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Nigerian Community Backs Obama's Stand On US Immigration Law

Submitted by LEADERSHIP EDITORS on January 30, 2013 - 2:59pm

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The Nigerian community in the United States has thrown its weight behind President Barrack Obama's call on the Congress to urgently and totally overhaul what he described as 'a out of date and badly broken' United States Immigration Law and System.

Reacting in a press release released to our correspondent on Wednesday by Mr. Franklin Ekechukwu, Director of Region 2 of the Nigerians In Diaspora Organisation in America (NIDOA), the Nigerian community maintained that it stands with the President of the United States on pushing for the total overhaul US immigration law and system.

"Although we completely agree with the proposal, we wish to bring to the notice of our president and our representatives in the congress that this issue is a universal issue, it is not a Hispanic or Asian issue it is also an African issue"

"We note this with great concern that whenever this issue is presented, a particular community is in the fore front of the discussion, and we have over a million Africans who are either illegal or are students who are about to graduate and will soon be out of status but wishes to remain in the country, they are the best in what they do or studied and are great assets to the continuous progress of the United states of America and their communities, we also note with dismay that in the US congress the African community is not represented on this issue by any caucus whatsoever, as there exists an Asian caucus and Hispanic caucus" the press released reads in parts.

The Nigerian group also said that America was not only built by the Asian and Hispanic immigrants alone but also by African Immigrants who have paid dearly for the current generation of Africans, stressing that the current US President is the son of an African Immigrant.

 
The statement also reads: "Hence, we call on the President and the US congress to work assiduously in constituting an African Immigrant caucus in the congress. This will give a voice to the voiceless and make this conversation a universal affair, and we wish to reiterate here that “justice is the first principle of immigration”.
 

NIDOA also called on all African immigrants to an immigration forum at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington DC on the 23rd of February, 2013 for a discussion on the United States Immigration Law.

"As we all work together in support of the US president on this issue and proposal, we should all bear in mind that together we can break any glass ceiling or doors mitigating our path to economic, social and political independence in the US. A divided and united community remains unknown, un-talked about, unseen and practically irrelevant in the scheme of things” now is our time and together we will take control of our combined destiny" it concluded.
 

It would be recalled that President Obama, Tuesday night, urged Congress to seize political momentum and act quickly on a comprehensive overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws that would include a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s estimated 11 million illegal immigrants.
 
“We can’t allow immigration reform to get bogged down in an endless debate,” Obama said in an address in Nevada, a state where Hispanic voters have shown their muscle. “We’ve been debating this for a long time.”

Obama has said his biggest first-term failure was not getting comprehensive immigration reform done, and the White House has since pushed the issue to the forefront of his second-term agenda.