Speech #960248256

The needs of both groups are strikingly similar* protection from discriminatory practices. better educational and employment opportunities. improved housing and healthcare services. Since both groups disproportionately shoulder the hardships imposed by cutbacks in domestic spending. the arguments for black and Hispanic cooperation are compelling. However. there is one issue that has the potential to bedevil relations between the two minorities: immigration and undocumented aliens. For example. it is clear that blacks frustrations in Miami were aggravated by -the recent surge in Cuban refugees. What can blacks and people of Hispanic background do to lessen the possibility of conflicts on this issue? The Hispanic community is sympathetic to the influx of undocumented workers. most of whom come from Spanishspeaking America. but many blacks fear that this influx of undocumented Hispanic woikers undermines their already precarious economic position. While studies need to be completed before it is possible to state categorically what the impact of the undocumented workers actually is. Hispanics have to be particularly sensitive about how blacks perceive the issue. Hispanics have to realize that the Haitian refugees in southern Florida are being discriminated against. We cannot allow the Federal Government to accept the new wave of Cuban refugees with one hand while deporting the Haitians already here with the other. Hispanics have to work closely with blacks to see that the Haitians are accorded the same treatment as the Cubans. Hispanics and blacks also should begin to attack the fundamental causes of the illegal immigration into the United States: the extreme poverty of many of the nations rimming the Caribbean basin. If the United States does not substantially increase its effort to promote economic development and family planning in these countries. the pressures propelling emigration will become even more enormous. In particular. Hispanic leaders can play a vital role in facilitating an agreement between the United States and Mexico that would establish a more realistic and mutually satisfactory regulation of the influx of Mexicans. Hispanics have to begin working to establish a new consensus on immigration policy. We have to come to terms with the prospect that we may have to moderate our present laissezfaire attitude toward undocumented workers or run the risk of jeopardizing the prospects of close ties with the black community. Hispanics cannot afford to lose the good will of blacks. for only by joining forces will blacks and Hispanics ever have the power to reorient this countrys national priorities so that they adequately reflect the needsof minorities. If black and Hispanic leaders do not act on the premise that they are natural allies. they will condemn their respective communities to fight over this nations crumbs.