Caribbean diaspora in US should vote for candidate promoting their interest

Dear Editor, The upcoming November elections in the USA are as critical to the people of America as they are to people the world over. For us in the Caribbean American diaspora who enjoy the right to vote, we have a responsibility to vote in these elections especially for an American president that will promote our legitimate interests. There is one candidate who has clearly defined her position on the Caribbean and its diaspora. Here is her official position:

Caribbean Americans and Caribbean immigrants have helped build this country and strengthen our communities. Hillary recognizes that these accomplishments sometimes mask the challenges the CaribbeanAmerican community faces—such as enduring racism, access to quality education and health care, good-paying jobs and retirement security. She will fight to break down these barriers so that everyone, regardless of their background has a chance to live up to their potential.

As President, Hillary will fight to keep families together. Caribbean immigrants make up 3.2% of the undocumented immigrants in this country. Instead of breaking up law-abiding immigrant families who have enriched America, Hillary will offer them a path to full and equal citizenship. She will also protect and implement the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) programmes to keep Caribbean families together. Further, Hillary will call on Congress to repeal the 3- and 10-year bars so that families don’t have to choose between pursuing a green card and staying with their families. Caribbean immigrants accounted for 10.7% of all immigrants granted lawful permanent residence from 2000 to 2009. Hillary believes we should support Caribbean immigrants who are eligible for citizenship to take that final step, including by expanding fee-waivers and increasing access to language and outreach programmes. And shortly after the massive earthquake in Haiti in January 2010, just over 53,000 applied for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), but US Citizenship and Immigration Services estimated that 20,000 to 50,000 more individuals are eligible. As president, Hillary will enhance outreach, to reach more immigrants living in the US who are still eligible for TPS.

Hillary will champion new opportunities in education to ensure nothing stands in the way of all Americans achieving their full potential. Hillary will increase our investment in Early Head Start and the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting programme. She has a plan to make pre-K universal for all 4 year-olds in America, and will fight for strong public schools in every community across the country, so that every Caribbean American and Caribbean immigrant child—including those in the US territories in the Caribbean—has access to a world-class education. Too many Caribbean Americans and Caribbean immigrants face difficulty in paying for college and paying off their student debt. Through her New College Compact, Hillary will fight to ensure that cost is not a barrier for anyone who wants to attend college—and that debt won’t hold them back when they do. Her plan will also provide scholarships and child care support for student parents, so that these parents can build a brighter future for their families.

Hillary has said getting incomes rising again is the defining economic challenge of our time, and she will fight to raise incomes so that all American families can get ahead and stay ahead. Her plan includes raising the minimum wage, ensuring equal pay for women, providing incentives for companies to share profits with their employees, guaranteeing paid family and medical leave, and boosting apprenticeships to help more people get into the workforce. While the unemployment rate of white Americans is 3.8%, it’s nearly 6% for Caribbean immigrants, and Caribbean Americans have higher rates of poverty than the overall population. Hillary has a plan to invest $125 billion to create good-paying jobs, rebuild crumbling infrastructure, and connect housing to opportunity in communities that are being left out and left behind. Her plan includes investing $20 billion to create youth jobs, and another $25 billion to support entrepreneurship and small business growth in underserved communities. She will pay for the new investments in this initiative through a tax on Wall Street—

ensuring that the major financial institutions that contributed to the Great Recession are doing their part in bringing back the communities they hurt the most.

Too many Caribbean American and Caribbean immigrant families have to worry about how one financial setback can erase all of the progress they’ve made. Hillary will fight for economic security for every family, because economic security is a foundation for economic opportunity.

Hillary recently announced her plan to invest $25 billion to lift more families into sustainable homeownership and connect housing to opportunity. The ACA has helped to address disparities in health care and Medicaid accessibility; the uninsured rate among those from the Caribbean has fallen by 7.2% since 2011, with well over 222,000 individuals gaining insurance coverage as a result of the ACA. Moreover, with nearly 20% of the Caribbean-immigrant families at or below the poverty line, the ACA has expanded access to Medicaid and other services for those who need it most. Hillary will stand up to Republican attempts to roll back the ACA and will protect the progress we have made. She will work to lower out-ofpocket health care costs, reduce the cost of prescription drugs and transform our health care system to reward value and quality. She believes we should let families—regardless of immigration status— buy into the Affordable Care Act exchanges. Finally, Caribbean Americans would be especially harmed by Social Security cuts or Medicare privatization, given the higher share of seniors in the community. As president, Hillary will fight to defend Medicare and Social Security as well as expand benefits for widows and women who have taken time out of the workforce—so that all American families can retire with dignity.

As Senator from New York, Hillary championed initiatives to improve the lives of Caribbean immigrants, their families and communities. She introduced the Count Every Vote Act to ensure that all citizens, including foreign language speakers, had equal access to voting, and sponsored the Legal Immigration Children’s Health Improvement Act to restore access to Medicaid and SCHIP benefits for immigrant pregnant women and children. Hillary not only voted consistently in support of comprehensive immigration reform, but also authored legislation to address the backlog of family visas and expedite the reunification of immigrant families.

As Secretary of State, Hillary was committed to bolstering economic development, public health, and human rights in the Caribbean and Latin America. She launched several initiatives aimed at expanding the US-Caribbean relationship, such as the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas and the Caribbean Idea Marketplace. She increased the US financial commitment to the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, which helped local communities cut down on illegal trafficking. She also announced a Caribbean Climate Change Adaptation Initiative, which awarded six Caribbean countries grants for alternative energy, and spearheaded the International

Diaspora Engagement Alliance, which aimed to bridge the gap between diaspora communities and businesses in their countries of origin. Yours faithfully, Wesley Kirton