My First Flight, Part II

I wrote recently whether I would get on that Delta flight again as I did in 1978 to come to America, knowing what I know today. And my answer shocked many.

Unless you have left everything behind that you loved and knew, it would be hard for most people to understand the fundamental transformation that a person has to undergo in order to survive well in this country and become an American citizen.

The immigrants to America in those times were legal and had to undergo rigorous scrutiny by American authorities and by medical authorities in order to be allowed into the country. The immigrant had to prove that he/she had the means to support themselves or be supported by a spouse. The government did not want to support any immigrants with welfare.

As the plane from JFK landed in the middle of pastures, at a nowhere southern airport in the dark, and as we drove from that tiny airport another 45 minutes with nothing but fields, cows, and the occasional deer on both sides of the deserted country roads, I felt a sinking feeling of despair and grave loss. What have I done?

I started questioning immediately the sanity of my decision to leave my country which is what most human beings would do. I was hungry, thirsty, and I had a pit in my stomach the size of a rock. I just wanted to get back on that plane and fly back to my hometown, to my parents, to my friends, to everything I knew well.

I spoke British English which I learned in school, and the southern accent and idiomatic expressions I did not know threw me for a loop constantly until I learned the meanings of southern American English.

People ate strange and different foods, and got angry with me if I declined to consume their meals. Many were shocked and insulted when I refused abruptly certain generous offers as the cultural differences and values came into play. Nobody understood my culture, where I came from, what I spoke, where my country was on the map, and I did not understand their values and southern culture. Nobody was willing to allow me plenty of time to learn and adjust.

The fact that Europeans are blunt in their answers did not go well with the very diplomatic southerners who often hide their true meanings and feelings with sugar-coated phrases. Like the Germans say, if you are not prepared to hear the honest answer, do not ask Germans how they feel.

Trying to be American in a country where I was a foreigner at best to the locals and a permanent resident alien to the government, was very hard. And I was homesick every day, crying in a room away from prying eyes and ears.

I was told by in-laws that my marriage to their son in the Orthodox Church did not count, I needed to marry again in the Baptist Church otherwise our children would be bastards.

My dad had spent thousands to dollars on our very lavish wedding after the official marriage in St. John’s Cathedral in my hometown, marriage performed by four priests, and my new ‘relatives’ thought it necessary that we re-marry here. The in-laws contributed nothing to the wedding and it took my daddy years to save the kind of money he spent on our wedding.

The adjustment to being stuck in the country, ten miles away from a tiny town, population 3,000, no means of transportation, no public transportation, no ability to drive on my part, no money, no job, further exacerbated my adaptation misery and struggle. I would have gone back, had I had the money and the means to do so.

The ranch house was about a tenth of a mile from the gate and the road and from there the closest store was about a mile on a gravel road at the intersection with a paved highway. This store carried necessities such as milk, bananas, ice cream, flour, sugar, etc. But I had no money.

My parents never called because international calls were very expensive for them and I could not call either because I did not have money and I lived in my in-laws’ house.

International calls in 1978 were about $10 for three minutes after 7 p.m. and, after placing an order for the call with the operator, I had to wait 24 hours to be connected. When the operator did connect, she would call me and tell me that she has my Romanian party on the line and I could talk. The calls often sounded garbled as if they were coming from the bottom of the ocean. Little did I know that the telephone cables back then did run at the bottom of the Atlantic.

So most of my connecting with my parents was through letters which took weeks to arrive. Did I tell them the truth of my situation? Of course not, I was too proud to admit that I was in an awful situation by my own making, everything my father had brought into question about my future husband and the rich in-laws had turned out miserably true.

A couple of ladies who befriended me at church drove me a few times into the small town nearby and one of them gave me a gift I will never forget, a $20 pair of Wrangler jeans. I never forgot Gayle’s generosity. I had no money so $20 was a fortune to me. The minimum wage then was $3.10 an hour.

I eventually earned my driver’s license and was able to drive to town to a minimum wage job. I was the most educated in that office and the lowest paid. I did not mind because my monthly salary was so much bigger than anything that I could have earned in Romania. And I was completely broke without this job.

Four years later I became an American citizen, but, to do so, I had to give up my Romanian documents, I was not allowed to have double citizenship.

To say that I have lost my roots over the years, would be an understatement. I have longed and still do for the wonderful places and customs I grew up with.

I hated communism, and escaping it, and the sacrifices I made to be here, was the freedom which I gifted to my children. Do they appreciate that? I don’t think so because they have never set foot in Romania as adults. If they had done so, they would not have been able to understand what I escaped from because the communist dictatorship had been long gone, following the 1989 Revolution.

Through me, my mom was able to get freedom as well and she escaped communism two years later. Unfortunately, they did not allow my dad to leave and he died under the communist boot and regular beatings.

One of my adult children told me recently that I benefited all my life of “white privilege,” repeating the leftist construct she had been indoctrinated with. If she had only seen what I had experienced in order to become an American citizen by choice, and what parts of my soul and mind I had to give up in order to survive in a foreign land, surrounded by foreign people, foreign customs, foreign food, foreign religions, no friends, and hostile in-laws, she might have understood. Telling someone about pain and suffering endured is not the same as experiencing it.

As the years passed, the country where I found relative freedom, pursued higher education, had children, bought a home, started changing more and more in the direction of Marxism. A large number of American citizens started praising socialism and communism and pursued the destruction of capitalism, the very capitalism which gave them a good life, better than any other country in the world.

In light of political developments in the last fifteen years, the rest of my life in America will be spent under a combination of global Marxism and corporate fascism, not a good prospect for anybody.

Would I get on that Delta flight again to come to the U.S.A. for freedom, to escape communism? Had I known that I would have to spend my golden years under Marxist/corporatist tyranny in America, my answer would be no. However, I would have missed the love of my life to whom I am still married today.

 

 

                                                       

Legal Immigrants Who Assimilate Are Always Welcome in America

The song goes, “in America the streets are paved with gold,” figuratively of course, a constant magnet for millions of economically starved people from around the world who recognize the easy life they can have in America at the expense of the hapless American taxpayers who are forced to share their wealth with the flotsam and jetsam of the third world who have nothing to contribute to our society but are drawn by the intense economic need of poverty and want. They are truly convinced that money grows on trees. And the Treasury is busy printing more money to cover America’s ever expanding trillion dollars of national debt.

We support countries with foreign aid we should never give a dime to. They overtly bite our hands that feed them. They are our enemies, the enemies of Christianity, of America, and of freedom.

Every time I write an article, I have a regular following of leftist trolls who are paid to write insulting commentaries in which they ridicule everything about me and about my LEGAL immigration status. They are paid useful idiots trolls by Democrat interests who promote the "tyranny of the oppressed," potential Democrat voters who come here illegally, thumbing their noses at our laws and calling Americans who oppose such illegal immigration fascists and racists.

One angry individual who knows that I am a naturalized American citizen, when he found out my political stance against communism, injected vitriol invectives in his wish that President Trump would deport me from the incipient communist America.

The most recent ad hominem attack referred to the fact that I immigrated LEGALLY so he accused me of wanting to shut the door for everybody else. That is certainly not my opinion. However, should we close the door to all immigrants?

Yes, we should bolt the door to all ILLEGAL immigrants who have not been vetted. They endanger our lives every day in so many ways: resurgence of formerly eradicated diseases, gangs, drug trafficking, school violence, street violence, hospital use abuse, road infractions and driving without a license or insurance, home invasions, identity theft, robberies, burglaries, welfare fraud, Social Security fraud, income tax fraud, etc.

Yes, I am here but I do not want to change “here” to reflect where I came from. I cherish the American flag and do not desecrate or burn it. I have assimilated and am a proud American by choice. I do not want to turn this country into the communist society I’ve fled.

Nobody in his right mind would leave a good place to move 7,000 miles away to something unknown, leaving friends and family behind forever. Staying there to help improve things was not an option because it was such a totalitarian society and no amount of effort on my part to change things there would have made a difference. We had no guns, no rights, no property, and no legal standing against the regime.

To say that leftists are mentally deficient is an understatement. One troll, probably sitting in his pajama in his parents’ basement, called me “an altar to grave welfare case.” I am still scratching my head on that one.

Another leftist troll called me “a ward of the state” because I taught at state universities and therefore that was somehow welfare. Had I worked for private institutions, only then my effort would have been legitimate work. I wonder if teaching Marxism, "racial justice," or “white privilege” at Harvard would have been valid work.

Here is my answer to those leftist trolls. I agree to shut the door to ILLEGAL immigrants, to people who are not vetted criminally, medically, and financially.

Immigrants should help make this country better, not become wards of the welfare system the minute they walk across the border. Illegal immigrants should not drain money from the Social Security fund they’ve NEVER paid into, burn our flag, waving the flag of their countries, and demand equal rights to American citizens.

I am all in favor of speeding up the cases of those in the process of submitting their paperwork to come to America LEGALLY. We should admit as many as possible of the four million LEGAL immigrants who are already awaiting patiently the resolution of their cases. They stayed in their countries and followed our immigration laws.

We should admit LEGAL immigrants who want to assimilate into our culture and have something to contribute to our society instead of draining it of resources while telling us every day what intolerant racists, fascists, Islamophobes, and xenophobes we are.

We should limit the number of foreign guest workers on H1B visas that corporations import in order to pay them a fraction of what they pay Americans. There are certainly enough educated Americans in computer engineering fields who are unemployed or have not been able to find a job upon graduation.

As C. Lamb stated, “It's a well-known secret in the software business that employers inflate the required qualifications in order to eliminate domestic hires. The employers just don't verify the qualifications for foreign applicants. I've seen job requirements that specify more experience with a software product than the lifetime of the software product.”

Telling someone from a different country, who was given shelter, welfare, medical care, a new life, education, a safe home, an opportunity at personal freedom, and who complains all the time that America is a racist and a bad place, and Americans who disagree with him/her are racists, SHOULD be told to repatriate.

We don't need more anti-American illegal immigrants or immigrants on H1B visas telling us how to do things their way. We have enough domestically grown and indoctrinated anti-Americans in positions of power.

LEGAL immigrants who follow our laws and assimilate into our culture are always welcome in America.

Socialist Democrats and their Illegal Alien Brethren

On a print from 1886 of the Statue of Liberty someone wrote, “There is room in America and brotherhood for all who will support our institutions and aid in our development. But those who come to disturb our peace and dethrone our laws are aliens and enemies forever.”

Times have changed fundamentally since 1886. Liberty is comatose and may never come out of its induced final slumber. Liberal Americans and the socialist Democrats of today are fighting the rest of the country to remove our borders, to disarm law enforcement, to pay for illegal aliens’ free healthcare, education, housing, voting rights, and every other benefit American citizens have.

Millennials devoid of common sense and their radical socialist representatives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) are openly calling for transforming our country into a Venezuela. It seems surreal that American citizens would want to live in the Twilight Zone of globalism or in a bad zombie apocalypse movie they so enjoy.

Of course socialist Democrats want open borders; millions of new illegal alien voters will help garner more representatives in the U.S. House and thus control it in perpetuity, with no Republican opposition, a type of California populated by 435 individuals who pretend to serve “we the people,” while silencing 52% of the U.S. population.

USA Today reported that “half of the 600,000 residents aided by NYC Care are undocumented immigrants” and New York City will spend “up to $100 million per year to expand health care coverage to people without health insurance including immigrants in the U.S. illegally.” https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/01/09/new-york-city-care-comprehensive-health-care-plan-concerns/2522924002/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=amp&utm_campaign=speakable&fbclid=IwAR0O71yHlujHVPQbUUg-eynNX0u7P_LAU1EYn3A9lZsE3eBuuYfUpT_YWNA

According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the federal government expenditures on illegal aliens is almost $46 billion a year, the state and local governments spend approximately $89 billion a year, for a total of roughly $135 billion annually. Illegal aliens pay $15.5 billion in federal taxes, $3.5 billion in state and local taxes, totaling $19 billion.  FAIR estimates that the total economic impact of illegal immigration is a burden of $116 billion annually, money that should be spent on veterans and American low income families.

A one-time cost of $5 billion to build the southern border wall is a small sum when compared with such a huge yearly expense to maintain and provide for illegal aliens. President Reagan had promised this wall when he amnestied 3 million illegal aliens in 1986. But Congress never appropriated sufficient money for its construction. https://www.fairus.org/issue/publications-resources/fiscal-burden-illegal-immigration-united-states-taxpayers?fbclid=IwAR1QGopbIjMDBSTj5dhRkQvA4p_NtIihUKGx4om8DXpLFoOy5K_45uNx6vE

Recently, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) made some bizarre statements on MSNBC. “Every day immigrants commit crimes at a far lower rate than everyday Americans” and illegals on the border “are acting more American than any person who seeks to keep them out will ever be.”

The fact that we need a border wall is most vividly described by Americans who live in the vicinity of the border with Mexico.  A resident of El Indio, Texas, living half a mile from the border wrote about “15 men who pulled a gun on my husband and had a 13 year-old Mexican girl they had kidnapped from Guerrerro. She had blood all over her and had urinated on herself. My husband was able to, with the help of the Border Patrol agents in a helicopter who passed over, get the gun from the Honduran man; they rushed the poor girl to the emergency room for help – she had been in fact kidnapped and gang raped by these men. We are kind people and believe in helping others in need but there have been three attacks on my husband on our ranch in the last three months.”

Schumer and Pelosi talk about “Trump’s manufactured drama with the border.” Adding more security at the border crossing will not help because illegals “are not coming through the borders, they are coming through mesquite and brush,” she added.

A wall will stop most illegal crossers even though some may dig under or escalate it. The Border Patrol needs help, the American ranchers need help, and Americans must feel safe in their own sovereign country.

If walls are “not effective and are socially unjust,” as the Democrats claim, why are rich people and most of Washington, D.C., surrounded by protective walls and barriers? If walls are not effective, why are there walls around prisons? Why do we have billions of dollars of privacy and noise cancelation walls around neighborhoods close to the highway?

There is a limit how many illegal invaders a country can absorb before it is no longer a nation but a socialist hellhole where the invaders vote for their free fair share of our confiscated stuff. As the progressive Mayor De Blasio said in his State of the City address, “Brothers and sisters, there’s plenty of money in the world. There’s plenty of money in this city. It’s just in the wrong hands.” Socialists are very fond of redistributing other people’s money and wealth but not their own. https://nypost.com/2019/01/10/de-blasio-theres-plenty-of-money-in-nyc-its-just-in-the-wrong-hands/

Liberals have asked me why a foreigner like me is against immigration. Illegal aliens are “undocumented Americans” but I, a legal American, am still a “foreigner.”

One problem with that question is that I am a naturalized American who assimilated into this country and learned the language which is something illegal aliens are not likely to do as they reject our language and our culture vehemently, they only want our welfare. They know very little about our country’s history and civics, vote illegally, and thus negatively affect the transformation of our nation into the third world corrupt dictatorship they’ve fled. 

These illegal economic migrants are illiterate, can’t read or write in their own dialects, and are therefore no asset to America, they are not making it better with their presence; they are a drag on society. They depress wages and it costs our society too much money to care for them from cradle to grave. Once here, the chain migration explodes, each new addition becomes a ward of the state and of the taxpayers who must work more in order to pay for them. It is in essence a form of slavery for the American people to support illegals who never assimilate.

The second problem with that question is that I am not against immigration; this country is a melting pot of legal immigrants from all over the world who helped make this country great. Illegal immigration is breaking the law.

Millions of legal immigrants have waited patiently in quarantine at Ellis Island before they were admitted to this country. Being healthy and willing to contribute without the benefit of generous welfare was important for the health of the nation. But now liberals have decided that unvetted, criminal, dangerous, and sick individuals from around the world should come freely into our country infecting our children in schools and the population at large with diseases that had been previously eradicated in this country.

Illegals who manage to get across the border, flood ERs when they get sick, using the system as their primary care doctor since doctors in private practice do not treat people without insurance. Fearing deportation, many with serious illnesses such as TB, do not seek continued treatment and develop drug resistant forms of TB. Their unvaccinated children infect American children in schools, sometimes with strange illnesses that have never been seen in this country but that are endemic in Central America.

By law, illegals must be treated for free and translators must be provided, while veterans beg VA hospitals for their proper and prompt treatment, including care for cancers developed while in service to our country. One case in point, Johnny, was sent back and forth to two VA hospitals, miles away from his rural home, never received proper treatment for his prostate cancer and, once it spread to the rest of his body, one VA hospital offered care, but it was too late. Johnny passed away a few months ago.

According to the Washington Times, at least 50 people who arrive at the southern border each day need urgent medical care, including those with cases of pneumonia, tuberculosis, flu, parasites, and even pregnant women close to giving birth. These people had left their homes sick in hopes that smuggling organizations will bring them in less than a week to our southern border, dropping them off in western Texas and New Mexico, in areas less affected by the flow of illegals pouring into the U.S.

Washington Times cites the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, that “The faster trip also makes it easier for sick people to come, and provides ‘confidence for parents to bring younger children as well.’” He also explains that those who came, “needed help, were ill when they arrived at the border.” If they die in custody, the Border Patrol is blamed for mishandling their care. https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/dec/31/number-sick-kids-soars-border/?fbclid=IwAR0duxXqe3jYdhg8g82QByxurBX8Du2Zv-ZC9zhYEk4P_O3jZvsYlyEB1cg

I am against ILLEGAL immigration. There is nothing wrong with being called an “alien.” I was once a legal alien myself. But illegal aliens have become a protected class sent to the head of the line by progressivism and politicians in this country. Four million LEGAL aliens are awaiting patiently the dispensation of their legal immigration files at the end of the line because the lawmakers, the courts, governors, mayors, and cops in sanctuary cities and states refuse to enforce the immigration laws currently on the books.

President Trump is the solitary wall that is protecting this country in so many ways from a full-blown communist takeover. He has managed to slow down the tide but the march to Sharia Law continues with the election of two Muslim representatives who have made it clear already that they are not necessarily representing their American constituents but the interests of various foreign cultures, imaginary countries, and theocracies.

 

 

Smart Meters and Shopping

Samples of Smart Meters

I went shopping today for a pair of pants. I was hoping it would only take a few minutes. How difficult could that be in the land of plenty? As I entered the large department store, I was greeted by stifling heat and humidity. This particular department store chain uses smart meters, cycled and controlled by the power company from a remote location in order to “save” them money. Customers and employees suffer because a small group of elites have managed to convince and bribe bureaucrats and politicians into pushing the agenda of non-existent global warming.

Driving to the mall, I rolled my eyes as the radio announced that today is an all-day power cycling for those with smart meters who have signed up to reduce their electricity cost. This means no air conditioning when it’s 100 plus degrees Fahrenheit with the heat index.

Those who think they are saving electricity and suffer in the hot days of summer and cold days of winter to “save the planet” from some apocalyptic disaster are actually charged higher rates compared to those who use more electricity. Credulous individuals who have bought the global warming nonsense and Gaia worship are actually helping power companies. Utilities don’t have to buy or build facilities to store excess power during times of peak usage. It is all about making money, not about saving the planet.

The associates, a fancy euphemism for a salesperson, were milling about hot and sweaty, seemingly in a state of melting, totally uninterested in helping me. I made eye contact with several people, and nobody offered to help. Why would they? They are paid a basic salary whether they try very hard or not at all. It reminded me of the communist workers’ motto, “We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.”

Salespeople in this area of northern Virginia are mostly foreigners who have immigrated to the United States, legally or illegally, for the opportunity of a better life. Sadly though, they’ve brought with them the customs and work ethic of their former third world dictatorships they’ve escaped. They are content with mall wages (previously the place for summer jobs of college students) because, by any comparison with their countries, working conditions and the hourly pay are far superior. Many of them qualify for and receive welfare and Obamacare subsidies and are none too shy to apply and accept them. If the crazy Gringos are passing out leaflets in Spanish teaching them how to do it, why not take advantage of free money?

I finally found someone who relented to help me but she was struggling with the cash register and the simple mathematical calculation. By now sweating profusely and feeling sorry for the frustrated salesclerk, I gave up and left without purchasing anything. I was in terrible need of a cold glass of water.

In a different department store where employees speak English well, are polite and eager to help because they are paid on commission, I am greeted friendly as soon as I set foot in the door and a sales associate guides me in the right direction immediately. The store is comfortably cool.

It is the difference between night and day, between a business run on the capitalist model and a business run and staffed on the socialist model where nobody cares if customers are helped, merchandise is snagged from your hands if you do not make up your mind quickly, and clothes cannot be tried on or returned for hygienic and sanitary reasons.

I understand the sanitary part. It may not be such a bad idea since we live in an area with a high population of illegal immigrants who were not checked for communicable diseases like scabies and parasites like lice and bed bugs when they invaded our border.

The Incredible Legal Immigrants

I am always fascinated by legal immigrants who left their loved ones and their homes behind, came to this country,  and made America a special place unlike any other on earth. Their individual stories of true grit and endurance in the face of adversity gives our American citizens their unique character and cultural fabric.

I am not talking about the failed European multiculturalism model pushed by progressives to incorporate as many different ethnicities and religions as possible whether they fit in or not, including people who have broken the law or have given aid to our enemies. This societally disruptive and demographically suicidal model failed in Europe, it is certainly going to fail here.  

I am also not talking about people who crossed the border illegally to benefit from the abundance and generosity of American welfare and who have no intention of assimilating into our culture. I am talking about legal immigrants who came here with all the right intentions.

Americans are unique because we borrowed the best traditions from so many ethnic groups but forged one amalgamated culture. While keeping the native language at home, legal immigrants of the last century have embraced their new country and learned English. A unified language gave our country its strength.

People like Dr. Pol, an incredible veterinarian who has cared for the health of his four-legged patients who cannot speak to tell what hurts them, and the hearts and farms of his two-legged customers. For 30 years he has seen all of 19,000 furry large and small patients; some are repeat accidents waiting to happen – their curiosity of exploration runs them smack into the quills of porcupines or traffic.

A healthy and enthusiastic man of 70 with an infectious demeanor and incredible positive outlook, Dr. Pol became a proud American citizen in 1976. A native of Netherlands, Dr. Jan Pol  grew up on a farm with a one-room house and was the youngest child. He experienced hard work and the importance of laboring close to the land.

He can run circles around many twenty year olds with his constant energy. He does not love just what he does but he loves this country. He is so respected and celebrated in central Michigan and his vet practice so famous that they made a reality show about him, “The Incredible Dr. Pol.”

My friends who won the immigration lottery in their respective countries brought to America a lot of expertise: engineers, doctors, chemists, athletes, researchers, professors, computer specialists, and nurses. They did not work in their fields right away – they started rather small.

Doru ran a pizzeria at first despite his limited language skills. When he learned English well, he applied for a job in his field, mechanical engineering. He now runs an entire R & D department in the south.

My second cousin Mara, who left her loved ones behind when she won the immigration lottery, is a skilled mathematician who works for a famous company. She has a family and two lovely children.

My long-time friend Lula came from Egypt years ago and is now a tenured professor of psychology. We had lengthy discussions about her life in Egypt, how she had to flee the new regime after Sadat was assassinated, and United States’ prominent role in the world in advancing freedom. We marveled how tolerant and welcoming Americans were in spite of our differences. We were so anxious then to prove our mettle and earn our freedom by giving back to this wonderful society who welcomed us with open arms and gave us the opportunity to succeed.

My friend Samir from Lebanon became the cafeteria manager at the university where I taught while pursuing his doctoral degree in chemistry. We became friends when he took my class in order to satisfy a Master’s level requirement that he had not had. He worked very hard in spite of the fact that the heat in the room and the exhaustion from his regular job made him doze off in class sometimes.

I remember my first job in the U.S., working for minimum wage of $3.10 an hour. I was perhaps the most educated person in the office but the lowest on the payroll rung. I did not care, I was happy to have a job that allowed me to eat and have a roof over my head.

During college, I always held 3-4 different part-time jobs in order to fit my class schedule in the daily very hectic routine that extended through the middle of the night all week long. To top it off, I was pregnant with our first child. Nothing was going to deter me from reaching my fullest potential when I was in the land of opportunity. In Romania, only the children of communist party apparatchiks were allowed the chance to excel  and have a good life.

Liberals are wrong, no matter how hard they demand social justice, economic, and academic equality. We can have equal opportunity but we cannot have equal outcomes, not even mandated by government fiat. Those in power will always have more and better, some people are more motivated than others, some work harder than others, some are more experienced than others, some are smarter than others, some are more talented than others, and some are luckier than others.

A couple I met from the former Czechoslovakia was brought to the U.S. through a Baptist Church mission trip. They claimed political asylum although the wife was eight months pregnant. It was scary for them at first since their English was quite limited. Using a mixture of German and Russian, we communicated until they established a home and learned English. I helped them with the baby, got them enrolled in school, and drove them around town. He is now the director of one of the largest planetariums in the country and a professional photographer. His wife runs a very successful business from home.

The most interesting story was that of my best friend Frieda who defected from East Germany during a short vacation to the U.S. There was no way she was going back to the hellhole life controlled by the Stasi, the secret police! She was given permission to stay on the condition that her friends would provide for her financially and she would not be a burden to our welfare system.

We proceeded to collect money for an apartment. I helped Frieda with clothes, a waitressing job in a local bar, found an apartment, and everything else that allowed her to function daily. When the apartment complex burned down, I found her another one.  Her legal resident alien status changed several years later when she became an American citizen. Almost twenty-five years later, she is the vice-president of a chemical company. Her Economics degree, hard work, and the desire to succeed helped her achieve her dream. Interestingly enough, we studied Economics at the same college in Europe but our paths never crossed then.

During my thirty years of teaching, I helped many immigrants pro bono by translating their birth certificates, school transcripts, and other necessary documents. My phone number was on the speed dial at the local hospital when they needed me to translate surgical procedures they were performing on foreign nationals who were either new to the area or were passing through. This was my way of paying it forward in hopes that these people would become good Americans, building our country up and not tearing it down.

But  all these stories pale in comparison to the sagas of the initial legal immigrants holding satchels with their earthly belonging who had to pass through Ellis Island after the arduous Atlantic crossing, were quarantined, some assigned new names and new spellings by careless clerks, and were given or denied permission to enter the New World. These were the true pioneers who battled hardships, life and death situations, insecurity, the unknown, lawlessness, prejudice, abuse,  interment, and unforgiving conditions, yet they prevailed, thanking God for their good fortune and their freedom.

Permanent Legal Immigration vs. Amnesty

In 2011 1.1 million aliens received legal permanent resident (LPR) status on the basis of family ties (65%), employment (13%), as refugees and asylum seekers (16%), and as diversity migrants (5%), a category established arbitrarily since we already are the most diverse nation.

The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) of 1952 established four reasons under which permanent legal immigration status can be sought:

-         Reunification of families

-         Immigrants with needed skills

-         Refugee protection

-         Diversity of admission by country of origin

Currently 4.5 million visas are approved for legal permanent residence (LPR) but are pending because of the numerical limits imposed by INA. Most of these are visas petitioned for the reunification of families.

The top countries of immigration were Mexico (14%), China (8.2%), India (6.5%), Philippines (5.4%), and Dominican Republic (4.3%). A large percentage of legal permanent residents came from the ranks of aliens who had temporary (nonimmigrant) visas.

Until 1965, there was a national origin quota system from World War I. It was replaced with an amendment of 7 percent per-country ceiling. The statute regulating permanent immigration was revised significantly in 1990.

If amnesty is going to be considered, the 113^th Congress should tackle first a Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) which should include the following:

-         Revise the legal immigration system first

-         Increase border security

-         Enforce immigration laws

-         Reform the temporary worker visas

-         Resolve the status of millions of illegal aliens already residing in the country, some with American born children, some who came legally and overstayed their visas, and those who crossed the border illegally to work, traffic drugs, commit crimes, or take advantage of the generous welfare system in the U.S.

-         Increase the number of visas to immigrants already waiting in the “queue” with on-going applications

The proposed “pathway to citizenship,” a mixture of fees, penalties, and waiting period, or blanket amnesty for illegal aliens could increase the cost of Obamacare up to $300 billion over a decade in the form of costs for exchanges or Medicaid. (http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/05/pathway-to-citizenship-may-increase-obamacare-cost-up-to-300-billion-over-a-decade/)

According to Ruth Ellen Wasem, who wrote a Congressional Service Report on legal immigration, published on December 17, 2012, adult children of U.S. citizens wait about 7 years for a permanent resident status, with longer waits for those from Mexico and Philippines. “Consular officers are now considering petitions of the brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens from the Philippines who filed almost 24 years ago.” (http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/R42866.pdf)

Opponents of immigration favor:

-         Reduced immigration

-         Elimination of diversity visas (the immigrants do not wish to integrate into our society and comprise criminal elements as evidenced by attempted terrorist attacks)

-         Employment-based visas should include only highly skilled workers with hard to find skills

-         Limitation of family-based legal permanent residence (LPR) to immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, not extended family members

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Department of Homeland Security have an annual maximum of legal permanent residents of 675,000 - 480,000 comprise family immigration, 140,000 employment-based immigration, and 55,000 diversity immigrants. These people follow the law, the complicated and lengthy maze of bureaucracy, legal documents, fees, and other requirements they must fulfill and pay for in order to become eligible, and then must wait patiently inside or outside of the U.S. at least five years for the resolution of their cases.

According to Ruth Ellen Wasem, immediate relatives such as spouses, unmarried minor children of U.S. citizens, parents of adult U.S. citizens and refugees do not have numerical limits on legal immigration.

Meanwhile, 11-12 million (the numbers change constantly, depending on the source) illegal aliens who just crossed the border illegally via Mexico or Canada establish residence here, have children, take advantage of our free schools, social services and programs in this country, including the upcoming Obamacare for which they are not required to pay the minimum $20,000 a year premium for a bronze level insurance but have full medical benefits.

These people are what the liberals lovingly call “undocumented workers,” “citizens in the shadows,” “Americans without papers.” I would argue that they do have papers, the passports and I.D.s from their respective countries whose flags they so devotedly respect and pin on their vehicles while burning, spitting, and trampling on the American flag. And Democrats tell us that they must immediately get amnesty and the right to vote.

We should have a robust guest worker system; it would alleviate many immigration problems we currently have. The Bracero Program, named after the Spanish “strong arm,” which was initiated in August 1942 and ended in 1964, imported temporary contract labor from Mexico into the U.S. However, we should first address the millions of unemployed Americans in the U.S., those who have made a lifestyle choice out of socialized generational welfare, and the Americans who have become discouraged workers and are no longer counted in the unemployment figures.

In the category of legal aliens are immigrants and nonimmigrants. The nonimmigrants comprise tourists, foreign students, diplomats, temporary agricultural workers, exchange visitors, intracompany business personnel who come here for a specific purpose and with a visa. Some of them never go back and are transitioned to legal permanent resident (LPR) status. Yet admission of immigrants (foreign nationals who come to live lawfully and permanently in the U.S.) is much more stringent than nonimmigrants. (CRS, Ruth Ellen Wasem, December 17, 2012)

Ronald Reagan gave blanket amnesty to almost 3 million illegal aliens in 1986 with Congressional promise that immigration reform would be enacted and the border would be enforced. It never happened and President Reagan regretted later his decision because it brought a new wave of illegal immigration. Today we are at the same crossroads and Congress is not even pretending to reform immigration laws or enforce border security. Instead, the federal government is suing those states who are trying to enforce the law.