In October 2017, my blog was on immigration. I wrote it as an immigrant myself. This is a sequel of sorts.
Today, Americans are on the side of either building or not building the wall on our southern border. For multiple reasons, I am unequivocally on the side of building the wall.
I disagree with the idea of (1) letting any and all persons into this country without sufficient vetting in terms of medical and background checks and (2) giving them the ability to vote without citizenship.
America has been a country of my childhood dreams. I had every reason to daydream of somewhere far away from home – a place where there was no violence, where people lived in harmony. To a child who was trying to comprehend what life was all about, America, rightly or wrongly, represented that ideal place. By the time I grew up to be a teenager, I knew that someday, somehow, I’d be in America.
Because of this background, I put America on a pedestal – as do many immigrants. For the privilege of being allowed to be here, I was determined to become and remain self-reliant. I set my own standards of expectations as to what it took to be an American citizen – so that I would not have to become a financial burden to this country.
Everything I did was geared toward preparing for that moment. Most fundamental of all, I studied the English language – to be able to read, comprehend, write, and speak. Today, when I visit public buildings, such as hospitals and libraries, I am puzzled as to why this country provides translation services to almost anyone from any country.
While it appears to be a nice gesture on the surface, giving new immigrants such amenities means some will never assimilate to the mainstream America – because they don’t have to. Without having to learn the language, they are housed, clothed, and fed at taxpayer expense. Some of their children, in turn, end up growing up to be in the cultural mold of the old world, from which their parents escaped. Why would any immigrant want to re-create in their new world, America, what was so unbearable in the old?
Some of these children grow up with no sense of gratitude toward the country that took them in, despite the fact that, in some cases, they were refugees with nowhere else to go. Instead, they develop contempt against our country. Because of their belief system, some even have the audacity to teach their children to become anti-Christians and anti-Semitic, the very groups of people that helped bring them here out of compassion.
I have come to realize that there are two types of immigrants: (1) Those who do whatever it takes to get to a point where they can enjoy freedom and independence, even if it takes a life time to get there, and (2) those who take advantage of the existing system, paid for by the rest of the taxpayers, with no intention and/or ability to earn their own living.
Once I arrived in the U.S.A. at age 23, I was determined to become self-sufficient before I would dare think of applying for citizenship. Why?
Having become bilingual with a college degree, job opportunities came to me. So I always knew that the country from which I came was my safety net in the event things did not work out in the U.S.A. I believed that if I could not support our yet-to-be-born children and myself on my own – should anything were to happen to my American husband, who became deathly ill while we were engaged – then I needed to go back. When I was ready to leave the country, my father made sure that I had just-enough funds to buy a one-way airline ticket home. It was very nice of him but I knew I was not going back unless I absolutely had to.
Once I obtained an MBA degree in the U.S.A. and was offered a job here, I knew I had finally earned the right to become a citizen – with a privilege to vote. Between raising a family, going to school, and making sure that my ability to earn a living in this country was solid, this moment was nearly 14 years in the making since my arrival.
It takes time to fully understand what America is all about and how she functions. To those of us who worked hard to earn the right to become naturalized, the one vote afforded each citizen is a sacred privilege. In my view, therefore, those who are responsible for (1) bringing in illegal aliens and (2) giving them the ability to vote deserve nothing short of criminal prosecution.
During this country’s relatively young history, millions of Americans have died to give freedom to us all. Their sacrifice is what contributed to this country becoming the envy of the world both morally and economically. This explains why so many people from around the world continue to want to come here.
It is sad to realize that, today, most Americans don’t even know how or why this country was founded. Worse, there are so many Americans whose actions are focused on destroying what our forefathers had sacrificed their lives for – which was to make sure that future generations of Americans need not live under tyranny.
