IN the face of fierce protests from angry Republican lawmakers and other stakeholders in the United States of America, we today record our own appreciation for the courage displayed  by President Barack Obama in resorting to constitutional-based executive powers to help rescue approximately five million immigrants living illegally in that nation, the world’s current superpower.We are cognisant of the right of all sovereign nations—rich and poor, and irrespective of political and economic systems—to ensure compliance with the rule of law and avoid the mushrooming of illegal migrants who become involved in crime, or themselves falling victim to criminals.
Likewise, we are mindful of the basic human rights of immigrants in the USA who often find themselves confronted with humiliating, degrading treatment by employers and law enforcing agencies as they struggle to earn a decent living amid hopes of regularising their status.
Long recognised as a nation spawned by migration, the USA has evolved as the world’s third most populated nation—after China and India. For all its real and perceived political and social problems—including racism—it remains a destination of choice to live and work for nationals across the global community, a good many of them Guyanese and other CARICOM citizens.
Confronted with the harsh realities for not just thousands but currently approximate five million migrants— including from Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia—President Obama boldly moved last week to exercise his executive authority to free some 4.7 million migrants from threatened deportation. They are categorised among eleven million “undocumented” (illegal) immigrants.
The ‘Obama initiative’ to honour a pledge that enables Hispanics and other migrants to avoid deportation by securing a three-year work permit, has infuriated his more traditional Republican opponents on Capitol Hill.
Basically, by resorting to executive powers, without violating the nation’s constitution, President Obama has removed the fears with which some five million “undocumented” migrants have been living for years. Within the past two years alone about 7,000 were sent packing.
While his political opponents and critics were bitterly complaining, Hispanics and other categories of ‘undocumented’ migrants were parading in picket lines with placards expressing gratitude to him for ending their nightmare of fears of separation from family members and help secure their future in the “land of the free and home of the brave.’