Reflection on "Day Without Immigrants"

fred@fredjean.net (Frederic Jean) — Tue, 02 May 2006 04:52:40 +0000

It is interesting to see how the news coverage spun the different rallies today. For some reason, the fact that the target of immigration reform is illegal immigration is hardly mentioned. People who were called illegal immigrants only a few weeks ago are now simply called immigrants. There were even shots of people holding signs stating that they were not criminals. How can people who have broken immigration laws claim that they are not criminals?

I am now a Legal Permanent Resident. I have a "green card" (It's not really green, but that's a whole different story). I earned the privilege of living and working in the US by following the immigration laws and processes, filling forms, getting fingerprinted, paying fees and waiting. It took a few months, but I was then able to adjust my status after being a legal H1-B guest worker for many years (one might almost say an indentured servant to a large corporation...) and a TN-1 worker before that. Even earlier, I came here as a student on a student visa. All along, I was careful to remain in status and within the bounds of my visa.

Now, Mollie and I are working with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services in order to adopt a little Chinese girl that we will call Sophia. Again, great care is taken to follow the immigration laws and make sure that she will be welcomed to the US as a US citizen. It is actually likely that she will be a citizen well before I am. We are now anxiously waiting for a document called the I-171-H, which gives us permission to bring Sophia back to the US.

I can certainly understand people's desire to live and work here. This is a great country, and it is the country that I chose to remain in. But I must insist that people coming here go through the same process and regulations that I had to go through and follow the same rules that I had and still have to follow. Not that they are perfect, or simple or even fair. But these are the laws of the land, and these are the rules that you have to follow if you are to live and work here.

After all, it's only fair to me, and it's only fair to Sophia.

Out of my mind...: Reflection on "Day Without Immigrants"

Reflection on "Day Without Immigrants"