After 30 years of Policy, Professor Calls for Differentiation on Immigration

Photo Courtesy of the African American Studies Program at Boston University

By Williette Nyanue
BOSTON- Dr. Linda Heywood, director of the African American Studies Program at Boston University, has seen nearly 30 years of changing U.S. immigration policy, and though she sees justification for some of the changes, she noted where the government needs to make changes.

Heywood, an immigrant from Trinidad in the British West Indies with skin true to the color of a brown Crayola® crayon, short, sandy-brown hair, and big, thin-rimmed glasses, remembered a time when it was relatively easy to enter the U.S.

“I had family in England and Trinidad who used to come to the U.S. on holidays just to do their shopping,” she stated, seated behind her desk full of books, articles and legal pads half-full with scribble.

She said her own immigration to America was also relatively easy. She followed the example of her aunt, brother and sister, who immigrated to the U.S. in the late 60s to work.

In the summer of 1969, during a six-week period, she visited the U.S. for the first time on a temporary visitors visa to visit prospective colleges. She eventually chose to attend Brooklyn College.

In a very noticeable accent, she said her choice of Brooklyn College was an easy one partly because she had many relatives who had lived in New York since the 1920s.

Trinidad’s strong connection to the U.S. also influenced Heywood to make the migration.



Photo Courtesy of Google Images Edited by Williette Nyanue

“My family from New York would come down to Trinidad in the summers so I always knew what was going on in America,” Heywood said. “I had been getting Martin Luther King’s messages regarding civil rights, all the speeches, everything. When Kennedy died, I was in high school, and we all cried. It was like we were part of the American transformation.”

She cited the large British West Indian population in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights area, resulting from an increase in Caribbean migration to the U.S., as added help in adjusting to life in New York.

According to Heywood, eventually changing her visiting visa to a student status was relatively easy and cheap, once she was actually was accepted to Brooklyn College.

Though immigration policy was lax in the 60s, “now, because of September 11, there is stricter approach to immigration,” says Heywood, who became a citizen in the 80s, after her marriage to a U.S. citizen, Dr. John Thornton.

Heywood, who frequents Brazil for her work on the African diaspora, noted the differences between U.S. and Brazilian immigration policy.

“At Brazilian airports, you’re not subject to the tight security, and you don’t get the sense that people are looking at you with suspicion.” In America, “no matter what type of immigration status you have, you have to deal with a bureaucracy,” said Heywood, pronouncing almost every syllable of each word.

Heywood said that though she does see the need for stricter immigration policy, citing the criminality that accompanies immigration due to poverty and illegal status, she does not agree with the stigma associated with immigrants, or the harsh treatment some wish to impose on illegal immigrants.

“There definitely needs to be border control, but it has to be done in a way that you don’t criminalize everyone who is an immigrant,” said Heywood,

“But in terms of human rights, we shouldn’t jail people just because they’re here illegally,” Heywood said. “These people are just working. I’ve met people coming up from the Caribbean who are temporary workers and go to work during seasonally. Why can’t we have that type of policy?”

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