Washington, DC – Below is a column by Maribel Hastings from America’s Voice en Español translated to English from Spanish. It ran in several Spanish-language media outlets earlier this week:
The terror and dislocation of the Donald Trump administration’s raids and deportations also affect the immigrant community in Puerto Rico, particularly the sizable Dominican population that has made this other island their home. That’s the case for Pedro, a construction worker whose life and that of his friends and family have been turned upside-down since Trump initiated his indiscriminate operations.
But Pedro is very sure about one thing: “Being in a country without documents doesn’t turn you into a criminal.” Nor an “enemy alien,” as defined by the 1798 law of the same name that Trump has invoked to deport immigrants. The war-time law allows the detention, relocation, or deportation of nationals of countries who are enemies of the United States, for national security reasons.
The Puerto Rico archipelago, a U.S. territory since 1898, is another border where immigrants of diverse nationalities cohabit with Puerto Ricans and are an intrinsic part of our society, families, economy, culture, and daily life. There are some 60,000 Dominicans, there are Cubans, Haitians, Colombians, Mexicans, Venezuelans, Argentinians, Chinese, Vietnamese, and the list goes on. In 2020, 8% of the population of Puerto Rico was born abroad. Of them, 92% were born in Latin America, 4% in Europe, 3% in Asian countries, 0.2% in North America, and 0.1% in Africa and Oceania.
Not all have their documents in order. In Puerto Rico, the level of discrimination and racism may be less than in the United States, but it exists without a doubt.
Dominicans are the largest group of foreign-born people in Puerto Rico. The ties of friendship, family, and history between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic run deep. Dominicans are represented in the labor force at all levels, from professionals and academics to farm workers, carers for children and older people, restaurant and hotel employees, or in construction, like Pedro. We are not using his real name because he is in the process of adjusting his immigration situation.
At 27 years old, this young Dominican arrived in Puerto Rico three years and two months ago.
Pedro resides in western Puerto Rico, to which the fear and uncertainty of Trump’s operations extend, though the urban centers of the capital San Juan, where the bulk of the Dominican community resides, is where ICE agents are looking for “criminals.”
“You trust in God and take precautionary measures, like avoiding crowds or going to places where there are a lot of Dominicans. I have relatives and friends who help me so that I don’t have to go out to buy food, for example. But my brother and my cousin in San Juan are trapped, paralyzed,” Pedro said.
“They can’t go out, they can’t work. Because ICE is supposedly looking for criminals, but if you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time and you don’t have papers, they are also going to take you,” he indicated.
“But we’re working. Not stealing. I think the government should look for some way to regularize our labor force and give us work permits, even if it is short-term, but something that gives us tranquility and security because we are contributing to the economy. But this situation means that one can’t work or can’t earn what they were before, out of fear of being arrested,” he said.
This affects the economy because if you don’t have money, you don’t spend it. “If there is work, the dollar is moving, it’s circulating because I’m spending. I go to the supermarket, to the bakery,” he added. And also their families in their countries are suffering, upon no longer receiving the economic support that they need.
“My mother has breast cancer. They already removed both breasts. God has given me the gift of being able to come here to Puerto Rico and help her with the cost of her treatments, but now I work less out of fear, and I cannot contribute like before,” Pedro added.
“I want them to keep this in mind. We have families that depend on us. Do something for the immigrant who benefits this country with his work,” Pedro concluded, recalling the role that Dominican immigrants played in the reconstruction of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria passed through the Island in 2017.
The “Visa para un Sueño” (“Visa for a Dream”) that Dominican musician Juan Luis Guerra describes in a song continues to be out of reach. But Pedro is very clear that even if they are deported, many Dominicans like him will continue to risk everything, even their lives, to return and help their families working at the other border, which is Puerto Rico.
The original Spanish version is here
