On Wednesday, February 8, I had the privilege of attending the annual meeting of the Hispanic Alliance in Greenville, SC. The title I have given this article could be misleading, since the Hispanic Alliance is, by its own description, non-political . I saw nothing at the meeting to contradict that description, so my point is not that the Hispanic Alliance takes political positions: my point is that government policy has implications for the work that people involved in social services have to do.
The Hispanic Alliance's mission is to "to enrich the quality of life in our community" through cooperation "among service providers, the Hispanic members of our community, and the community at large." According to statistics from the Hispanic Alliance, nearly half (43%) of the 42,000 Latinos in Greenville County are foreign-born. Of these, the vast majority (76%) are not naturalized citizens. Thus, a significant amount of the Hispanic Alliance's work is with immigrants.
The Hispanic Alliance connects Hispanic and Latino people with service providers in four key areas: education, financial stability, health, and legal services. Each of these areas has a community team assigned to it, and the main part of the meeting was the reports of these teams. The teams look for ways to build partnerships in the community and to collaborate with each other on projects. Each team has aspects of its work that deal specifically with the needs of immigrants.
The Hispanic Alliance has a key role to play in helping with the naturalization process. If my memory serves me right, the legal services team reported that the Alliance helped 26 people become citizens this year. The processes involved in immigration and naturalization can be daunting and confusing, and the Hispanic Alliance helps people make sense of these processes and connect them with the services they need to get through them.
Though the speakers did not advocate any government policies or political action, several expressed disappointment and concern with the rhetoric and actions of the current administration. They portrayed the situation for immigrants as increasingly challenging and constantly changing. The presenters gave insight into the personal impact on immigrants of policies and actions by the outgoing and incoming administrations that have been politically controversial. This impact is a major factor in determining the needs that social and government workers must address.
In addition to the aid it provides legal immigrants, the Hispanic Alliance has projects designed to engage and serve illegal immigrants and their children. Some of the presenters used the politically correct term "undocumented immigrants", and some called them "illegal immigrants." The future of DACA and what it would mean for those who were brought into the country illegally as children was a subject of much discussion at the annual meeting. The presenters also outlined the responses that the Hispanic Alliance has made to the bullying of children of illegal aliens. (This is a special problem for these families, because they often do not feel free to report bullying when it takes place.)
I have been learning a lot about the situation of illegal immigrants outside of the meeting, so I want to cover that further in a separate post or two. I think I can sum up the situation, though, by saying that illegal immigrant families have humanitarian needs that should concern the whole community. It is not necessary to support a path to citizenship or other long-term concessions to illegal immigrants for us to see their humanity and have compassion on them in their need. It is also not necessary to incentivize illegal immigration or to relax immigration enforcement for us to recognize and address the problems that arise from the lack of opportunities or services and from the enforcement of immigration law.
It is the responsibility of the government to consider the impact of its actions on the vulnerable, but the government is not always in the best position to help those who do not enjoy the full protection of the law. That is why the work of organizations and groups like the Hispanic Alliance is so important. A major event that contributed to the development of the Alliance as an organization was an immigration raid in Greenville in 2008. Children were separated from their parents, and parents were temporarily released to their homes but unable to financially support their children. This disruption would have destroyed lives if it were not for the help and support from the local community. This is just one example of the difference that private individuals and organizations can make.
In closing, I want to say that I enjoyed the meeting very much. The gathering of staff members, administrators, volunteers, and partners was very diverse and vibrant. Some of the backgrounds represented surprised me: for instance, I sat next to a very friendly lady from Saudi Arabia who seems to be very active in the Hispanic Alliance. The network of organizations and agencies involved with the Alliance is very impressive, and I was glad I was able to learn more about it. I have started following up and will continue to follow up on the connections that I made.
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