Caribbean leaders brown-nose while Latin American leaders slam … – Amsterdam News

The disparity has always been huge in how Latin American leaders stand up for their diaspora versus their Caribbean counterparts. Its almost like Jesus and the moneychangers.

Latin American leaders recognize the importance of their diaspora and have always recognized immigration as important to these masses. As such, they have used every opportunitywhether its meeting with a sitting U.S. president, others in the administration or Congressto speak up and speak out on this hot button issue.

Contrast that with Caribbean leaders, who recognize their diaspora when it is convenient and have rarely spoken up on the issue of immigration that affects many of their nationals in the U.S.

That attitude continues even as the Donald Trump administration moves to deport more and more Caribbean and Latin American immigrants from the U.S.

In January, during the annual Community of Latin American and Caribbean States summit in the Dominican Republic, Latin American leaders slammed Trump while their Caribbean Community counterparts stayed silent.

We have to protect ourselves from the aggressive policy of persecuting migrants, Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa said as he arrived in Punta Cana.

His comments were echoed by many others in Latin America and even from Cuba and the Dominican Republic, but none from CARICOM.

The silence continues as thousands of Caribbean immigrantsundocumented and green card holders who have committed petty crimescower in fear of being arrested, detained in a detention center far from their family and then deported. Some are reluctant to go to work, go to a restaurant, go to a store or even go to a social gathering for fear that U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement agents will nab them, ship them off to a detention center and then deport them.

Some Caribbean leaders, who have little if any interaction with these migrants they are paid tax payer dollars to represent, have decided its better to brown-nose with the Trump administration rather than speak up for the issues of real importance to their nationals and the Caribbean immigrant diaspora.

April 10, 2017, I came across a headline from a regional Caribbean news site that declared, Trump reinforces bond between Jamaica and the United States.

In the article, the writer, Derrick Scott, claimed that Trump told Jamaicas ambassador to the United States, Audrey Marks, at the White House that he looks forward to working with the Jamaican government administration on bilateral and regional issues.

No details on what these bilateral and regional issues are were given, but the article added that Trump and the ambassador in their exchange underscored the strong bond of friendship that has existed over the years between the people of Jamaica and the United States, noting the contribution of Jamaica in many spheres of American life.

The article also nauseatingly mentions that the envoy took the opportunity to invite Trump to visit Jamaica. I am not sure what the reaction of many Jamaicans to that invitation will be, but thats another story for another day.

Of concern to this writer was that not once in the entire article was the issue of immigration or the concerns of Jamaicans in the diaspora mentioned, including the threat of deportation hanging over their heads.

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Caribbean leaders brown-nose while Latin American leaders slam ... - Amsterdam News