On June 1st, Peruvian President Alan Garcia will be meeting for the first time with President Barack Obama. The two presidents plan to get into issues of immigration at their meet.
After President Garcia learned about Daisy Cuevas, a Peruvian national second grader who has generated a lot of media after putting Michelle Obama on the spot with a question about immigration, he confessed to being proud that a little girl from Peru is representing in these moments the problem with U.S. immigration policy in regards to Latin America. It is estimated that there are around half a million Peruvians living in the United States undocumented.
There are also almost 4,000 political asylum petitions by Peruvians, who since the early 90s have been trying to convince the judges of the courts of appeals that the maoist movement "Sendero Luminoso" is still a threat to their lives. It is a serious problem that immigration laws don't take into consideration how long asylum seekers have been living here as they wait for a response on their cases.
We are talking about people forming new lives, making new friends, some even running their own businesses, who are then suddenly expected to go back to their countries and leave everything behind if their asylum petitions are denied. One such example is the case of Herta Llusho, an exemplary 19-year-old college student who came to the U.S. seeking asylum when she was 11, and then struggled to fight deportation back to Albania after her claim was denied.
In addition to the presidential chat, a protest is being organized against U.S. Free Trade Policies that are killing innocent Peruvians for the day of President Garcia's meeting at the White House. The problem of illegal immigration isn't just a matter of border policy; in the long term, we need to address the reasons why some people are forced to leave their countries, essentially as economic refugees. Our trade policies, and the havoc they can wreak on other countries, are certainly a part of this. We must work in tandem with other countries towards fixing those issues and creating stable environments where people can feel safe, survive, and have the opportunity to grow.
Photo Credit: Sebastian Piñera