Keeping Together is Progress, Staying Together is Hard!
Fleeing a communist takeover from her native Czechoslovakia in 1948 may have been the best thing that ever happened to then future Secretary of State Madeline Albright. Her confirmation to this position made her not only the first female Secretary of State but the highest ranking woman in the government. Since her arrival to the United States at the tender age of eleven she “graduated from Wellesley College with honors in Political Science, and received her master’s degree and doctorate from Columbia University’s Department of Public Law and Government. Secretary Albright served as a staff member on the National Security Council, a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic Studies, a professor at Georgetown University, President of the Center for National Policy and, finally, as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations before being unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate in January 1977 as Secretary of State.” [1](Immigration Update, 2018)
Today families hoping to find refuge in the United States from strife in their homelands are having a much more difficult time surmounting the growing number of hurdles put in place by the government. This year US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has decided “to exclude domestic and gang violence as reasons for immigrants to be granted asylum. Homeland Security’s “credible fear” policy instructs authorities to deny asylum to immigrants fleeing domestic abuse and gang violence. Critics have blasted the new policy as an affront to human rights and a systemic attack on immigrant women.” [2](James, 2018)
My parents were of the generation who thought they were the children of a free Czechoslovakia, the only democracty in central Europe.
Madeline Albright
This decision means that people facing credible threats in places where they cannot be protected by their own governments are finding it more difficult to find refuge. Most recently the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the government to fight against unfair practices. “The lawsuit seeks a stay of removal for immigrants who, the ACLU argues, could face “grave danger of being raped, beaten, or killed” in their home countries if they are forced to return to them. The ACLU’s lawsuit says Carmen and her daughter left their native El Salvador because they feared for their lives amid extortion attempts by gang members. Some of Carmen’s friends and co-workers have already been murdered, the ACLU claims.” (James, 2018) In this case a federal judge was able to intervene at the eleventh hour. The mother and daughter pair were returned to the United States after being deported back to their native El Salvador so they could have a proper court hearing. Others in their position may not be as lucky.
Things are not all lost. It appears that perhaps both public sentiment and in some cases the scales of justice are on the side of the poor, hungry and/or foreign victims of organized crimes, particularly when they are children. At present the US immigration service is working hard to reunite families separated by previous immigration policies. “Roughly 559 of the 2,551 children remain in federal custody, down from 572 a week earlier, according to a separate Thursday court filing. They included 386 whose parents had been removed from the country, that filing said.” [3](Stempel, 2018)
On the bright side, some families are still able to benefit from current immigration policies. “First lady Melania Trump’s immigrant parents have been sworn in as U.S. citizens, making them the latest beneficiaries of the kind of “chain migration” their presidential son-in-law would like to curb. The Knavses were eligible for green cards and to apply for citizenship because their daughter is a citizen, having taken the oath herself in 2006, shortly after she married Donald Trump in 2005. (The first lady, born Melanija, changed her name to Melania Knauss when she started modeling in Europe in the 1990s.)
Melania and her parents aren’t the only members of Trump’s family to benefit from the policy he derides. The president’s paternal grandfather and mother did, too, migrating from Germany and Scotland, respectively, to join siblings in New York. (Trump’s first wife and mother to his three oldest children, Ivana, also is an immigrant, from Czechoslovakia.) ” [4](Puente, 2018)
For many people family is everything. Mothers, fathers and children all the world over are willing to make any sacrifice necessary to see that their loved ones are happy. Keeping loved ones not only safe but close if necessary used to be an important benefit of migration to the United States. Changing of the guard can come with changing of the rules. Big problems can arise are when it appears that the same rights and opportunities are not reserved for everyone.
[1] Immigration Update – Famous American Immigrants (August 12th, 2018) https://bit.ly/2MzOfNL
[2] James, Mike (August 10th, 2018) Judge orders plane carrying deported mother and daughter to turn around https://usat.ly/2M5U6hH
[3] Stempel, Jonathan (August 10th, 2018) Judge encouraged by U.S. plan to reunite separated immigrant families https://reut.rs/2Mi27PU
[4] Puente, Maria (August 9th, 2018) First lady Melania Trump’s immigrant parents are sworn in as U.S. citizens https://usat.ly/2KJnoNu
