c. 2004 Religion News Service

(Samuel K. Atchison is an ordained minister and has worked as a policy analyst and social worker to the homeless. He currently is a prison chaplain in Trenton, N.J., and a fellow of the George H. Gallup International Institute in Princeton, N.J.)

(UNDATED) A few days ago, I had a revealing conversation with a young friend of mine. A naturalized citizen from Guatemala, he fled to this country seven years ago in the wake of the rampant unemployment and violence that continued to afflict his native land after the conclusion of its 40-year civil war.

Today, he and his wife own a small restaurant in my community and are part of what Hispanic journalist and author Jorge Ramos calls the “Latinization” of our culture.

In the introduction to his book, “The Other Face of America,” written just after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, Ramos says despite the fact that the nation changed after the attacks, America is still viewed by most immigrants as “the country where human rights, opportunity and success are possibilities.”

Certainly this is how my young Guatemalan friend feels.

He said it was a desire to escape the violence associated with Guatemala’s civil war that impelled him to seek freedom in America. He was particularly affected by the brutal murders during his childhood of his uncle and 8-year-old cousin, at the hands of forces loyal to then-Guatemalan president Gen. Efrain Jose Rios Montt.

Typical of recent immigrants, he sought to get himself established before sending for the woman who would become his wife. Today, with their 4-year-old daughter in tow, they are part of a growing number of attractive, upwardly mobile Hispanic families who remain concerned about the loved ones they’ve left behind.

Like many of his fellow immigrants, my friend will vote in his first U.S. election on Nov. 2. Of particular concern, he said, are Bush administration policies that make it difficult for immigrants to reunite with their families in this country. Though he did not say so, I suspect he would agree with Jorge Ramos, who has for years campaigned for amnesty for undocumented workers.

What my friend did say, however, is that many Hispanics have become disaffected with President Bush and may become open to the entreaties of John Kerry as a result.

Yet, even as my friend and I were conversing, intelligence officials in the Bush administration were gathering information indicating the very real possibility of another al-Qaida attack on the nation’s financial institutions.

While it may be true that, as Ramos has argued, none of the al-Qaida suspects captured since Sept. 11 were undocumented Hispanic aliens, this latest threat once again evokes concerns that “the sum of all fears” may be upon us. As such, our immigration policy necessarily must be linked with our national security policy.

All of this suggests that the stakes are higher than usual this campaign season. Perhaps more than ever before, the candidates will have to make policy proposals that force Americans to face our new reality.

Unfortunately, no one is certain what that new reality is.

DEA/JL END ATCHISON