The Plight of Italy's Romany - my letter to Obama

The Washington Post reports on persecution in Italy in today's issue. This prompted me to write the President. My letter is below:

I write this as a Roma Sinti American regarding the plight of my people in France and Italy at the hands of local and national government.

I ask that you officially protest what is essentially a baldly racist policy, as demonstrated by the remarks of Milanese Vice Mayor Riccardo De Corato, as reported in today's Washington Post. He is only echoing the remarks of his prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, who is no friend of the Romani people.

My people sufferred much under the Holocaust. Indeed, most surviving Sinti - the nationally German Romany - are likely assimilated American citizens. We still, however, feel for our Abruzzesi brothers and sisters, as well as refugees from other European states who fled to Italy under persecution and whose needs as refugees have not been met.

The treatment of the Romany in Europe is the great unreported civil rights story in the West. Please use the power of your office to address our plight, including changing any residual anti-Romany immigration policies still on our books and offering asylum.

Thank you for addressing this issue.