Abogados de Inmigracion

It was Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell who said to the Hispanic audience, “Somos El Presente” or “We Are the Present.” Yes there is a general sense of Hispanic power sweeping the nation caused by the harsh immigration proposals and of course by the growing economic power and the political power of that community.

He and others such as Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi (who has been talking about the GED and who, I predict, will develop a GED Faith Based Initiative if he becomes governor) , Assembly Herman “Denny” Farrell, hammered home the message that we are all immigrants (except for the Native Americans). Assembly Peter Rivera announced that the Hispanic members were going to sign in on Monday and walk out in support of the national movement to wake up America to the importance of all immigrants. Suozzi flavored his talk with Italian he learned at home, Farrell mentioned he was going to walk out on Monday with the Hispanic members, citing his Panamanian roots in support of support of Latinos. The Consul General of Ecuador Francisco Correa Bustamante passionately mentioned his support for all Hispanics north and south of the Equator and the respect that Hispanics should have everywhere. Juan Mercado, the Vice Consul of the Dominican Republic, representing President Leonel Fernandez-Reyna spoke too about fighting for the rights of immigrants. Assemblyman Luis Diaz mentioned that in all of the legislation proposed there is no desire to build a wall along Canada’s border with the United States (I doubt if there was talk about enslaving Caucasians from Europe during the colonial days). State Senator Adriano Espaillat said the recent comprise a movement that will not stop until Hispanics and immigrants achieve more of the benefits that they deserve. I mentioned that Al Qaeda flies over walls and we would need walls in every neighbor if we really wanted to be protected. I also told the loss of Jewish life as the St. Louis was turned away from our shores during the Holocaust period. And that we Jews would have done anything we could, including the smuggling of Jews across the Mexican border (if we had known it could be done). I also warned Senator Espaillat and others that the great accomplishments of the Civil Rights’ Movement and Civil Rights’ Acts left behind extremely large numbers of African Americans and the GED NOW is a great necessity. John Delgado of LUNA L 79 pointed out he had never seen a terrorist among the undocumented workers he knew. Milan Bhatt of the New York Immigration Coalition pointed out to one of the speakers who received tremendous applause for attacking the racist attitudes of those who want harsh legislation against the undocumented immigrants. The workers come from many countries and are not all people of color and forty percent are undocumented immigrants who overstayed their visas (I pointed out that due to the large country what we live in with the difficulty of spreading information properly, many of those people could have turned to family members to keep their legal status as student after the travel visa expired). He highly recommended a campaign that focuses on the contributions of the undocumented immigrants. Agueda Arias of UFCW L 888 spoke about supporting the immigrants across the United States and a speaker in the audience from 1199 countered by saying we have to do more, even help end conflicts in the Dominican Republic between Haitians and Dominicans.

I had the opportunity to network with many people to help all immigrants, Latinos and others with my ideas and proposals about GED, including the Latino GED Roundtable and the Pastors GED Roundtable (for each borough) that I will announce soon. Assemblyman Ruben Diaz, Jr. said he would be available on Thursdays and Fridays before June, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion and I discussed the pastors event for the Bronx, Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera asked me to contact her soon, Assemblyman Farrell told me that Dr. Henry Kissinger had earned a GED after dropping out of school during the Great Depression, and I had quality time talking about the GED to Assemblyman Peter Rivera and New York City Councilman Robert Jackson. I believe that there is a growing awareness now among people in New York government that changes have to be made in the delivery of GED’s to residents of New York (New York is below the national average). Peter Rivera mentioned at the CUNY luncheon that Latinos need more education, Marcelo Gaete of NALEO mentioned the GED in his talk from the immigrants panel and agreed that GED, citizenship (people studying for citizenship should purchase GED books to study from), and ESL belonged together in NALEO’s campaign, and Robert Jackson, reading about one of the GED policies of the Department of Education felt it was ridiculous (and it is). Consul General Bustamante and I briefly discussed holding the Latino GED Roundtable in his consular conference room.

I want to thank all of the people I met for the great interest they showed in my educational campaign, including people from the university system, organized labor, the AARP, the New York Daily News (Hora Hispana), and many community based organizations. It was good to see friends of the GED Assemblyman Jose Peralta, Assembly Felix Ortiz, City Councilman Joel Rivera again and to meet Lorraine Cortez-Vazquez, New York Regent. Photo of Assemblyman Peter Rivera taken by Profesor Martin.

MARTIN N. DANENBERG
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ISLANDIA, NY 11949
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