Borderlands

 Let’s talk about the past for a moment.

1904– lots of my ancestors came to the US that year. The Dutch merchant ancestors came for business. They had some funds, but not a lot. The Eastern European ancestors also came for a better life— not only in terms of opportunity but also due to religious discrimination. They had so little money that family units split, sending fathers ahead before their children in order to earn passage.

What did my relatives need in order to enter the US?

1. They had to pass a medical test. No tuberculosis, STDs, or epilepsy. (I’d have been sent back if they knew about my seizures. I probably wouldn’t have shared that!)

2. They had to prove that they wouldn’t be destitute for lack of a job.

3. They had to produce a letter from a friend or a relative in the US to prove their identity.

4. If they had a criminal conviction demonstrating “moral turpitude” for transgressions such as polygamy, or if they were anarchists, they could be excluded.

Look at number three again. That’s what they needed to come in. A letter from a friend or family member was all that was needed to show proof of identity and destination until 1918.

And if they wanted to become citizens? (All of my first generation ancestors chose to become naturalized.) Those who came before 1906 could go to just about any court and be deemed “thoroughly law-abiding and industrious…” and “of good moral character.” There were no language requirements. There was no test. They became Americans. I am an American thanks to their journeys.

Note, there was still discrimination. Many of these requirements can be subjective. As I mentioned, some illnesses are more visible than others, and a third class boat ride across the Atlantic could wear on even the healthiest of bodies. There was discrimination in terms of employment which could make someone seem more likely to become a “public charge” and cultural discrimination which could affect the assessment of a candidate’s character.

But what if immigrants nowadays were assessed on these terms? The great majority of people who are being mistreated because they are “illegal criminals” actually came here after jumping through much more challenging hoops than my great-grandparents.

Papa came to the US a little later. In the 1920s, the US was limiting its border crossings with quotas and stricter requirements. My grandfather arrived the same year as the Johnson-Reed Act which established quotas based on nationality. The purpose was to exclude less desirable ethnicities.

By the time Papa came here, these were the requirements:

1. A visa issued from the US embassy or consulate in his home country (Poland)

2. A sponsor in the US who would support him and his family until they got settled. (This was Papa’s father.)

3. Financial means to tide him and his family over until they reached their sponsor (not hard— Papa’s father was in NY.)

4. As before, there was a medical test and, for some, that included intellectual testing.

5. There were strict quotas, specifically limiting immigrants from Asia, Eastern Europe and Southern Europe. Officially, the annual quotas were based on 2% of the foreign-born people in the US of each nationality in the 1890 census. In effect, it favored Western and Northern European immigrants.

Note: there were no restrictions on immigrants from the Western Hemisphere. Asian immigrants were not allowed at all.

Further note: there were a total of 450 workers in the US Border Control team in the year Papa arrived.

So, yes, we have a hundred years’ history of borders having race-based restrictions. It’s not something I’m proud of. Most of what I celebrate of my American heritage involves the ideal of equal access through diversity.

That said, Papa basically needed a family member here who could support him, and he needed to be in good (enough) health. He was lucky that there were no big backlogs because his family made it over right at the beginning of restricted entry.

It was harder to enter the country when Papa came, but still naturalization was not complicated. The new laws restricted entry to those who could be naturalized. Once you were admitted in, you could be naturalized.

Our immigrants now make it to the US and can wait years for their citizenship to come through. Some wait years just for their working papers.

Most come with the same hopes and efforts that my ancestors brought. They don’t ask a lot — their needs are so much more humble than the lifestyle I’m accustomed too— but they work so hard.

If you want to see industrious, look at an immigrant parent trying to make a better world for his or her children. Moral turpitude? Nope—most immigrants actually are more law-abiding than their citizens peers. They honor their new country.

Have you ever been to a naturalization ceremony? It’s thrilling to see the hope and the devotion when someone is sworn in as a citizen. I wish I could travel back in time and celebrate with my great grandparents or with Papa and his siblings.

It’s much harder now. The discrimination can be just as strong, but the hoops you need to jump through are not designed to help those immigrants with the greatest need.

There are several young families who I feel honoured to support in their journey to US citizenship. Right now, the goal feels far out of reach for them. For some, even, the hoops they expected to jump through have changed midair and paperwork that made them once think they were here legally is now under more scrutiny. It is a scary time.

Yes, I would love to celebrate with my ancestors. But even more, I hope with all my heart that I’ll be able to celebrate with some of these families someday. I look forward to bringing out the blueberries for topping a flag cake and seeing some of my friends make a wish as the blow out their citizenship cake candles.