Guyana I am going to kill myself for there is nothing there.” "So you kill yourself but you are going back.” He was whisked off to Krome for deportation.

 

• Sometime later I was approached by an officer who heard my accent. Mind you I was an assistant terminal manager at the time and I told him that I worked there. His response, "Let me see your green card and I will not bother you again.” I produced it and ended the matter.

 

• We were friends with a couple, a German husband and a Swedish wife who had a confrontation with immigration. The blond haired, blue-eyed wife was shopping in downtown Miami one day when an officer over heard her. He promptly requested to see her green card.  She did not have it. Fortunately, she was only a few blocks from her apartment and pleaded with the reluctant official to come with her so she could prove her status. After some time and with great hesitation he relented and followed her home. She did produce the necessary papers and settled the matter after receiving a lecture about the law. Needless to say, her chagrined husband was not amused.

 

• A young man who was a member of our church was picked up by law enforcement for some infraction. He had legal status but this was not his first brush with law. He was summarily turned over to immigration who subsequently incarcerated him in Manatee county because Krome detention center had no space. He was threatened with deportation because of his criminal record. After the church contacted a lawyer and an outlay of $12,000, he was briefly released from custody. Guess what? He was later deported as an aggravated felon and was never seen again.

 

There are plane loads of deportees weekly departing Miami for all points in the Caribbean area.

 

It has been reported that during the Obama administration instead of declining, these actions have increased.

 

The beleaguered governments in these affected countries have pleaded with U. S. authorities to temporarily halt these deportations, to no avail. They bemoan the fact that they do not have the facilities to absorb so many new arrivals who are thoroughly unfamiliar with the culture, customs and mores of places to which they have been suddenly assigned.

 

There have been numerous news articles about repatriations of Haitian and Cuban refugees by Coast Guard officials.

 

If this is lax enforcement of our laws, God forbid they should become tougher.

 

Economic Impact

 

Albert Einstein said "when an immigrant comes to a country he brings more than just his baggage.” There will always exist the temptation to assume that the new immigrant is only here to bleed our resources and render us bankrupt.

 

Has this transpired in Miami, Fl?

 

Dying churches and neighborhoods have been revitalized and re-energized.

 

Thousands of restaurants and food markets have arisen catering to differing ethnic palates.

 

Ocho Rios foods was established by a Jamaican Chinese entrepreneur.

 

Pollo Tropical and Sedano’s supermarkets were started by Hispanic arrivals.

 

A major player in the liquor industry, Bacardi, is a refugee from Cuba.

 

There is a section of Miami called Little Haiti and another called Little Havana where doctors, lawyers and professionals of every stripe are in resident to meet the needs of these burgeoning  communities.

 

Everybody needs food shelter and clothing and there must be somebody ready to supply them.

 

All these factors combined with freedom of opportunity and good old-fashioned American capitalism have made Miami-Dade County the biggest economic force in the state of Florida.

 

 

An Immigrant’s Conclusion

 

We are now retired and living in Indian Lake Estates, Polk County,  Fl. It is the heart of the citrus belt.

 

We travel along state road 60 to and from Lake Wales, Fl. to conduct business and shopping.

 

Each side of the highway is dotted with citrus groves. I cannot help but notice that all the workers picking the fruit are of Hispanic origin.

 

My doctor and pharmacist are from India.

 

The lady providing respite care for my elderly mother-in-law is a Jamaican nurse.

 

It is my hope that one day we will all realize that people are just people.

 

Color and national origin do not determine the value of a person, but rather a noble character.

 

Potential political persuasion is a poor reason to deny the dreams and hopes of another person.

 

There are good and bad people in every culture. No one has a monopoly on hardworking,dedicated and ethical individuals. Strip away the exterior and underneath we all look the same.

 

As long as that statue in New York Harbor continues to stand with the immortal words of Emma Lazarus inscribed on the base: "Give me your tired and your  poor. Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these the homeless tempest tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door,” they’ll continue to come a knockin’ naïve enough to believe it.

 

The problem and solution is to humanely and fairly manage the invitations so we are not overwhelmed with the response.

 

 

V. Knowles is a husband and father with an interest in penning issues that serve to uplift mankind. He melds his love for Classic literature, The Bible and pop culture - as sordid as it may be - into highly relatable columns of truth, faith and justice. Hence the name: Just Thinking. If he's not buried in a book or penning his next column, you may find him pinned to his sectional watching a good old Country and Western flick.