By Anne Marie Weiss-Armush, KERA 90.1
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-506467.mp3
Dallas, TX –
America is the only nation in the world built by immigrants - courageous and hardworking people who opened the Western prairies and labored in our mines and factories. My grandparents left Italy nearly a century ago, passing through Ellis Island in search of the American dream. Although my grandmother Angelina Degioia never learned to read or write, my mother became an Army nurse and earned a Masters Degree through the G.I. Bill.
Today, 40 percent of our North Texas residents are immigrants (foreign-born and their children) and their economic, cultural, and intellectual contributions are the energy that keeps our region growing and vibrant.
In Europe, we watch as barriers between nations and peoples are torn down, as European leaders explore fresh ways to address the complex issues of a "global community", as one passport and currency link all the countries of the European Union.
It is the basic economic inequalities among nations that fuel immigration, dividing families and driving people into distant lands where work is plentiful. As long as these conditions exist, people will always be attracted to our country, and immigration will continue. Criminalizing people's human efforts to survive and help their children survive only increase tensions.
Our American immigration system is now totally broken, non-functioning. To travel to the U.S. for business or tourism, foreigners must pay $100 just to get an appointment to request a visa - which may be denied them. Elderly parents of American citizens who have been visiting their children for years - and returning to their homes - are inexplicably refused papers by the U.S. Embassy. World-class artists, hired to perform here in Dallas, are also rejected. International students admitted to our great universities - students whose additional fees are crucial as funding for education is cut - are also rejected. Legal residents wait for years to have their papers processed and to be reunited with their loved ones.
In France, we saw Paris' boulevards laid waste by rioters when the social issues resulting from immigration were not addressed. In Dallas, tens of thousands of children will gather Sunday in the Immigrant's MegaMarch, expressing their frustration and rage at a system that forces them to live "illegally", that shuts them and their parents out from higher education, driver's licenses, insurance, and legal jobs.
We must not deny the American dream to our children!
While the marchers will primarily be Mexican-Americans, they represent only portion of our region's new face. 150,000 Africans live in North Texas, along with around 100,000 Indians and nearly that many Chinese and Salvadorians. Asian physicians and high-tech engineers as well as Hispanics in the service industries and African businessmen are significant contributors to our economy. The very foundations of our nation were built by immigrants like these, leaders who established the principles of freedom and a system that promised equality and justice to all.
As the 24 events in International DFW Week celebrate the contributions of internationals across this region, the MegaMarch is a call to citizens and government alike to take a serious look at a broken system that blocks millions of people from fully contributing to our region and our nation.
Anne Marie Weiss-Armush is director of DFW International. For more information on International DFW Week, go to dfwinternational.org.
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