Immigration has been a long struggle for nation

To the Editor:

A few years ago I worked for an international disaster relief firm and I had the opportunity to see firsthand the heart break that people from other counties had to endure during times of major life changing crisis. I have witnessed the loss of homes, businesses, and other people's family members. It's a very troubling thing to look at parents and have to tell them that their child was found dead due to a tornado, hurricane or flood. Even though the very same painful events occur in this country, it is a lot easier to bounce back due to various organizations such as The Salvation Army, Fema, and The American Red Cross to name a few. If I was in the position that a lot of these people are in I would jump the border too. Let's be clear about something, if your family background isn't Native American you an immigrant.

No one asked the natives of this country permission to build, hunt and take land as their own. They just did as they pleased without any regards to the true owners of the land. Just like the single men - the courtiers, soldiers, and adventurers - who built Isabella, Jamestown, and many other early European settlements, the pilgrims were unskilled, that didn't know how to hunt and raise crops until the Native Americans showed them. What the history books don't say is that the pilgrims killed off a lot of the natives after they were shown how to survive. They were a people without a country and natives from the Caribbean, South America and North America were slaughtered by the thousands, those that weren't killed were sold into slavery.

As time progressed America was still growing up like a young child, between 1880 and 1910 over 20 million immigrants arrived in the United States. The influx of these newcomers conjured a complex response from the other immigrants already living here themselves. American employers wished to turn to the labor and energy of this latest wave of newcomers. At the same time, many Americans reacted with anxiety and hostility to the staggering numbers of new immigrants for fear that they would take away jobs that would have went to already present citizens.

Communities reacted with fear and prejudice. These prejudices and anxieties were not confined to the poor or less educated.

Now let's push forward to 10 years ago, very few people knew who Barack Obama was. It was the 2004 Democratic National Convention that brought national attention and fame to the young and vibrant African American Illinois senator. His speech was the highlight of the convention, and the story of his mixed heritage was the highlight of his speech.

Obama opened his speech by explaining that his father was from a small village in Kenya. He said that his father was determined to achieve something greater for himself and his country, so he left to the United States as a foreign-student on a scholarship. People understood Obama's idealism about what America is and should be: a land of opportunities. He mentioned that American optimism is what will push the country ahead and that it is optimism that gives immigrants the strength to leave their native homes and come to the U.S. for a better life.

Obama appeared to be genuinely concerned in the matter of immigration reform during his 2008 campaign. In May 2008, while campaigning, he made a promise to a Spanish-language news anchor by saying that he will guarantee that he will have in the first year his presidency an immigration bill that he will strongly support. This did not happen, but significant strides were made since Obama took office.

In March 2009 ,The Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors, or DREAM Act was reintroduced in both the House of Representatives and Senate. The DREAM Acts seeks to give conditional citizenship to a specific group of young undocumented immigrants. Obama supported it fully.

In April 2010, Obama criticizes Arizona's new SB-1070 law that grants law-enforcement officers the power to check the legal status of people who are stopped during the investigation of possible crimes. Obama says there needs to be a federal overhaul of immigration laws. In December 2010, the House of Representatives passes the DREAM act, but the Senate does not. In May 2011, the DREAM Act is reintroduced in the Senate and President Obama supports it. In June 2012, Obama announces an executive order to stop the deportation of young illegal immigrants who entered the United States as children. The requirements include that a person must be younger than 31 years old, have entered the U.S. before the age of 16 and have a clean criminal record. In August 2012, consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy goes into effect.

Along with other policies on domestic issues, Obama's first term will be remembered for his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, DACA. The program was set up to allow eligible undocumented immigrants to stay in the United States without the threat of deportation for a period of two years by labeling them low enforcement priorities.

This was not the DREAM Act so many undocumented immigrants had hoped for since the possibility of citizenship was not made part of DACA, but it was a step forward that got the U.S. closer to immigration reform. It is important to note that there had not been a similar policy put in place since the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, which granted 3 million undocumented workers the opportunity to work legally and take care of their families. Overall, Obama did follow through with what he intended to do in his first term, which was to secure the borders and make a distinction between undocumented immigrants who are threats to national security and young people raised in America who should not be punished for entering the country illegally since it was not their decision to do so. Focusing on immigration reform is a top priority among Latinos but it is not the sole issue facing the nearly 52 million that call the United States home.

As the battle for immigration reform rages on in America hopefully we will see a positive outcome soon, because everyone deserves the chance to live a free and clean life.

Spencer Hunter

Petersburg