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friend,
Cynthia Frage’s entire childhood in West Palm Beach, Florida, was defined by the fact that her father, a Haitian immigrant who came to the U.S. at the age of 19, was unable to obtain citizenship.
He could not get a green card that would allow him to work legally, even after steadily trying for more than two decades. Not even his 1997 marriage to Frage’s mother, a permanent U.S. resident who came from Haiti at 14, made a difference.
Forced to live in the shadows under fear of being arrested and deported, her father could not find steady, safe work in South Florida. When Frage was in third through fifth grades, her father lived and worked in Jacksonville – separated from the family.
“We went to see him every spring break,” said Frage, one of six children. “We knew a lot about why he was away – that it was about work and his green card status. My parents are open about things, but it really affected my family. My mom was always stressed. She’s a nurse and had two jobs then. We would go to school, then aftercare, then a cousin would pick us up and take us to his home until my mother got home at 8 p.m. I don’t know how she did it.”
Now 20 and a broadcast journalism major at Florida A&M University, Frage is working for change from the ground up as the Tallahassee civic engagement organizer for Florida Student Power.
The nonprofit, nonpartisan organization is among 68 voter outreach groups across the Deep South that are receiving a total of more than $20 million in funding from the Southern Poverty Law Center as part of the new round of Vote Your Voice grants announced in October.
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In solidarity,
Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center
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