One of the most pervasive taunts from the anti-immigrant mob is: “What part of illegal don’t you understand?” Over and over again, people declare that their ancestors came to the United States “legally.”
If you are the descendant of immigrants, as most of us are, how do you know the status of your grandparents or great-grandparents? Can you prove it? Do you have documents?
It’s not easy. Over the years of this country’s existence, the laws have changed, and changed, and changed again, as have U.S. borders. In the early years, there were no immigration laws at all, and at other times, the laws were written specifically to exclude people from certain countries. Who was being discriminated against has also changed with the times, but a wide variety of nationalities and ethnicities have been deemed undesirable as citizens—but welcomed as workers without any rights.
Of course, the indigenous peoples of this continent can rightly claim that none of the rest of us are here “legally.”
I am part of the second generation of my family to be born here. All four of my grandparents have been deceased for a long time, and there is little information about their origins besides the family story that my father’s parents came from Russia, and my mother’s came from Poland. We have always assumed that they came through Ellis Island early in the 20th century, looking for a better life, a safer place to be, and the opportunity to raise a family and prosper in the golden United States.
I have searched at www.ancestry.com, and I have searched at www.jewishgen.org. So far, the only record I can find is of my father’s parents (and their growing family) in the 1920 and 1930 U.S. Censuses, where they are clearly labeled “Alien” and give their immigration year as 1913. But there’s no record of any of them coming through Ellis Island (www.ellisisland.org) during that year, or any other year. It is likely that their Americanized names were not the names under which they immigrated—but that is exactly my point: How do you prove your family came here “legally”?
I questioned my 80-year-old dad more directly, and though he thinks he remembers his father voting eventually (which means he became a naturalized citizen at some point), my grandmother never voted and was never a citizen. She was undocumented her whole life, and it is likely that both of my mother’s parents were, too.
The beauty of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is that, because we were born here, my father is a U.S. citizen, and so am I. That is one of the promises of this country, and I am proud of that openness and that welcoming attitude. I am grateful to be here.
I don’t care how or when your family arrived here. I don’t care what country your ancestors were born in. I care about the warmth of your heart, the valuable work you put into our community, and your friendliness and trustworthiness as my neighbor.
To all the people who say they want to “take back” Arizona, I say: This is not your state, and this is not your country. It is ours, a country of mostly immigrants, where no one should ask about your original documentation, but only about the contribution you make today—and undocumented residents make a huge and wonderful contribution to the Arizona I love.
The mothers you say don’t belong here are just like my grandmother. The children you say don’t deserve citizenship are just like my father and me. Except that we have white skin.
So, here’s my question for those who claim that “legality” is all that matters: “What part of justice, of fairness, of compassion don’t you understand?” And where are your grandparents’ papers?
The author has been an activist for peace and justice since 1968; she has lived and loved in Tucson since 1998.
This article appears in Jul 1-7, 2010.
Well, the Native American Humans immigrated here too, much to the dismay of the native mammoths and mastadons. But the old saw that two wrongs don’t make a right, but that three do, just doesn’t cut it. Sorry.
Blaze thank you for the logical and impassioned article. Too bad so many people think with their red neck instead of their brain
Thanks, Blaze. Excellent article.
Unless you are Papago, Pima, Yaqui, or some other local tribe you have no claim to this paticular piece of ground we call Arizona!! This whole thing is another case of bigotry! “We” don’t like the color of your skin so we will claim some God given right to the land and push you out! Tell me that isn’t so!!! If we are so concerned about illegal immigration why aren’t you calling for troops on the Canadian border?? Because they are WHITE!!!!
Anyone living in territory that became part of the U.S. instantly became U.S. citizens.
Your claim that everyone is an immigrant and no one has a right to their land is ridiculous. Do you or your parents have any right to the land? Are you giving back the land you live on? Why don’t you try to get your family to give up their land; I don’t see that happening.
If you truly believed whites whose families have been here for generations have no real claim to the land they live on and were born on -then why do you support the rights of foreign nationals from all over the world to live here?
It’s 2010; it’s time to “move on”. Every historic injustice is impossible to address; Indian tribes killed and enslaved other Indian tribes- how are you going to address that? On The Museum of the American Indian’s website they have an video of their opening of the ceremony of their exhibit on the relationship between blacks and Indians. There were Indians who owned slaves- how do you propose to address that wrong?
Immigrants of the past had a much harder road to hoe. Elise Island had doctors to make sure people didn’t come with diseases. There wasn’t the arrays of subsidies we have now, no WIC, section 8 housing,school lunch programs, cash assistance….
The fact is poor people use more in social services than they pay in taxes; new poor immigrants hurt poor Americans and recent legal poor immigrants the most. They compete with them for social services and jobs.
Do you think Homeland Security was lying about being buried if there’s another amnesty? When passport rules changed people were brought out of retirement because of the backlog.
No one is owed the right to live in the U.S.
Peoples ,tribes, nations whatever you want to call them , have been warring and taking from one another since before recorded history. Watch the news. It is still happening all over the world now.It is not presently socially acceptable . In years past it was. “The laws change and change and change” If you want the situation to change ,then change the laws. Breaking the law is illegal by definition. Untill the laws are changed I believe that the people living in the area /country that the law is in need to be law abiding. If you want to be all caring get it together and bring about the changes that you feel are right. I am 4th generation Az. and in my 57 years I have seen jobs that were gladly done by me and others be taken by people that are willing to do them for less than a living wage.( In my opinion because they were able to do so because of assistance from government and freebee sources taking on the responsibilities that I choose to provide for myself and my family) Why should part of us have to live by the law and another part be allowed to ignore the law? This whole stink is not ,in my opinon about immigration. It is about ILLEGAL imigration. It is not fair to the ones that do obey the law.
The first sentence says it all. The author uses the term “anti-immigrant” instead of the term “anti-illegal immigration” – a term which actually describes the people she is quoting – thus proving their point. This is a technique often used by people who have no good argument. They change the term, thereby changing the debate.
BTW – The Yaqui tribe is not indigenous to the US, they were refugees fleeing the Mexican government from the area around the Yaqui river in Mexico. Their legal status was changed a few decades ago.
Well, your article means, followed to its logical conclusion, “open borders” 1.e. that anyone can enter and live in the U.S. It would be very difficult, if not impossible to run an orderly country in those circumstances – it would definitely lead to chaos. Why is it that because one does not want illegal migration, this is considered to be racist, lacking in compassion etc. The fact that many of the illegals are Mexican is not the point. It is simply the case that they are closer and it is therefore easier for them. It is pointless to go back in history. The situation is now. Why have laws if they are ignored. If you don’t like them, then work on your pollies to change them.
amberdru, Well said! You speak for all Americans who want our borders secured and our laws enforced!
@Jonathan Hoffman: Thanks for writing. I wish it were the case that people were only talking about “illegal” immigration, but if you look at the combination of laws and directives that were passed in April — and not just SB1070 — the situation looks much more like I described it in the article. Arizona now has a law against ethnic studies classes, which were originally mandated to address issues of long-standing segregation in schools (and such classes have been proven, in Florida, for example, to reduce tensions between ethnic groups and increase harmony among students). We now have a Department of Education directive that penalizes teachers “with accents” (though I doubt we’ll see any French speakers or U.S. southerners lose their jobs over their accents). And then there’s SB1070. Taking all of these together, I stand by my statement that many people are, sadly, “anti-immigrant,” legal or illegal.
The point of my article is that human beings have always migrated from one part of the continent to another, from one country to another. You can’t stop it, no matter how militarized you get, no matter how big a wall you build. So let’s figure out a way to work together, to bring our beautiful state to a new successful future. Peace, blaze
@ Mary Connor: You wrote: “why have laws if they are ignored?” Laws are made by people, and there have been other times in U.S. history when there have been bad laws, wrong laws, unjust laws. Our system of government allows us to challenge laws that we believe to be misguided, which is why we have a system of courts. I fought against the laws before they were passed in April; I support the challenges to them currently in the court system; and I will work to defeat the legislators who passed them and the governor who signed them. I vote in every election. Meanwhile, there is a long tradition in this great country of non-compliance with laws when they are wrong (the most obvious example is Prohibition). You may not agree with me, but you can’t argue that just “because it’s the law” it’s automatically right. Thanks for talking civilly about this. I appreciate the dialogue. Peace, blaze
Some things are just not right, it is not right to discriminate against any people or group of people. It is not okay to just pull people over and ask for their papers, it is not right to have such jealousy or hate for a person from somewhere else or for the color of their skin. Arizonia your new law is so against what we stand for as a country.
What happened to love your neighbor, some good old fashion common sense? Don’t judge a book by its cover, get to know someone…
Lend a stranger a helping hand, be kind to one another, because inside we are all pink, we all love, laugh, have families, cry, feel sad, angry and are just trying to improve our lives. Be compassionate, act as if you were like God, Buddha, Jesus, a saint. Would any of them ever say, don’t let my people cross that line, that made up line, because they are lower than you?
Not the God i know, he/she would be shocked, tearful of our actions and lack of compassion.
I live in New Mexico, and we welcome all people here.
thanks and i hope you do something to change your new law.
Blaze wants anarchy for America. He wants open borders and has no respect for our laws. We’ve heard enough rhetoric about, “were all immigrants”. He refuses to put illegal criminal alien in his vocabulary. Lets just ignore what they really are!
Illegal aliens cost the average head of house hold in America $1117.00 a year, 113 billion total! Blaze doesn’t mention that fact. Blaze, are you going to write your check today, or are you just talk???
joey blue, you want to welcome all people, but bill the rest of us! Why don’t you take 10-20 illegals into your home if your so compassionate? Then you can feed them, pay for their health care, pay for their schooling, pay for their crimes, etc., etc. I’ll know you’ll do none of this on your dime, talk is cheap!
Utter nonsense. I came here legally, having filled out the forms, paid the fees, demonstrated that I spoke English, and listened to the admonishment that I must pay my own way and not be a burden to the USA. And, yes, I can trace my ancestry back to the 1670s, with documents (how else could I trace people long dead). Since I came here legally, I thrived, and became a citizen.
The illegals, on the other hand, sneaked across the border. One might say they pushed their way to the front of the line. They skipped the lectures and admonishments about not being a burden, and hence have no hesitation in demanding services in Spanish.
Why do we spend billions of dollars each year keeping kids in school long enough to graduate? Because we know that without a decent education they will not be able to pay their own way and will be a burden on society.
Please explain to me why anyone would think we need 12 million illegals speaking almost no English, having no knowledge of our culture or laws, and with only an average 4th grade education. They cannot possibly support themselves and their growing families without public assistance, and that is a heavy tax burden on those of us who do indeed pay taxes.
My grandparents came from Russia/Poland/Ukraine, escaping Czarist pressgangs, starvation, and in one case, the noose (he was a Bolshevik sympathizer in Odessa in 1905). I doubt they had any papers once they passed through Ellis Island, where they were assigned Anglo-sounding names, other than whatever they were given as they mingled with other beat-upon immigrants from Italy, Germany, France, Greece, Spain, and who knows where else.
All were poor, all used social services (such as they were at the time), all endured the Depression along with everyone else, and all ended up productive citizens speaking English, setting up companies and civic groups, and raising children who went on to become soldiers and civil servants during WWII and professionals thereafter. They paid taxes, voted in elections (more faithfully than most “native” Americans, i.e., prior immigrants), cheered when their teams won, and made stronger the cities that they lived in. I understand this has been proven the same for immigrants from Mexico: three generations and their red, white, and blue to the bone (with a little salsa for piquant).
Today we, the third generation of European and Asian immigrants, and African-Americans who came over under other auspices, are indistinguishable from Arizonans with similar origins — I reckon, most of the former immigrant families who now make up Maricopa County, where the BS immigration law originated and garnered support. We share Arizona, with boundaries imposed by a small white and Mexican elite 150 years ago, with indigenous American peoples and more recent Mexican families who make up 60 percent of our state’s population.
The law in question is yet another sad example of sneaking through America’s open door and then slamming it shut, a time-honored American custom that never works and always proves, in the end, counterproductive and foolish. The reputations of those who champion such selfish and self-serving crack-pottery will be besmirched for the ages.
Well – all these new fangled murder laws are just geting in the way. Why back in caveman days ya just bashed your neighbor over the head and took his pork chop. Nobody really had a “Claim” to the food anyways, so we all just live together as one big happy family. That killed each other. If we want to ignore the rule of law and look at legacy owernership – then nobody owned nothing.
It may make you feel bad blaze – but you still wake up in the USA and a piece of land that was claimed by the gov’t hundreds of years ago. build a wall, then a moat, then a fence, then a pit of alligators. Send blaze out to test it – only make blaze try and get into mexico.
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