Some Good News On The Immigration Front—Some Haitians Are Going Home

When I sat down to write my column, I was determined to find some good news from the immigration front to share with my beleaguered patriotic friends.

That's always an ongoing challenge but this week it was especially daunting.

Yet I succeeded!

Amidst an avalanche of bad and potentially disastrous news comes one shining gem of encouragement.

Throughout the week, we've read about the White House's disgusting reaction to Arizona's perfectly reasonable S.B. 1070 that President Barack Obama called "misguided"

Every ethnocentric group in America shouted S.B 1070 down as the work of racists even though the state's residents applaud it. Legal challenges are anticipated. Preposterously, major cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington D.C., despite plenty of headaches of their own, urged their citizens to boycott Arizona.

More—anarchists plan another round of May Day marches demanding one thing or another. What could be more predictable?

With far more dire consequences at stake, the Democrats against all logic and in defiance of the collective American will, press on with their treasonous amnesty agenda.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and two of his most subversive colleagues, New York Senator Charles Schumer and New Jersey Robert Menendez, have drafted what they refer to as an "outline" of a Democrat-only bill aimed more at covering their collective behinds come November than "legalizing" millions of aliens. [Democrats Outline Plan for Immigration, by Carl Hulse, New York Times, April 30, 2010]

President Barack Obama endorses it. What a surprise!

Most Capitol Hill observers agree with me that amnesty is improbable. Still as long as it's out there, the threat remains. Keep your fingers crossed because if the Democrat-only bill passes, it would immediately give 12-20 million illegal aliens legal resident status and the right to work.

But buried in all the depressing headlines comes the happy news from Florida that many prominent Haitians living in the Miami area have chosen to return home to help rebuild their native land.

Inspired by their example, dozens of other Haitians are strongly considering going back. [Haitians in the U.S. Feeling the Pull of Home, by Lydia Martin, Miami Herald, February 24, 2010]

For more than a decade, VDARE.COM has insisted that impoverished, corrupt countries like Haiti, Mexico and the Dominican Republic cannot be revitalized by billions of dollars in U.S. foreign-aid or by accepting millions of its displaced into the United States.

Giving temporary protected status to Haitians, as the Obama administration did in January, only encourages them to stay instead of doing the obvious: going home to rebuilding Haiti

To confirm how flawed the U.S. policies are, just read the recent economic statistics. Billions in U.S. foreign aid given to Haiti since 2000 have had no effect. The annual per capita income is a lowly $480 and Haiti remains the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Despite its poverty and ravaged condition after the earthquake, the Miami Herald reported that many well to do Haitian Americans stateside suddenly felt the urge to do their part to restore their homeland even though most spoke better English than Creole and considered themselves fully Americanized.

After mourning for lost loved ones, Haitians realized the obvious—that they have skills that can be put to use to build a better Haiti over the long term.

Similar to Cuban exiles, first and second generation Haitians told their children and grandchildren tales of an earlier, better Haiti instilled in them a sense of patriotism.

One Haitian couple explained how they decided, despite the risk that their efforts would be squandered by a corrupt system, to overcome their doubts and return.

Line Bovery, a registered nurse born in the United States, and her husband Ron Hallabe, a Florida Power & Light engineer, committed themselves by returning one at a time.

Said Bovery:

"You go from a really profound sadness to a really strong desire to get there by any means. We would prefer to be there together, of course. But we're ready to handle one of us being gone for periods at a time''

Bovery's parents left Haiti 40 years ago.

"My parents always had a dream of being able to go back to Haiti one day and help make the country what they knew it could be. But there was always so much political upheaval. It's my duty . . . to go back now."

Regine Monestime, a Miami lawyer born in New York, celebrated New Year's Eve in Jacmel.

"It was the first time I had ever vacationed in Haiti. I had gone for family weddings and funerals. But this time I saw Haiti from a different perspective. For the first time I thought, 'Maybe I really could get a little house on the beach one day and retire here.' I love that, at night, people tell one another stories instead of sitting in front of the computer or the TV.''

Cyncia Raymond Celestin, who worked for Miami-Dade County Transit and her husband Guito, a MetLife financial advisor, were about to buy an expensive home in the affluent Miami Shores. They drove "his-and-hers" Mercedes.

But, upon reflection, they gave up their cushy life and moved to Haiti where they say they are committed for the long haul.

According to Celestin: "There was never a time our country needed us more.''

As Haitians like the Celestines uproot from Florida, their example sets others to thinking.

In one of the comments to the Herald story, a Haitian wrote:

"This is exactly what I have been living with in my heart since January 12, 2010. My wife and I have contemplated going back to the homeland of our parents to offer the skill set we have attained and cultivated here in the US. We wrestle with the idea daily, we have cars, a mortgage and other responsibilities here in the US, yet the daily issues Haiti now faces have kept me up at night for weeks. I feel a strong desire to go back.    

"I have come very comfortable Living with the simple luxuries that I have come to know. The day will come when I do take that leap of faith to go back I too am searching for possible positions with organization setup in Haiti. This article reflects the sentiments of exactly what I am going through now. Daily I live in my mind what is happening in Haiti."

While these families represent only a handful of the total Haitian population living in America, my hope is that their leadership starts a buzz in their communities and inspires still more to follow suit.

I have been to Haiti and it is not hard to imagine that with a modest savings account to start your new life, you could be comfortable while you do well for others.

I recommend the same course of action for our unhappy invaders who are busy protesting against America and insulting us. Why stay if you are so miserable? Go back where they need you.

Come to think of it, maybe we can send most of Congress back to where they came from. Wouldn't that be swell?

Joe Guzzardi [email him] is a California native who recently fled the state because of over-immigration, over-population and a rapidly deteriorating quality of life. He has moved to Pittsburgh, PA where the air is clean and the growth rate stable. A long-time instructor in English at the Lodi Adult School, Guzzardi has been writing a weekly column since 1988. It currently appears in the Lodi News-Sentinel.