Update:
As Donald Trump proudly announces that his “solution” to the immigration “problem” will “take 18 months to two years if properly handled”, the National Immigration Forum Action Fund is airing a television ad echoing some of the thoughts expressed by Mr. Lin in the article below and, perhaps just as important, echoing President Reagan’s 1989 message that the United States is a “shining city upon a hill…teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace…”
Please watch it below, courtesy http://forumactionfund.org/
Original Post:
One of the “issues” presidential wannabe Donald Trump says he is proud of bringing to the forefront of the political debate — one that has become his dog whistle rallying cry — is the so-called immigration reform. “So-called” because under that dog whistle, Trump includes mass deportation of more than 11 million immigrants, the denial of birthright citizenship to their children and the construction of a 2,000 mile wall along the U.S.-Mexican border.
It is not clear whether Trump will use such draconian and un-American measures only against Latinos or against all undocumented immigrants and all who he so shamelessly calls “anchor babies.”
In comments on a recent post exultant over Trump’s plans on this issue, I observed how inhumane and un-American such deportation measures would be.
I condemned Trump’s suggestion to mass-deport and deny citizenship to the millions who came to our country many years ago and who “got educated, served in our armed forces, worked hard, contributed to our economy, became model, law-abiding citizens, had children, raised families…”
I was speaking as a Latino immigrant myself, forgetting that we also have immigrants (legal and otherwise) from many other nations and continents, including Asia.
Many have come here for economic opportunities, many to escape an oppressive regime; many just overstayed their visas because they found America to be such a great country. And many of them have given birth to children — approximately 300,000 babies according to the Wall Street Journal — who according to the U.S. Constitution are American citizens.
This weekend, the Wall Street Journal published a powerful essay by one of those “anchor babies,” and one who is proud to be one.
The “anchor baby,” now a successful professional, found out in 2006 that his parents had come to the U.S. in the mid-1950s and “intentionally overstayed their tourist visa with hopes of one day becoming American citizens.”
Mr. Raymond Yung Lin continues, “My father found a job, and less than a year later I came into the world. My parents struggled to make a new life in America, but they worked hard, raised a family, and became legal permanent residents and naturalized citizens as soon as they could.”
Mr. Lin writes how his father landed a job as a city planner in Tampa, Fla. and how his father, Philip Lin, spent the rest of his life there. But, he adds, “Before he died at the age of 91, I asked him where he wanted to be buried. Many Chinese immigrants want their bodies to be returned to China. But not my father. He was an American and wanted to be buried in America, in Tampa, the country and city he loved.”
It is obvious that the younger Lin also loves America and that he has empathy for all other immigrants, documented or not, who have made America their home.
While not all immigrants may have his father’s educational background (Mr. Lin Sr. earned two masters degrees from American universities), Mr. Lin says, “… what my family and all American immigrants have in common is the desire to improve their families’ lives. They share the bravery of giving up the known for the unknown. They share the optimism that the future can be better than the past, that our lives are what we make of them, and that our actions control our destiny.”
As to Trump’s intention to take Mr. Lin’s U.S. citizenship away, — “a citizenship that [he] received after years of struggle by [his] parents to come to this great country, a citizenship guaranteed by the Constitution’s 14th Amendment” — Mr. Lin says “let him try. He won’t succeed.”
Mr. Lin concludes:
I have met many immigrants from many backgrounds, but I’ve never met one who wanted to become an American to live off of welfare. They understand that with the benefits of citizenship come the responsibility of being American. They pay taxes and believe in serving this country. People like my wife’s grandfather who came to the U.S., worked most of his life in a salmon cannery, but put it aside to serve, at age 51, in the U.S. military during World War II. Or an in-law, who served in the Korean War and wears his U.S. Army uniform proudly every Veterans Day. Or my cousin, David, who enrolled in ROTC while attending Brown University and served as a naval officer in the 1980s.
This is why I’m proud to be an “anchor baby.” I’m proud to have a family that taught me the true virtues of American exceptionalism—that we as a people are exceptional, not because we are born to be exceptional, but because we are born to parents who were willing to risk everything for the opportunity to become Americans and that we must make the most of this precious gift from our parents. Donald Trump may try to deport me, but this is my country and I’m not leaving.
You tell him Mr. Lin. Millions upon millions of Americans who, like you, believe in genuine American exceptionalism will back you and all the other immigrants from Mexico, Latin America, Europe and elsewhere who now call America their home.
Please read more of Mr. Lin’s column here.
Lead photo: www.shutterstock.com
