24. The Immigrant
Our immigrant was a man who is a great example of so many who emigrate to America. He survived the Christian holocaust in Turkey as a child from 1917 through 1923. He suffered religious persecution for more than a decade after the holocaust. He hailed from a Greek island off the coast of Turkey. His father told him, “Go to America.” He left home for Istanbul at the age of 13 in 1930. He became a waiter at the Pera Palace in 1937. He would send money home when he could. In 1941, as a Christian, he was conscripted into Inonu’s work camps and sent to the Russian border for forced labor, and he survived by serving his enemy. Years later, in 1945, at the age of 27, one of the people he waited on was selected to be Ambassador to the United States and asked Chris to come to America as his butler. His response was, “You know I’m a Christian.” The Ambassador said, “I can take whoever I want.” His dream had come true. I tell this story as a context for suggesting needed changes to our immigration system today and because it is similar to so many stories of so many immigrants.
After three years serving the Ambassador in Washington, Chris wanted to become a citizen in his new country. He gave a three-month notice to the Ambassador who didn’t want him to leave the Embassy. He had obtained a job offer from a man named Blaise to wait tables at the Place Vendome and later Rive Gauche, two first-class French restaurants in Washington DC in the 1950s. Blaise, the owner, promised to sponsor Chris to apply for citizenship through Immigration and Naturalization (“INS”). Chris was an excellent waiter, although only with a fourth-grade education. Being of Greek descent, he spoke four languages, and his French was excellent.
Blaise, his sponsor, went with Chris to his immigration hearing in 1948 when he was issued a deportation order because he could not get Turkey to give him a certificate of good character. The US is well-advised to want to know about the backgrounds of its alien aspirants. Immigration required him to produce a certificate of good character from his home country. Blaise, his sponsor, helped him with the paperwork. He got a temporary work permit until his case was heard on appeal.
The Turkish government continued withholding the certificate. The Turkish ambassador was not happy with him leaving the embassy. The country receiving the alien aspirant should have the right to check the aspirant's past criminal record. A large problem today is the aliens once admitted asylum seekers, often disappear into the underground economy. Truth be known from past records of the 10 million seeking asylum, more than half will never show up for the hearing (55%) and only 10% of those that do (45%) will be approved, or 45,000 add in 2 million got aways and that’s that is 45,000 out of 12 million or only 3.75%! Over 96% falsely claimed asylum, never showed up for the hearing, or just walked across. Asylum requires they are being persecuted although most are ineligible, they all claim it to gain rapid entry. The asylum system for entry is broken.
I guess my first suggestion for the political class would be the following. Homeland Security and Immigration don’t have the manpower to monitor the surge in alien aspirants. We should consider promptly starting a Sponsorship Program and require the Sponsors (employers usually) to file a sponsorship form for the alien that both the alien and the employer would sign. Registering the form would extend a work permit and begin a process toward citizenship. Should the citizen aspirant leave that job, the employer would file a notice with INS, and his new employer would be required to inform INS that he was now the sponsor in a reasonable period of time to prevent the work permit from expiring.
Chris’s whole life was service. The people he waited on included Harpo Marx. Jacqueline Kennedy often requested Chris as her waiter. Later, he opened a 1,000 sq. foot sandwich shop where he stayed until he died in 1994.
My second suggestion to INS, or Homeland Security is that they should accept solicitations from employers who need employees and connect alien aspirants directly into the Sponsorship Program.
The employers must be fully willing to sponsor the alien who in turn would be their employee. The Sponsorship Program will work for two reasons. There are not enough INS agents to monitor or even know where the mass of immigrants falsely seeking asylum are. Furthermore, the employer and the immigrant have an economic need for each other. Sponsorship should also involve helping the alien aspirant to find a place to stay, taking the financial onus off politicians and communities, who have enough to do.
Blaise was Chris’s sponsor and later, along with his new father-in-law, went to final hearings to testify that he was of good character. At that time, over four years had passed, and Chris had a record of showing up at work and no deviant behaviors. While eligible for asylum, Chris did not use that entry method.
This leads to my second suggestion. America has always had a good heart. However, with over 96% of entries lying about seeking asylum, not showing up for their hearing, or merely sneaking across the border, we must change our law on asylum. Maybe we should require that all asylum seekers should seek asylum in the first country beyond their border. Our country should make it clear that we will not be a secondary country for asylum. Exceptions should be rare, such as Afghanistan where residents who worked with us were at risk.
Chris attended naturalization and Immigration courses in Washington. He was allowed to work, to marry and start a family. No social services nor medical coverage were offered to him. After almost five years in 1952, Chris became a citizen. Chris so loved America.
My third recommendation is that all alien aspirants on a work permit should stay on a work permit for a period of at least three years, during which time, be required to take a naturalization course. That would teach them English and what democracy really means, i.e. liberty with responsibility. Chris used to scold Greek immigrants by saying, “We are in America; speak English.”
Within a little over three years, we have allowed by some estimates including got-aways, 12,000,000 aliens access and counting. This is more than three times the average per year. The system is overwhelmed. Limiting aspirants to 5,000 a day doesn’t change the fact that over 96% are lying and merely using the asylum claim to gain access. The asylum program today is broken.
The present situation leads to my fourth and final recommendation, which is that we need to close the border now, for at least a couple of years, until we have time to weed through the nearly ten million asylum seekers and the two million got-aways. This is a huge number compared to our long-term average of one million a year.
A Sponsorship Program with employers offering sponsorship and the issuance of work permits, along with notification to INS, would be a definite improvement. The coordination of private businesses (who have an economic interest) with INS to identify, document, and start the alien aspirants on the road to citizenship will also identify those without sponsorship who may have a different agenda and need to be deported, so that they may be deported. After a few months, aliens encountered without a sponsor would serve as a red flag.
In closing to my liberal friends who think our generosity is making a dent in global poverty, I would request that the reader go to YOUTUBE and watch “gumballs immigration” for 6 minutes by Roy Beck. Of the 5.8 billion in the world who live on less than $2 a day, very few are in Mexico. This underscores with simple logic the false notion that we are having an effect on global poverty. Also take note I did not focus on Fentanyl or child trafficking but believe my four suggestions will greatly mitigate those destructive intrusions too.
Chris was the humblest man I knew and truly loved America, as so many immigrants do. I can only hope in my life to be as humble and as thankful to be an American. Chris was my dad.
Have a blessed week!
Tony Christ