Over twenty years ago, I described the investor visa (EB-5) program to my boss at the time. Essentially, you get a green card if you invest a million dollars and show you’ve created or preserved 10 jobs. She heard this and wondered how this comported with the motto on the Statue of Liberty “Give me your poor...”. I went on to explain the arduous process most immigrants go through to get permanent residency (commonly called a green card).
I realized then that most Americans didn’t know much about our immigration process. Why would they? It is very different from when their families arrived here decades or centuries ago, and few immigrants talk about it. Incidentally, Trump has secured numerous foreign investors for his projects by dangling EB-5 immigrant visas as incentives. You could say his business is, in part, selling green cards.
Of course, our immigration system, like our country, has rarely been fair, or equal, or blind to race and privilege. The Naturalization Act of 1790, limited immigration to "free white persons of good character" (no Southern or Eastern Europeans need apply). The Chinese exclusion act of 1882 did exactly what it's name suggests. The National Origins Formula of 1921 sought to limit immigration from countries based on the existing ethnic makeup of the US. The Immigration act of 1924, was meant to stop immigration from Africa and southern/eastern Europe. It was also known (correctly) as the Asian Exclusion Act since it changed the basis for the ethnic determinations to the census of 1890. That skewed the quotas towards Northern Europe. Shamefully, we systematically denied American Indians the rights and privileges of US citizenship till the Snyder Act in 1924.
Most Americans are aware of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965 passed during the LBJ administration. These great laws cast aside the worst discrimination of Jim Crow. Fewer know that it took the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 to erase racial quotas from our immigration system.
Generations of progressive activists worked for decades, many putting their bodies on the line, to make 1965’s immigration reform happen. They did this because they believed in our country’s motto. E Pluribus Unum. Out of Many, One. And they knew we were not living up to that ideal, that creed, while we limited the definition of who could be counted among the many.
I owe my presence here those generations of progressive activists. I will not forget that.
The reforms were so successful that when the Republican candidates discussed undocumented immigrants in 1980, they went to great pains to be compassionate. George Bush called undocumented immigrants “a whole society of honorable, decent, family loving people”.
What it takes
I lived in the US for about 10 years before I was granted permanent residency, aka a “green card”. I first came to this country as a university student, largely because I thought it would be a good place to study. My family made immense sacrifices, but they were nothing like the circumstances facing many refugees we have heard of over the past two days.
When I graduated, I managed to find work and was on a H-1B for two years. I then left to work in Europe. I was then transferred back to the US and my employer (at my prodding) applied for permanent residency for me. I qualified for an “international executive” category that happened to enjoy exceptionally quick processing times back then.
I have friends for whom the process was far more arduous, who had to wait 8-10 years while their employer’s application made it’s way through the queue for immigrant visas. During that time, they were unable to switch jobs. Some lost partners who moved away when they couldn’t. Others had to put marriages on hold or curtail travel.
Once you have a green card, you have to wait for five years before you can apply to become a citizen. During that time, if you make a misstep you can be deported. Something as innocuous as smoking a joint can result in a felony charge. I’d heard too many horror stories about families being separated, so I made sure I became a citizen before I had children.
All in all, my experience was comparatively straightforward. But it took years to get a green card, and years again to become a US citizen. Most Americans are blissfully unaware of what it takes.
Of course, discrepancies still exist. If you are the married son/daughter of a US citizen and happen to be British, your parent can apply for an immigrant visa and you will receive a green card within a few months. That will entitle you to live here permanently and work wherever you wish. This is true if you are French, Argentine, Egyptian, or from any country except a handful.
If you are the married son/daughter of a US citizen and happen to be Indian or Chinese, your application will take over 10 years. If you’re Mexican it will take 22 years. If you’re Filipino, it will take 23 years. These discrepancies are due to a fixed cap on family-based immigration from every country, regardless of size.
They just want to vet people
I’ve got to laugh at this one. Refugees to the US undergo the most arduous “vetting” process you can imagine. It’s tougher than what I had to do, and my process involved multiple interviews, reviews of documentation, identity verification, reports from several law enforcement agencies, and physical examinations.
The “vetting” argument is a smokescreen. The real reason can be gleaned from this statement by now WH senior adviser Steve Bannon:
“When two-thirds or three-quarters of the CEOs in Silicon Valley are from South Asia or from Asia, I think… A country is more than an economy. We’re a civic society.” — HuffPo
Bannon and his allies don’t want any more immigrants who don’t look like them. They don’t like us.
I expect them to do their utmost to reduce legal immigration from non-European countries. They know the 1965 act is responsible for growing Hispanic, African and Asian immigration to the US. They know this is why the country’s demographics are changing. They probably don’t have the votes to reverse the 1965 immigration act, but they will try.
WHAT lady LIBERTY MEANS TO ME
I flew home from Canada today. We had spent much of the weekend reading the news of refugees, students, legal permanent residents being denied entry to the country.
I landed this morning at Newark in New Jersey. As we drove back from the airport, I looked out and saw this sight from the window.
I have been to Ellis island. I know the Statue of Liberty looks out onto the deep New York harbor. It sits at the mouth of the river we call the Hudson and our American Indian brothers and sisters call Muhheakunnetuk, the “river that flows two ways”.
Yet today, I noticed something I hadn’t seen before. As we drove past, I realized that Lady Liberty’s back is unprotected and exposed. And I wondered. Do we have her back?
Emma Lazarus’ stirring poem is inscribed on a plaque within the pedestal. Lazarus wrote it to raise money for the statue. Most of us know the last few words, but it is worth reading in its entirety. It is a reflection of who were are and aspire to be as a people:
The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
— Emma Lazarus
Those twin cities are New York and Brooklyn, air-bridged by the Brooklyn Bridge’s span. I have lived in, and love them both, and this Empire State too. I’ve driven across this country nine times, and back. I’ve visited 48 of our 50 states, with good memories in each. I’m saving Maine and Alaska for a special occasion.
And I will be damned if we let Lady Liberty down.
Lazarus calls her Mother of Exiles. And it is significant that this statue is a woman, from whose beacon-hand glows world-wide welcome. She has no conquering limbs. She speaks only of the suffering of the tired, the poor, the tempest-tossed. Tossed across the oceans that stretch in front of her by tempests mostly man-made.
She does not speak directly to us, those who are fortunate to be past the golden door. That lamp she lifts, is for those without. Yet, it is also for us. It is there to help us transcend our fears and remember the importance of that door.
That lamp isn’t meant to be dimmed when we are afraid. That beacon is meant to shine ever-bright.
We have not lived up to our ideals throughout our history. But this is no excuse to fall short again.
What I’m going to do
Chuck Schumer is my senator. I heard him say today that his middle name is Ellis, that he was named after his uncle Ellis, who arrived at Ellis Island. He named his daughter Emma, after Emma Lazarus. He said this fight is in his bones.
I believe him, but I can’t sit back.
I will call both my senators, and my representative, and I am going to tell them what Lady Liberty means to me. I’m going to remind them that we, here, stand behind her. I’ll ask them whether they have her back, and let them know I am supporting them if they do, and only if they do.
I ask you to do the same.