Caribbean teachers who came to New York City a decade ago, from Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and other island-nations, to help end a dire shortage of classroom professionals, are now facing a nightmare of their own: a possible loss of their jobs and eventual deportation.
But a U.S. Congresswoman from Brooklyn, Yvette Clarke, the daughter of Caribbean immigrant parents, is vowing to help find an amicable Federal and City solution to the crisis confronting the West Indians.
"We have made a commitment to work closely together and I have already reached out to the Obama Administration, requesting their support with the Department of Homeland Security to sort out and sort through all of the challenges the teachers are facing," Clarke said after a meeting between representatives of the teachers, [now former] Schools Chancellor Kathy Black and other senior top officials of the Department of Education; Deputy Mayor for Education Denis Walcott; the Black Institute led by Bertha Lewis, and International Association of Education (IAE) led by Judith Hall.
"We believe the (City's) Department of Education dropped the ball in many respects, did not foresee all of the challenges the teachers would face in trying to acquire permanent residence" using the visas which first gave them entry into the United States in 2001, Clarke asserted. "That was acknowledged at our meeting."
Hundreds of teachers, most of them from Jamaica but scores from Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, were recruited from the Caribbean to fill vacancies in classrooms in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan at the turn of the century, when thousands of experienced teachers were either retiring or going after higher paying classroom jobs in the suburbs and elsewhere.
Initially, the City turned to Europe for teachers, but strong representation was made to City Hall to expand the recruitment effort to the Caribbean so that well-trained Black teachers from the Caribbean could fill the much sought after positions and to teach students of color.
Now, with the City threatening to lay-off as many as 6,000 teachers because of a billion-dollar budget deficit, the West Indians are complaining that the promises of high-pay, increased higher educational opportunities, adequate housing and a pathway to a green card and eventual American citizenship were really never fulfilled.
Even worst, they fear that a loss of teaching jobs would deprive them of their immigration visas, a step that would lead to deportation to their respective homelands.
"We have been classified as unskilled workers and are being treated as indentured servants," said Judith Hall of the IEA, which is representing the teachers. "How is this possible when we were chosen because we were the best and the brightest of our countries had to offer? This is an egregious situation, and we are demanding redress from the City, State and (U.S.) federal and international levels.
Clarke, who represents the historic 11th Congressional District in Brooklyn where many of the West Indiana teachers worked or lived, said it was clear the Department of Education, which recruited the professionals, "had responsibility to end the nightmare they were now facing."
"The Department of Education really owes it to all of the teachers they brought here (from the Caribbean) to step up as their (immigration) sponsor and work with the federal government to expedite their processing," was the way that Congresswoman put it during the interview on WWRL-Radio. "My role is really to work with the federal government to expedite the pathway to (permanent) residency."
She complained that a serious mistake was made when the teachers were brought to the United States on a visa which was designed for unskilled workers and therefore "did not really fit the work profile that they were serving in."
In the meeting with the congresswoman, the Department of Education contended that the visas were provided because of "the different circumstances" of the teachers' education and certification to work in the public school system, meaning it was the fastest way to get them into the country and the classroom.
"The first thing we want is to have these teachers' status changes to skilled professional," said Lewis, who once lead ACORN, a national community organization that was disbanded after it was targeted by conservative groups, which accused it of engaging in unprofessional activities in poor neighborhoods across the United States.
As she sees it, the West Indians were used and abused by the system.
Reasons abound for the need to change their immigration status and the visas they hold, say advocates for the teachers. For one thing, the teachers, who have at least a bachelor's degree while others earned master's degrees, are considered "unskilled" workers.
For another, the spouses of the West Indians, who came to the country as a family, were denied permission to work while their children were ineligible for scholarships, all because of their immigration status.
Third, the European teachers who came around the same time were treated much better and therefore didn't encounter the nightmare the West Indians are now trying to end.
At the heart of the controversy is the J-1and E-B3 visas set aside for exchange visitors who can work for two years and which were given to West Indians.
The problem is that their visas status should have been switched to the much sought-after H-1 B visa, which would have enabled the teachers' families to remain in the country and gain residency.
But herein lies the rub.
"With the H1- B visa there is a requirement that the parent nation of the teachers sign off on the departure of the individuals who would have been utilizing those visas," explained Clarke.
In essence, the Department of Education used a short-cut to get the teachers into the country and, to use the vernacular, it has now come back bite both the classroom professionals and the system itself.
But there is another difficulty.
A Department of Education official, who requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak on the issue, said that many of the teachers were sent to the City's worst performing schools and ended up with an "unsatisfactory" rating from principals, instead of the desired "satisfactory" or "S" grade and were therefore ineligible to move up in the system. "For one reason or another, some of them received the "U" grade while others were given an "S" and it has made life difficult for the former," he said. "In many cases the 'U' grade wasn't deserved. It was the circumstances in which the teachers found themselves and negative attitudes of principles to them. The truth is that no one in the Department wants to touch the issue."
In a statement after the meeting, the congresswoman said that the Bloomberg Administration was keen to work with her to address the problems created by the teacher's immigration status.
The New York City Department of Education has acknowledged that vulnerabilities and complexities were created by the teachers EB-3 visas.
Clark insisted that the teachers and their families didn't create the problem with which they were now confronted but placed the blame on the immigration system and "the various visa classifications they were given by the Department of Education, their employer."
"I am pleased that the Bloomberg Administration has expressed willingness to work with me and my office," to solve the problem, she said.
