Kevin Bogardus and Russell Berman of the Bay State Banner are reporting that black lawmakers and civil rights groups are concerned over a proposal in the Senate’s immigration reform bill that would do away with ‘diversity’ visas that are often a pathway for African and Caribbean immigrants to enter the United States. Bogardus and Berman write:
“Advocates said they haven’t seen evidence yet that a new merit-based program is an acceptable replacement for the diversity visas.
Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP Washington bureau, said he is telling lawmakers not to cut the diversity program when comprehensive immigration reform moves forward.
‘At this point, we are urging lawmakers not to eliminate the diversity visa program,” Shelton told reporters. “This is one of the places in the bill that needs to be addressed. We will work with our friends in the Senate, and we have started working with our friends in the House as well.’
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., co-chairman of the immigration task force for the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), called the Senate bill “a significant step in the right direction” but said his caucus is worried about the plan to eliminate diversity visas.
‘With respect to the abolishment of the diversity visa lottery program, the CBC is extremely concerned that it might limit the future flow of immigration for people from certain parts of the world,’ Jeffries said. ‘That’s troublesome, and we’re evaluating the merit-based visa proposal to determine if it’s fair and balanced.’
The diversity program makes 55,000 visas available each year to countries with low immigration rates to the United States. Those awarded the visas are chosen by a lottery, with about half typically going to African immigrants.
Republican lawmakers have targeted the program in the past for elimination, arguing the program’s lottery system can lead to fraud and undermine national security.
If the immigration reform bill passes, then the diversity visas will be eliminated in 2015.
“I am groping about through this American forest of prejudice and proscription, determined to find some form of civilization where all men will be accepted for what they are worth.”
“Your masters who lived in opulence, kept you to hard work by some contemptible being called overseer-who chastised and beat you whenever he pleased-while your master lived in some Northern town or in Europe to squander away the wealth only you acquired for him. He never earned a single Dollar in his life. You men and women, every one of you around me, made thousands and thousands of dollars for your master. Only you were the means for your masters to lead the ideal and inglorious life, and to give his children the education, which he denied to you, for fear you may awake to conscience.”
“I’ve outdone anyone you can name – Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Strauss. Irving Berlin, he wrote 1,001 tunes. I wrote 5,500.”
