My parents were immigrants. They spoke no English; they had no special skills. And they had a child born two days after they got off Ellis Island. That would be me. They were eastern European, WWII refugees. During WWII, they were wretched refuse and tempest-tossed. They were tired. They were homeless. And they yearned to breathe free.
For my father, there was no other country to come to besides the U.S. It was and remained for him the greatest country in the world. Some of our relatives emigrated elsewhere. They did not want to go through the wait it took to get in here. But he would go nowhere else. He believed in the promise of the U.S. He believed that if he worked hard, he could make a better life for his family. It took four years, but he and my pregnant mother were finally allowed in.
How did it work out? My childhood was spent in the South Bronx with other immigrants from a different part of the world but with similar dreams. We were poor. My father worked hard. My mother raised us with the belief that, in this country, you did not have to start with privilege. You could make it on your own if you had talent and worked hard. My parents learned English. They became citizens. It was the proudest day of their lives. My father is gone but my mother is still here, still reads a book a week (in English) and still says that this is the greatest country on the planet.
And what happened to the children of these immigrants? Did we go on welfare? I have two sisters. One is a physician, the other is an attorney. I have a Ph.D. in psychology. We are all gainfully employed. We pay taxes and love our country. We are not unique. There are millions like us and have been throughout the history of this country. This is the promise and the dream of America. This is part of the greatness of America.
But now I read that some would have it so that my parents would no longer be welcome here. Senators Perdue and Cotton, with the support of our President, who himself is the grandchild of immigrants who could not speak English and had no special skills, tell us that people like my parents would compete with native-born Americans or go on welfare. Implicit is that they would never learn English. Better we should let in skilled workers and highly educated people who somehow will not compete for “American” jobs. Or, if they do, at least they will be well spoken.
The Statue of Liberty is not the Statue of English fluency and international commerce. The statue and our country are about liberty and opportunity and the belief that, given a fair shake, most of us can succeed and deserve the chance to try. Hard working immigrants were and are a tribute to the reality of the American dream and to what that dream has meant to the world. This bill is a slap in their face and an insult to the American dream.