By Christopher Alessi
Of the 250 people who attended the Arab American Institute’s Brooklyn town hall panel on immigration last night, only two believe that President Barack Obama has delivered on his campaign promise to reform the U.S. immigration system.
“How many people were excited when Obama promised immigration change?” asked Chung-Wha Hong, the executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, as cheers and shouts erupted. “And, how many people think President Obama delivered on that change?” The audience went silent, and only two raised hands could be seen in the crowd.
“Three hundred fifty thousand immigrants were deported last year and 440,000 were detained,” Hong said, adding that only one sentence of President Obama’s recent State of the Union address was devoted to the topic of immigration reform.
Hong was one of six speakers at the event, which was held at the Wikki Catering Hall in Bay Ridge, home to one of New York’s largest Arab-American communities. The Arab American Institute orchestrated the town hall – the first in a series of national meetings the organization plans to facilitate – as a way to bring together policy advocates and elected officials to lead a discussion about immigration reform, civil liberties and national security with the Arab-American community-at-large.
From the opening statement, however, the discourse quickly shifted from policy to politics, as Dr. Ahmad Jaber, president of the Arab American Association of New York, emotionally voiced the disappointment felt by many in the Arab-American community toward President Obama. At the time of Obama’s inauguration, Jaber said, the Arab-American community was “ecstatic” about Obama’s declaration to close the U.S. military prison in Guantánamo Bay, and “even more ecstatic” about his approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, having demanded that Israelis cease building settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank.
“A year later,” he continued, “our hopes are dashed out.”
After being introduced by Jaber, Dr. James Zogby, the president of the Arab American Institute – and a longtime supporter of Democratic candidates – attempted to temper the harsh rhetoric that had preceded him. “Obama got handed a shovel, not a magic wand,” Zogby reminded. “Did he dig the hole deeper or try to dig us out? We don’t know yet, but this is not just about the president,” he added. He implored the audience to be more active in lobbying their elected officials for policies that would better serve Arab-Americans.
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Yvette Clarke made sparing references to President Obama, and instead used her time at the podium to talk about her recent legislative initiatives in the House of Representatives. She described herself as one of the original co-sponsors of the House’s recent immigration reform bill, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009. Among other measures, the bill would make it easier for the families of permanent U.S. residents to be able to come to this country, a provision that likely pleases many first-generation Arab-Americans who may still have spouses or children living in their home countries. “The bill will pass hopefully early next year,” Clarke said.
The congresswoman also cited another recent bill of hers – which has passed the House but not the Senate – called the Fast Redress Act of 2009, which seeks to fix what she referred to as “the flaws in the government’s terrorist watch list.” The bill would allow those Arab- and Muslim-Americans who have appeared on the FBI’s terror watch list, when traveling through airports, to have their names put on a “cleared list” to avoid further confusion. Many in the audience vigorously nodded in agreement and applauded, appearing more pleased with the potential implications of this bill than that advocating immigration reform.
Following Clarke, the other government official to speak, Andrea Quarantillo, the New York director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), was more closely linked with the Obama administration. Quarantillo’s organization falls under the umbrella of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and so she was there as a direct representative of an Obama appointee, Secretary Janet Napolitano.
Visibly nervous and close to apologetic, Quarantillo began by saying, “Let me tell you what USCIS is not. We are not the enforcement branch, we don’t arrest and detain,” she said, adding, “We’re just about providing services to immigrant communities.” For example, USCIS has a new “Citizenship Initiative,” which is designed to reach out to different ethnic communities – for which English is often a second language – to explain the Immigration Services interview process in advance so that candidates know what to expect beforehand.
“Secretary Napolitano,” Quarantillo said, “is really reaching out to the Arab-American community.”
Hong’s speech was in direct contrast to Quarantillo’s. She forcefully urged the large audience to descend on Washington on March 21 for a national immigration rally to lobby the Congress to do the near impossible: pass immigration reform this year. “Who thinks immigration reform will be easier to pass after the 2010 elections, when even more Democratic seats will be lost?” Hong asked. No hands were raised.
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