It is clear from the June 19 article Cases of detained citizens emerge that America is on the precipice of a huge decision: How do we move forward with sensible immigration reform?
Immigrants are what made this country great. It’s because of immigrants from all across the world coming to Florida that our state skyrocketed to being the fourth largest in the nation and reached new levels of economic growth.
The beginning of most of our American family stories start with immigration. I may have a unique insight on this issue because I came here from Cuba and have been a citizen for 50 years. This is why the focus of Congress must be to achieve sensible immigration reform that treats the issue with respect and dignity.
Enacting a hodge-podge of 50 different state immigration laws will only lead to national confusion, fear, racial profiling and bigotry. Solutions to the immigration questions should come from Washington, D.C., not Tallahassee, Atlanta or Phoenix. That’s why during the 2011 Florida legislative session I protested the Arizona-style law, proposed by the state’s majority party, by wearing my U.S. Passport around my neck. Thankfully, the law did not pass. Had it become law, I, a U.S. citizen, could be stopped, asked to present my papers and detained indefinitely if unable to produce the proper documentation.
A scary thought is the possibility of having areas with large ethnic populations besieged by officers charged with detaining those without proper documentation. Except, for each illegal found, a number of law-abiding, legal citizens will be poked, prodded and interrogated creating a second class of citizens whose only crime is being born elsewhere.
This issue isn’t new to our country. We saw some of the darkest days during the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. It’s incumbent upon our nation’s leaders to learn from our past in order to provide a better future for all Americans. Our country stands to lose the very foundation of democracy if U.S. citizens can lose their rights because of how they look and speak.
Luis R. Garcia, Jr., Florida state representative, District 107, (D-Miami).
