All the
hoorah about immigration on the Mexican border reminds me of an immigrant visa
case I had as vice consul in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
A woman who was boon on the island of Dominca and who lived in Brazil
was applying for an immigrant visa to join her mother who lived in the United
States. At this time, the 1970s, the US
quota for immigrant visas for people born in Dominica was quite small, about
200, I think.
This woman
was on the list when she first applied; there were still available visa
numbers. However, she was slow in
getting her visa application together, which involved taking a medical exam,
proving that she could support herself in the US, so that she would not be a
public charge, getting a labor certification proving that she would displace an
American worker, and so on.
When she
finally got her application together, all the visa numbers for the Dominica
quota had been used up, and she was no longer eligible for an immigrant
visa. She went into hysterics in my
office. She was crying, screaming, and
trashing around. I thought I was going
to have to call the police to take her away.
After an hour or so of trying to calm her down, she finally left.
Today, if
she lived in Mexico or Central America, rather than Brazil, she could just walk
into the United States, join her mother and go to work. Whether she would receive welfare, take an
American's job, or even go into the drug business, is irrelevant. Public opinion just wants her to be
happy. So, the favored immigration
policy seems to be "Don't worry, be happy!" America is an open country. Anybody who wants to can come. If it turns out you are a murderer or a drug
dealer, we can worry about that later.
I don't
buy it. I think the US should and can
choose who it wants to move to this country permanently. We don't have to take everybody. We can set limits and standards and enforce
them. I feel badly for the immigration
officers who are charged with enforcing the existing laws. The public portrays them as heartless
villains for doing their jobs. It
reminds me of when I came home from the war in Vietnam and the general
depiction of Vietnam veterans was as baby killers. This is a country that vilifies public
servants for doing their job.
I support
the enforcement of immigration laws, but I appear to be in the minority.
If we want no immigration laws, repeal them all and abolish the
Department of Homeland Security. I have
never like the name "Homeland" anyway; to me it has a Nazi
connotation because of its similarity to "heimat" which Wikipedia
says is equivalent to "Vaterland," the homeland of the German nation,
people or tribe.