In rejecting the undocumented, Florida targets the people who make our state stronger | Opinion

My days as an undocumented kid seem like they were a lifetime ago. My life has changed for the better. I went from being scared and unable to travel to Colombia to bury my loving grandfather because my family was too broke and undocumented, to a proud American citizen who served as a senior advisor to the U.S. Senate’s majority leader and became a successful small-business owner.

I made the American Dream mine.

Still, this state and this community have changed for the worse, persecuting people who came to this country to work and contribute to society, much like I did.

Gone are the days when Mrs. Ruiz taught me to dream beyond the limits of my legal status and fulfill my potential. Once, Jeanette Nuñez, then in the Florida Legislature, shepherded a bill to help students like me — DREAMers — bridge the undocumented gap so they could fully contribute to the economy, our neighborhoods and our businesses. It was signed into law by then-Gov. Rick Scott.

But today, as lieutenant governor, Nuñez is doing a shameful about-face with her support of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ plan to take away in-state tuition from the DREAMers, as if education were a zero-sum game.

Gone are the days when people like Gene and Pedro not only gave me jobs so I could save for an education, they also helped me financially when I went to Gainesville without any aid or scholarships. Today, we have a governor who has made it his life’s calling to target people like Pedro and Gene for “harboring” undocumented immigrants. With his bill to criminalize pastors, attorneys, immigrant advocates and business owners for extending their hands to people like me, DeSantis is going after those who follow the Bible’s calling to love the stranger as you love oneself.

Under bills HB 1617 and SB 1718, anyone sheltering, hiring or transporting undocumented immigrants would face felony charges and, among other things, would require hospitals to ask patients for immigration status. A separate DeSantis proposal would eliminate DREAMers’ in-state tuition.

“Oh, but you didn’t come the ‘right way,’ “ the argument goes. First, when Mary and Joseph fled infanticide and sought refuge in Egypt, I’m sure they didn’t apply for a visa. There is no front door for most immigrants because you must have a spouse or close relative who sponsors you or have a special skill, like being a pop singer or a model.

Second, one of the major reasons we are fighting inflation is because there simply aren’t enough workers for all available jobs. Florida itself has a ridiculously low unemployment rate of 2.5%, yet the governor and Nuñez want to kick out all those who pick our crops, build our homes and work in our hotels.

What’s even more disappointing is that so many people in this community, who once crossed this country’s welcome mat, want to kick the ladder they once climbed out from under other immigrants. They support the governor’s anti-immigrant policies. I hear them calling into the radio. Even people who once were dear friends of mine in Hispanic-majority Hialeah-Miami Lakes High School, support the crackdown. It breaks my heart to think they would have turned me in for sure deportation.

Yes, it seems like a lifetime ago when many in this community saw me for much more than the visa or the passport I lacked. They saw me as the José who surfed, the José who did well in social studies class, the José who ran cross country, the José who loved freestyle dance music. I stand on the shoulders of Mrs. Ruiz, Pedro, and Gene yet many in this community would target people like them for helping me succeed.

Wake up, Miami. We, a city of immigrants, are cannibalizing ourselves. Today it’s undocumented immigrants. Tomorrow, they will come for those of you who did it the “right way” because it was never about correctness. It’s about otherness. As history teaches us, it always works.

José Dante Parra heads the communications firm Prospero Latino. He is a former South Florida reporter and a senior advisor to former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.