(Washington Insider Magazine) – In addition to the predictable desire for more security and economic stability, immigrants believe that Hispanics should “give more,” not just demand from the authorities. The desire for immigration reform is still alive when it says goodbye this year.
When any New Yorker residing in Hispanic-majority neighborhoods is asked about their New Year’s wishes, the answer seems all too predictable: But no!
Beyond the evident desire for changes in public policies that have a direct impact on reducing crime and inflation, or the general demand for more efficiency and security in vital services such as the Subway, many Hispanic immigrants are demanding that their peers “change of conduct and be better citizens.”
Wish For 2023
“The greatest wish that we can have for 2023, the people who only want to work honestly, is that our Hispanic communities change their mentality. We demand and demand, but unfortunately sometimes we are not up to it to improve things,” says Carla González, a 30-year-old Peruvian merchant living in Upper Manhattan.
Carla’s desire is expressed in the change of very simple attitudes: “It is not possible that it is precisely our neighborhoods that are the dirtiest, where people do not take out the garbage on time, where there are more scandals due to loud music. It is my wish that our Latino families be the example of citizenship”.
Another wish: Take care of your children!
As derived from many more serious opinion polls, in various population segments, it is no surprise that fear of crime is one of the clearest emotions when it comes to describing the desires of New Yorkers.
Indeed, 2022 closed with a distressing crime wave, with a Subway system with very violent incidents, and with sad incidents of bullets that hit innocent people, just for being in the wrong place.
However, even with this thorny chapter, for those who reside in the Big Apple, there are thousands of interpretations.
For example, Ecuadorian Cecilia Pazmiño, a Queens resident, also hopes that there will be a tougher hand with criminals. But she believes that the most important thing is that more responsibility arises for families in how they raise their children.
“When one sees the news, one is shocked that they are such young boys, even children who walk around with weapons. For this 2023 I beg Latino parents to monitor their children more. If we don’t improve as a community, there won’t be any police force,” said the immigrant.
However, in this sense, the Dominican Antonio Cabrera has a different desire: “We must change politicians who do not work. I have lived here for 58 years and I have no memories of a time with such useless leaders and politicians in general. The thugs end this year ruling this city.”
Feliz Ventaso, also an islander, cries out for there to be more love between people in general, because what he has felt is “that evil has multiplied.”
“We ask a lot of governments, we hope that a man will come to change everything. And that will never be so. It depends on how we change, from love, ”he asserted.
let us work
Also, in any tour of towns where the majority are Hispanic, there is a desire that can be reduced to four words: “That they let us work.”
The expression is a constant and common voice, within a high volume of immigrants dedicated to the informal economy or street vendors, who observed an increase in fines by City officials this year.
“There are no more licenses. What there is is more police taking us out. Hopefully there will be more compassion and heart in this 2023, so that they understand that we only want to work with dignity. And this is the only way,” said María Salazar, a Mexican who sells churros at a Subway station in Manhattan.
But, since everything has its polar opposite, in a city so populated and diverse, the Colombian businesswoman from Long Island City, Carmen Sarmiento, precisely wishes that in the coming months, the Mayor’s Office “put more order” to what she describes as as a “disorder” of street sales that “destroy” the entrepreneurs who create jobs.
“They are human beings, but imagine in a city like this, that there is no order and anyone who wants to put a car on the street is allowed to do so. Where will New York end up? In a disaster, ”she said.
The Immigrant Longing
At the end of 2022, millions of immigrants, who have even seen their children grow up here, have not found a way to legalize their immigration status either.
Specifically, beyond the extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for the citizens of some countries, there were no agreements in Congress to fulfill one of the greatest desires of 10 million undocumented immigrants: Comprehensive immigration reform.
“I don’t lose hope. I have been closing my eyes on December 31 for 15 years so that my papers will reach me in some way. And this year was no exception. My deepest wish is that there be justice for thousands of essential working families, who have been here for up to 30 and 40 years. And for them there is no relief,” said Virginia Campos, a 50-year-old from Puebla, a resident of Sunset Park in Brooklyn.
On the always hot “embers” of the immigration issue, in recent months the city of New York received shelters and set up hotels – shelters for more than 31,000 immigrants, 90% South American and Caribbean, who crossed the southern border with Mexico.
“A normal life”
The Venezuelan Clara Guillén, 28, was just one of them: “It is very hard to receive the year in a cold shelter for the first time away from your family. I only wish that I could rebuild my life here with work and get out of this place. Hopefully in 2023 many of us can have a more normal life, in a house, not in a hotel”.
In this sense, there are also other desires. Mexican Carmen Rivas, 58, a community activist from Sunset Park, not only hopes, “but also demands” that if there are changes in immigration matters, she will give priority to a specific group.
“We look forward to seeing a light of hope in 2023 for undocumented families. Logic says that those of us who have been here for decades and have exemplary conduct, have paid taxes, should be the priority. It is not fair that newcomers, who are also paying everything from taxpayers, are at the top of the list, to receive benefits such as work permits,” he concluded.
This article is written by Fernando Martinez.