History will repeat itself again when Congress returns from recess to resume work on the immigration issue. Every decade since 1986, immigrant communities have forced themselves into the political limelight and have been able to get an immigration bill that legalizes millions of them.

This current debate is taking place amidst the greatest protest march ever staged by immigrants and their friends in California. While no immigration bill has yet emerged in Congress, one thing is certain: The House bill that criminalizes illegal immigrants is all but dead.

Here in Miami, a different question is being asked. Why did Miami officials wait so long to send 3,000 folks into the streets? In asking this question, there is no question that the response, or a large part of the response, could be found inside the Haitian community.

Early answers point to the Cuban community’s lack of interest in joining forces with other immigrant communities or the apathy that is felt in other communities, none faring as bad as the Haitian component of the immigrant bloc.

A better explanation can be found in the way the immigration struggle has been waged by Haitian leadership in the context of profound political changes in Haiti since 1986. The failure of the current leadership to stir the Haitian community to action may also be due to past successes on immigration matters.

This is a much more complex community with new layers of leadership that also bring about more problems. The interminable squabbling among the leadership has lessened its potency to speak in one voice. That has left thousands to take early political retirement.

To be fair to the current leadership on immigration, this community is no longer an immigrant community. After more than 30 years of community-building and two successful immigration bills (one in the 1980s and the other in the 1990s), which legalized tens of thousands of Haitians, Haitians in Miami have found their social niche – in Miami, in Broward, not in Haiti. They are American; their sons and daughters are also American. Hence, the apathy to bring folks to protest on behalf of the newcomers.

Haiti is no longer the same. Since 1991, excluding the three years of the coup, Haiti has been governed by folks who were supposed to change the social conditions of the people and govern based on the rule of law. That has drastically changed the way the immigration struggles have been waged by the current leadership.

Before 1986, the immigration struggle inside the Haitian community was politics-driven. Weekly meetings never ended without a call to Washington to grant us green cards. It was always “Down with Duvalier and the United States,” “ Stop Supporting Duvalier.” The fight for a green card was always secondary to the fight for a better Haiti.

Furthermore, there was a culture of resistance from which new and old immigrants could get renewed strength to carry the struggle. Folks were learning every week: political meetings, cultural events, and protests crowded the calendars of hundreds in the community.

Last but not least, New York provided strong leadership through Father Antoine Adrien’s Haitian Fathers.

Aside from the fact that the leadership post-1994 is of lesser quality, the biggest problem is the fact that the immigration struggle has been sadly reduced to one of getting one’s immigration status without the political overtones. Said differently, the leadership avoided all of the political issues that had to do with Haiti.

It’s clear that after Aristide took power in 2001 some of the newest refugees may have left Haiti because of the political repression initiated by the Lavalas terror machine. The leadership on the immigration struggle was on silent mode throughout Aristide’s three years in power. That stance alienated hundreds in the community.

The irony was too clear not to see: At a time when the community had lots of resources (24-hour radio, daily television, and means of transportation) to either get the message out or get to a picket line, the community increasingly stayed home to take care of more pressing domestic issues.

So when hundreds of thousands of Mexicans marched across America to force Congress to legalize their immigration status, it was sad to see that our community was visibly absent in one of the few protest marches organized in Miami-Dade. They want Mexicans to do the job for them.

Whatever happens next weekend when the community is called to walk through the streets of Little Haiti, that won’t change this: All eyes will be fixed on California to see what Mexicans do when Congress is back on Capitol Hill to once again take up the issue of immigration.

No one knows how it will play out. It will surely be a pretty sight to see: students, farm-workers, and political activists sweating with dozens of flags towering above them. Decency will again carry the day.