Submitted by Rickford Burke, President, Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID)
I applaud President Obama for the bold reforms to the nation’s broken immigration system, albeit temporary. Immigration reform does not only impact our Latino brothers and sisters. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the Caribbean, South America and Africa now qualify for relief from the threat of deportation and will become eligible for lawful employment.
Almost all undocumented immigrants from the Caribbean and Guyana enter the United States lawfully but overstayed their visas and thus are out of status. A large percent has children and/or spouses who are either US citizens or permanent residents. Thousands more arrived before their sixteenth birthday but are ineligible for DACA because they are currently above age thirty-one. They have all lived here for a long time – decades in some cases, and are law abiding. America is their home. They deserve a shot at the American dream. Thanks to President’s initiates, they can now emerge from the shadows to pursue that dream, once they pass a criminal background check and pay any back taxes accrued.
This is a historic day for America – A nation of immigrants. Millions of families will remain united and millions of people will without fear begin to contribute to society and the US treasury. Economists forecast that this could boost GDP by over $1 trillion.
Republicans are not only opposing President Obama. They are attacking the relatives of millions of US citizens who vote, as well as millions of US permanent residents who will soon become voters. When these millions of Americans go to the polls to exercise their franchise, they will remember who stood with them and fought to keep their families united and who fought to tear their families and the nation apart!
653 responses to “President Obama’s Immigration Reform Initiatives…”
A LITTLE MEDIUM PACER HIT A WHITE BATSMAN WID A BOUNCER IN A WEIRD FREAK ACCIDENT AND THE WHOLE CRICKET WORLD MOURNING
CAN YOU IMAGINE IF ONE O DEM REAL REAL FAST BOWLERS WE HAD IN THE 70’S AND 80’S HAD HIT AND KILLED A WHITE MAN?
ALL THE WHITE PLAYING NATIONS WOULD BE SHOUTING FOR MURDAH (LITERALLY AND OTHER WISE) AND SOME NIGGERS ON BU WOULD BE SAYING WE FELLAS SHOULD HAVE ONLY BEEN BOWLING LOLLIPOPS
Leighton Hay of Mississauga spent the past 12 ½ years in prison for murder. On Friday, the crown dropped all charges against him. His case is one of three victories this week for the Toronto-based Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted
Much of Hay’s time since 2002 has been spent in a prison psychiatric unit in Kingston, where he’s treated with anti-depressant medication.
It took hair samples to help put Leighton Hay in jail for first-degree murder. It took 12 years and those same hair samples to set him free.
Mr. Hay was released Friday by the Superior Court of Justice after the Crown ended its prosecution of him for the July 6, 2002, shooting death of Colin Moore. Justice John McMahon apologized to Mr. Hay for the fact it took so long for the justice system to “get it right.”
@ Georgie I have to agree with on ” THIS IS HOW SO CALLED LOGICAL .. ON BU THINK…WHY READ THE CARTOONS…”
Senor, it cuts both ways. You have expressed views here that would be considered all sorts of cartoonish in other circles; but such is life.
@ Messrs Easy and Bush Tea Ii is absolute illogical thinking espoused in : “You therefore cannot appreciate the trauma currently being experienced …[by] black champions…”
I am simply confounded by your rhetoric suggesting that a white person can’t understand the dynamic as experienced by blacks.
Let’s accept that generally, there are cultural nuances which will throw up psychological road-blocks and disconnections to truly understanding a people and more individually there will be differences which will also distinguish people but the psychology of man can be tracked fairly well across races.
As a black man I am glad that William Wilberforce and Abe Lincoln among other non-black persons (despite all their known faults and prejudices) were able to find some modicum of understanding and empathy of the black psyche.
I am glad the M.L.King did not ascribe to this level of intellectual terrorism; I am overjoyed that Malcolm X evolved from it and I am indebted to the many others -black and white- over the years who dismissed this rhetoric and provided the platform that led to a Barack Obama.
Boy are we lucky that none of the Easies or Bush Teas of this world had the ear of Nelson Mandela.
As one of the most modern perspective of severe discrimination, none of you (us) will ever experience the true levels of horrific deprivation that man and his brethren suffered. Yet, OMG, he practically embraced his antagonists and led his country forward in peace.
But one can only presume that you guys would call him the ultimate Uncle Tom because you would have likely advocated victimization and retribution.
Sorry guys your level of thinking will not move us forward where we need to be.
@Georgie : “CAN YOU IMAGINE IF ONE O DEM REAL REAL FAST BOWLERS WE HAD IN THE 70’S AND 80’S HAD HIT AND KILLED A WHITE MAN?…”
That sir is definitely not a cartoonish statement! Very a propos!
Topic, worthy of its own lengthy discourse.
DEE WORLD
YOU MISSED THE PART THAT “SOME NIGGERS ON BU WOULD BE SAYING WE FELLAS SHOULD HAVE ONLY BEEN BOWLING LOLLIPOPS”
SECONDLY RE Boy are we lucky that none of the Easies or Bush Teas of this world had the ear of Nelson Mandela.
YOU LIKE YOU ARE A “BORED” CERTIFIED PSYCHIATRIST YUH
SEEN ON BARBADOS TODAY
Dame Billie supports IMF soft drink tax suggestion
HAVING STARTED THE DEMISE OF THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM THIS STUPID WOMAN WANT TO CLOSE DOWN SOFT DRINK COMPANIES AS IF A SWEET DRINKS ALONE DOES MEK PEOPLE FAT AND DIABETIC
HOW MANY ON BU USED TO GET A RED OR YELLOW JUC FOR LUNCH AND SOME PONE OR SWEET BREAD?
Nothing like a JC and coconut water.
GP
I was not colour prejudiced or racial, I imbibed Coca Cola in the immortal words of Gobbles, “I ventured to yonder vendor, who answered to John, and purchased a peasant sized ( actually King sized) member of the effervescent brown sweet liquid waters”
GP
I was meking sport with lawson, I dont know this chap.
Lawless was a rather large and somewhat rotund fella, roughly of your vintage.
THATS RIGHT
RELATED TO THE LAWLESS’ WHO PLAYED FOR WANDERERS
@ David | November 28, 2014 at 3:32 PM |
Nothing like a JC and coconut water.
I WORKED WID A NURSE WHO USED TO DO THIS—THINK SHE USED RED JU-C OR FRUTEE
THERE WAS ALSO RED JUC WID SMALL TINS OF CARNATION MILK (14 CENTS SIZE), BUT YOU HAD TO ADD THE MILK SLOWLY TO PREVENT DENATURATION OF THE MILK PROTEINS DUE TO THE ACID FROM THE CO2 IN THE SOFT DRINK
MB
YOUNG LAD—–ASSUME THE PERPENDICULAR
AND IN THAT POSTURE, ADVANCE TO YON VENDOR OF EFFERVESCENT WATERS AND PURCHASE ME THE SMALLEST MEMBER OF THE COCA COLA FAMILY
LATER IN LIFE I GOT TO MEET HIS BROTHER WHO LOVED TO HEAR ME TEACH BIBLE
GP
the JU-C and Carnation mix is what my next door, dark neighbours and I use to share in our lil Club house we built. Sit there and watch the Rabbits going at it! SWEEET days for sure, late 1960s. I spent the vast majority of my formative years before heading off to Uni in the company of dark peeps at home, in the village and at HC (indeed at hostels in London too),still love Motown, actually saw Old Smokey R last year Summer in TO!
Gobbles son lives in TO area (Lodge boy). He had to deliver a TV I won years ago to my office and when we spoke about that we realised who each other were. He wanted to meet for a drink after work in deepest Mississauga where our work was but I had to pick up my kids from Daycare in Downtown TO about 22 miles away. I trust he did not think it was a racial snub, even though I did explain.
@GP
Bim playing in Guyana and should have finished the off for under 200, had them 175 for like 8 and gave it away Guy folded at 260! The attitude in the body language was most disappointing!
Hope those Guyanese spinners dont get the upper hand as the fellas dont always play spin as they should. 350-400 is minimum for my approval!
In the old days both teams might have made 500+ at Bourda. Gibbs, Ramnarace were the threat from Guy.
If the urinals at oistins are any indicator ..the safest place for a batsman to stand if a barbadian is aiming at something is in front of the wickets
YES IN THE DE OLD DAYS BDOS VS GUY WA THE GAME REMEMBER FREDERICKS MAKING A CENTURY IN BOTH INNINGS OF PROBABLY HIS FIRST GAME AGAINST
MY FIRST GAME AT THE OVAL IN 62 CHARLIE GRIFITH BOWLED KANHAI WID A NO BALL, THEN KANHAI AND SOLOMON MADE SOME RUNS
GIBBS GOT 8 WICKETS IN THE SECOND INNINGS AND BOWLED US OUT AFTER WE WERE SET ABOUT 110 TO WIN
GIBBS ALSO GOT 8 FOR TO BEAT INDIA IN THE TEST THAT YEAR
THEY USED TO PLAY SERIOUS REGIONAL CRICKET IN THOSE DAYS
Buy Black in protest at Court Whitewash to let off Cop for Murder with usual shrill white noise to cover injustice partial biased evidence and one sided Legal System where none of them grieved for another youth shot dead up in USA
Meet Mr Nobody
http://youtu.be/Tz-CRLzMeAI
How can a policeman shoot an unarmed civilian who is running away from him and then pleads “THE FEAR FACTOR” fear of what ?
this question needs to be answered,, a reminder of the days when blacks were gunned down for driving in white neighborhoods and the same defense was used to find the murderers not guilty
…………………………………………………………………………………………………….
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2014/11/26/nr-intv-nancy-grace-wilson-testimony-doesnt-add-up.cnn.html
What drivel …… your not dealing with the KKK here….so you are saying this cop that has never fired his gun on duty before , has waited all these years to kill a black man and ruin his career. It defies logic as much as I liked the piece by the nfl player saying it was all caused by sin, I think it was caused by wrongs. He was wrong to rob the store, he was wrong to threaten the clerk, he was wrong to smoke dope and walk in middle of street and he definitely was wrong saying your too much of a pussy to shoot me. This reminds me of the oj trial where truth became irrelevant. Just explain the forensics.
This is the world we have become.
What we are dealing with is “institutionalised fear” the kind that was taught across white american homes in the deep south”areal fear of the black man” which is manifesting itself as a reality with deadly consequences in the american justice system.
@David | November 29, 2014 at 9:01 AM…This is the world we have become.
Wow, this falls under the ‘truth is stranger than fiction’ category for me. I would not believe an institution of higher learning would offer this. But then again we learn from experience never to say ‘never’.
Sex Business/trafficking and the related ills are one of the single biggest societal threats today.
Over the last 10-15 years the proliferation of strip clubs specifically throughout the Americas region has been massive. Of course the net has been huge as well.
But the physical clubs show how pervasive this is in local ‘backyards.
I imagine the debate for some is long over on whether to legalize and closely control a la Las Vegas, DR , Brazil or Sweden or criminalize and fight the ‘scourge’.
@Dee Word
Aged old positions are being dismantled at pace. Go with the flow we say.
@ Lawson
I too believe that Michael Brown was wrong to rob the store, walk in the middle of the street (like the school children from St Leonards, Harrison College, QC, St Michael and the rest of them do on Sports Day here in Bulbados refusing to budge when you press on your horn) attack a police officer and all of the thug-life behaviour he displayed.
But in the face of, rather absence of the correct procedures after the shooting this incident moved from a justifiable shooting to a killing rather an execution by a police officer.
GP says move on, and while I would endorse that sentiment as per Brown specifically, I am in pause mode because of the bigger issue which in my estimation is embodied by the words of Martin Luther King when he spoke at Jimmie Lee Jackson’s funeral in 1965
On remarking on that renown Bloody Sunday incident he says “Jackson had been murdered by the brutality of every sheriff who practices lawlessness in the name of law.”
There is nothing that you or anyone else can say to me that will move me from that stance.
What is facing Amurica is like Bulbados and our spate of thieving politicians.
Our society is picking its officers from the filth that is being presented to us as representatives for the people, sloths and criminals in-waiting, the dumb and witless and then we wonder why a man who was 3 steps in front of the bailliff with bounced cheques, who could not pay his phone bills two months running would tek a probe, progue, dash, bobol when he sees a contract to award houses to a contractor, or to buy some trucks for Sanitation Authority, or some medicine for QEH, or some Syrup for the Ministry of Education gine tek a kickback of a few millions
GP and MB are no solution to any problem and we did tell them already
In days like these we need a friend
http://youtu.be/3PPns2GJWfg
Smart asses step down
must be a Bajan thing
There’s a time for talking
time for watching
time for thinking
You can listen to educated fools telling black people how to behave
or look at photos unfolding of protests telling white people how to behave
@Easy
OR continue to DENY that U require a REAL BALANCED ANALYTICAL BRAIN that weighs the evidence HONESTLY, UNEMOTIONALLY and without BAGGAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pointless trying to use BS cases to convince anybody with BRAINS of anything spurious.
With cases like this U dont a friend U need a MIRACLE!
One dead, 6 injured in drive-by shooting
Hants, so who cares? How does your information benefit anyone here on BU?
Georgie Porgie
Wilson did his job already, But when the police in Barbados brutalize wunnah family, I here wunnah crying a different tune. I have witnessed many cut asses up at District A Police Station and God knows that I am not being unfaithful to the unarmed truth.
Police are investigating a drive-by shooting in Danesbury, Black Rock, St Michael that has left one man dead and five others injured.
The incident occurred just after 9 pm on Saturday night
http://www.barbadostoday.bb/2014/11/30/one-dead-6-injured-in-drive-by-shooting/
+++@Pieces:”Our society is picking its officers from the filth that is being presented to us as representatives for the people, sloths and criminals in-waiting, ”
That’s a correct assessment for all societies: developed and less-developed. The political class all around have been caught with their hands in the graft/patronage jar.
The burden is on those who manage the legal and other systems of control/ checks & balances to investigate and hold people accountable.
MB Less talking more thinking is what is needed from you
@Easy
Being Brainwashed is NOT my thing.Nor is mass emotional bunkum.
Maverick, Independent thinkers have always been despised by people like you——most blacks hate Larry Elder, WHY? He refuses to merely regurgitate others BS!
All I am saying is place full backing behind horses that can win.
Money
Point is you are no “Maverick, Independent thinker”
The situation in America is unfolding..
Black voices want to be heard about racism, police killing youths and court corruption (and are involved in protests riots and marches)
America is racist 75% Whites in America have only white friends
(maybe that’s why you always talk about your black friends)
There are still 2 Americas White and Black instead of 1
Try listening to your black friends instead of patronising them
(which is what white bloggers are doing in America)
http://youtu.be/VoctGWD3VEA
@Easy
Many white American bloggers do patronise.
I dont live in America so cant mix with American blacks, BUT do with darker peeps in Canada and Bim.
I have never stated that there are’nt racial problems that need fixing BUT it is NOT one way as U would like to believe, it is far more complex.
You failed to comprehend that my comment regarding Maverick etc was regarding Larry Elder and other “Uncle Toms.” I would not ever expect you to be in a position to independently judge me as Maverick or independent thin ker, you never have shown the independent thinking that would necessitate!
Most white Americans having mainly white friends is likely true. However , are you attempting to suggest that they are purposely racist and dont want black friends, that is not a logical conclusion although it may mesh with your beliefs. Secondly, are you suggesting that EXACTLY the same situation is not true for black people, they likely have mainly black friends too. What you are neglecting is that for 99% of human history the races were far apart and even very locally in racially homogeneous countries eg England, people fought each other. (Yorkshiremen still think they are absolutely superior to others, East Londoners are different breed to other Londoners etc). It is very unlikely you are going to change these long held beliefs without much public discussion and airing of all pov.
Why has’nt BO conducted the correct type of programs to at least attempt to solve what you agree to be a very serious problem? 6 YEARS! Plenty nuff time! Why has he not requested Oprah, Larry Elder and an array of various people of different points of view to discuss, debate etc openly on TV. There are tons of white Lawyers that represent black people in court and know what goes on there that disadvantages black people. Even Mark Omara who represented Zimmerman has alluded to this on several occasions. Surely after 6 yrs REFORMS should be in place or at least front and centre in the public eye. I am sure many will say that it is Whiteys fault, it always is isnt it?
MB
If I needed to talk or seek advice
it’s best from someone worth listening to
Whites are not listening to Blacks is plain to see
and are not worth listening to
@Easy
SAD because that could easily lead to WAR!
A war that probability would not favour the black side, DISCUSSION is almost always better.
If BO would LEAD in the way I suggest you would be shocked at how many and how quickly, whites would respond positively. The problems are solvable although it wont be easy as there are numerous, wide ranging and complex.
@Kiki
You are on good ground. Unless you walk in the shoes you can’t feel the pinch. This cannot be refuted, by anyone.
@ Kiki ankle David[BU]
I am one of those who has “walked in the shoes and feels the pinch”
The point that Money Brains seems to be proposing and with which I tend to agree is that one needs to engage this problem head on and BO, and others of us in the higher echelons, have to come to the plate.
Kiki, there was a time when you would come here and post plain music tunes and I would wonder what they meant because after clicking on them de poor ole man wasn’t much wiser
You subsequently started to put a leader in, sometimes a single liner, sometimes a paragraph and I found that sometimes the music had a message that I understood and/or impacted on me, sometimes the images but I sought to “engage”
This is what MB is saying to us black people, particularly the ones in the line of fire, stand up and be counted
Ironically here in Bulbados this “stand up” chant is no different to what some of us have been hoping that our community leaders and the parasitic church leaders would do, get balls and stand up for their Jesus or Allah, if they do really believe in these concepts.
You see how it is so easy to solicit and then convert Jihadists?
It is in the vacuum of non engagement that the seeds of discontent are planted….
@ Easy Squeeze (make no riot)
I am happy for your commentary on this blog as it truly helps me to educate my kids about hypocrisy :”November 30, 2014 at 5:24 AM …
MB Less talking more thinking is what is needed from you” and , “Try listening to your black friends instead of patronising them”.
You are obviously doing a significant amount of listening and thinking yourself, aren’t you!
And also helps me to tell them why it’s necessary to tamp down the hyperbole regarding race relations, as in “If I needed to talk or seek advice it’s best from someone worth listening to Whites are not listening to Blacks…and are not worth listening to…”
It absolutely boggles my mind that in the face of the tremendous advances made in US on race relations that black men and women can be spouting this type of reactionary and patently racist palaver. Sure there is absolute need for agitation but we should be way past this spiteful acrimony in discourse.
We have been down this road already, come on.
Black men of relevance and leadership like Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama understood that white people are worth listening to.
I can’t even say that I hope you find your way as Malcolm did…as that may lead you today on a worst path.
By the grace of the Allah, God, Budda or whoever/whatever is your spiritual guide sir, get real.
Why are you on this asinine rant? This is war mongering and anarchy.
You are not listening and calling people racists because they can only give a ‘white’ view and want to propagate your thoughts to others. That sir is the epitome of what you criticize.
Oh …. Help US!!
@Dee Word
Don’t be fooled, the US is a country where Blacks are being shot like dogs on a daily basis. Obviously strides from the 50s and 60s have been made but the job is far from finished.
That’s US as in WE the people..we need help, not the USA alone!
David, I believe it’s a bit hyperbolic to say: “the US is a country where Blacks are being shot like dogs on a daily basis”
Look, I completely agree and understand that things with the fuzz,cops,pigs (whatever prerogative you want) is bad re race relations.
I too am confounded by the recent spate of black deaths across the country at the hands of the cops (Garner-choke hold, Girley-shot, Tamir-shot, Brown-shot, to name the most topical) and one death is too many, of course but David the country is not on a hand-basket to hell.
Back in the late 80s or early 90s there was a situation in one of the NY jurisdictions were juries WOULD NOT convict perps based alone on the testimony of police officers. They had been so many instances at the time of POs caught in a lie, some form of set-up or the like that the people said: No.
So this is a continuous strong fight.
I am not stupid or naive David. But neither do I see a future for my kids if we can’t recognize that we need to move forward with practical, legal harmonious vigor.
I have absolutely no desire to be involved in any sort of race riot..as My Easy has as his moniker.
That sir, is not the way! His rhetoric is dangerous.
Many people raged here about the current DLP and BLP but I have not seen any espouse the Alleyne dictum. He didn’t like what the politicians we now call so great were doing back then, did he. Had he succeeded what of our country….
Mr. Easy’s rhetoric is of a similar ilk…either you are like me (whatever that may be) or you is my enemy. No David.
Anybody read Lowdown column this weekend ?
Oooops…Mr Easy’s moniker is partly : (make no riot)
Apologies there, I misspoke re my comment: “I have absolutely no desire to be involved in any sort of race riot..as My Easy has as his moniker.”
No harm or slander intended.
@ Dee word ( is pejorative ) lol
Happy Independence day.
@Dee Word
From the perspective of underprivileged Blacks who live the reality on a daily basis of a White America this is real. What defines engagement is something we can split hairs about about the struggle continues.
@ Hants, thank you sir. I did not notice that error. And it certainly is a good prerogative of correct English users to get the pejoratives right!
But 2 errors in short shrift suggest my time here has stretched longer than it should have. Taa-da
A Grand Independence to you too, the Blogmaster and all the other wonderful verbal pugilists here on BU. These jabs and hay-makers are often too much to handle.
@David, Kiki and other NON Rioters,
Are you saying that since non black people have never been black that they cant help? Cant EMPATHSIZE? Black people are SOooooooooo Different, arent we all humans? Whites were serfs and slaves, sold by the Romans, taken from their homes and enslaved by Africans as far away as Iceland to say nothing about The Mediterranean very regularly. Just maybe it is your PERCEPTION that is part of the problem in building consensus towards a solution? That may have been true 50 yrs ago but today is a different matter.
Like I say the solution lies in a balanced, unemotional examination that is solely interested in identifying and solving the problems which include :
1 education (both at school and broadly on race)
2 understanding that DISCIPLINE is a key to a successful solution
3 appreciating the few differences in perspective.
4 many others.
It is EASY to just say, “those whiteys can never understand us”. The better question would be,”why cant the Whiteys understand us?” next question, “have we contributed to why Whiteys dont understand us? How?” Loads more questions along these lines , a full examination, let no stone go unturned. This is a step in the direction of the solutions.