Will the White House address Caribbean Immigration Issues?

Caribbean Advocates Missing From Immigration Debate?
Immigration Korner
By Felicia Persaud

CaribWorldNews, WASHINGTON, D.C., Fri. Aug. 21, 2009: Caribbean immigrant advocates were missing in action as the White House yesterday hosted a conversation on the hot button issue with more than 100 immigration reform backers.

Among the myriad of organizations listed in attendance, not one was Caribbean or Haitian. Instead, participants were largely from major unions, general immigrant advocacy groups or Hispanic and Jewish.

The lack of Caribbean nationals at the table and around the hot button issue is a trend that has continued for years, despite the fact that thousands of Caribbean migrants are themselves in need of immigration reform.

The session was officially hosted by Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, who has been sharply criticized by immigrant advocates in recent days for putting too much emphasis on enforcement and too little on reform legislation and making the immigration system more humane. President Obama dropped in briefly at the meeting.

The media was not allowed into the meeting, but Napolitano later issued a written statement emphasizing her commitment to reform.

`Today`s meeting on comprehensive immigration reform was an important opportunity to hear from stakeholders and build on the significant time I`ve spent on the Hill meeting with members of Congress on this critical subject. I look forward to working with President Obama, my colleagues in Congress and representatives from law enforcement, business, labor organizations, the interfaith community, advocacy groups and others as we work on this important issue,` she said.

The meeting came on the heels of comments by Obama that he will push the issue to the back burner for now, moving it from his first year in office to 2010.

The full list of yesterday’s participants were:

AFL CIO, Paul Almeida
AFL CIO, Ana Avendano
AFL CIO, Arlene Baker
Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform, Monte Lake
American Civil Liberties Union, Chris Calabrese
America`s Voice, Frank Sharry
American Farm Bureau, Ron Gaskill
American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO, T.J. Donner
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Paul Booth
American Immigration Lawyers Association, Crystal Williams
American Jewish Committee, Chelsea Hanson
American Meat Institute, J. Patrick Boyle
Arizona Latino Commission, Eve Nunez
Asian American Justice Center, Karen Narasaki
Associated General Contractors, Katherine Knott
Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO, Robert Pleasure
Casa de Maryland, Gustavo Andrade
Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Mark Franken
Cato Institute, Dan Griswold
Center for American Progress, Angela Kelley
Center for Community Change, Gabe Gonzalez
Change to Win, Anna Burger
Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Allison Johnson
Church World Service, Jen Smyers
Citigroup, Paul Thornell
Compete America, Rebecca Peters
Compete America, Bo Cooper
Esperanza USA, Mary Clark
Essential Worker Coalition, Laura Reiff
Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, Jon Adler
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society/Interfaith Immigration Coalition, Mark Hetfield
Hewlett Packard, Gina Bancroft
Immigration Equality, Julie Kruse
Immigration Policy Center, Mary Giovagnoli
Information Technology Industry Council, Dean Garfield
Intel, Ryan Triplette
Interfaith Worker Justice, Kristin Kumpf
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Terry Yellig
International Brotherhood of Teamsters, John Coli
International Chiefs of Police, Russell Laine
International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers, Paul Shearon
International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craft workers, James Boland
Irish Apostolate, Geri Garvey
Jesuit Refugee Service, Shaina Aber
Laborers` International Union of North America, Bevin Albertani
League of United Latin American Citizens, Rosa Rosales
Legal Momentum, Lisalyn Raquel Jacobs
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, Leslie Velez
Major City Chiefs, Dean Keuter
McDonalds, Bo Bryant
Mennonite Central Committee, Tammy Alexander
Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, Dini Karasik
Microsoft, Bill Kamela
Migration Policy Institute, Marc Rosenblum
National Association of Asian Law Enforcement Commanders, John Lee
National Association of Evangelicals, Galen Carey
National Association of Homebuilders, Jenna Hamilton
National Association of Police Organizations, Andrea Mournighan
National Baptist Convention, Rev. L.B. West
National Council of Jewish Women, Elissa Froman
National Council of La Raza, Clarissa Martinez
National Day Laborers Network, Chris Newman
National Electrical Contractors of America, John Grau
National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, Rev. Dr. Angel Nunez
National Immigration Forum, Jeanne Butterfield
National Immigration Forum, Ali Noorani
National Immigration Law Center, Marielena Hincapie
National Korean American Service & Educational Consortium, Eun Sook Lee
National Latino Peace Officers Association, Arturo Venegas
National League of Cities, Ricardo Gambetta
National Restaurant Association, Beth Johnson
National Sheriffs Association, Ann Yom
National Urban League, Valerie Wilson
New Democratic Network, Simon Rosenberg
Oracle, Dejan Pavlovic
PICO National Network, Jared Rivera
Police Executive Research Foundation, Chuck Wexler
Police Foundation, Hubert Williams
Presbyterian Church USA, Julia Thorne
Rights Working Group, Jumana Musa
Service Employees International Union, Eliseo Medina
Sheet Metal Workers International Association, Marc Norberg
Sisters of Mercy, Regina McKillip
Society for Human Resource Management, Mike Aitken
Sojourners, Rev. Jim Wallis
South Asian American Leading Together, Deepa Iyer
Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, Helly Lee
Tech America, Jeff Lande
Tyson, Nora Venegas
U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Angelo Amador
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Ryan Dwyer
U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, David Ferreira
UNITE HERE, Brenda Carter
United Farm Workers, Arturo Rodriguez
United Food and Commercial Workers, Joe Hansen
University of Texas, Dr. Ray Marshall
Wal-Mart, Adam Hemphill
World Relief, Jenny Hwang