Ancestors were immigrants

                               Immigrants like our own ancestors

       More than 150 years ago, many of my ancestors emigrated to America, seeking a better life for themselves and their families. They spoke a rough form of Gaelic and had to learn English, so that they could fit in. They took the dirty jobs that  proper Americans avoided. With the sweat of their brow and the strength of their backs, they helped create the grand new Republic of America, a shining city on the hill that welcomed millions.

        In recent years, we have witnessed a wave of similar worthy immigrants, mostly from Mexico,  Central and South America. These worthy people also had to learn English to fit in. They took the dirty and hard jobs that native Americans avoided. They worked hard, cared for their families and tried to fit in. America is the beneficiary of their arrival, as it was always been.

        The recent efforts to displace some of them saddens me.  I understand the need for tighter immigration enforcement at our borders. I also support repatriating individuals who break our laws here.

         But what of the others? Millions of the new arrivals, who look, speak and live their lives as Americans, are now at risk from immigration authorities for deportation.

         We had breakfast at a favored café recently. Before this, we had tried to use our rudimentary Spanish to converse with some of the servers. They smiled at our poor Spanish and tried to help us learn to speak Spanish properly. Recently, all of that stopped. Attempts to speak Spanish were met with proper English. And I could see the fear in their eyes. Perhaps they thought us  people who would call the ICE agents up and report these Spanish speakers as possible candidates for removal.

             I left that day with a heavy heart. The food was excellent, the service superior, but it had been provided by people who were scared, for themselves, their families and their friends.

             In Russia, during the Stalinist era and in Germany during Hitler’s reign, people had been afraid like this. Afraid of spies who lived among them and reported suspicious activities to the secret police. But, I have never imagined such activities or such feelings in the America that I grew up in. How have we come to this awful state when large numbers of our neighbors and friends live in fear every day?

               Of all qualities in a government by for and of the people, compassion is a necessary and important elemental ingredient for maintaining an environment where people can work, raise and educate their children and become part of the grand republic that is America.

            I don’t know what the practical solutions there are. I only know that I don’t like seeing friends and neighbors living in fear. We have to apply our laws with more feeling for the generations of immigrants. who have already come here. to help form this wonderful Republic.

            On the base of the Statue of Liberty, in New York harbor, are Emma Lazrus’s immortal words “Give me your poor huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.” It is a signpost to the world of who and what we are as Americans. I think we need to remember those bold sentiments and welcome the newer waves of immigrants, who will help us build a better America, like those of our own ancestors, that came here with a dream and a hope for a better life.

             America is an ideal, a shining city on the hill to the rest of the world, many of  whom live in misery and poverty. Let’s remember who we are and welcome the newer arrivals and help them become citizens of this grand republic, like generations of Americans did before us. God Bless America and all that she stands for.

                                             -30-

                                        (638 words)

                                  Joseph Xavier Martin