Immigration Fraud
how long does it take for us to forget where we came from?
When I first became eligible to vote it in a national election, it was 1980. The nation was in crisis. The previous twenty years had been tough sledding. The end of an age can be like that.
Tonight's post has some OPINION in it and is longer than normal. I tread lightly and ask each of you to accept that this is just one person's opinion. I hope there is room for that in each of you. The world is not not black and white. We live in shades of gray.Today I am going to talk about immigration, discrimination, leadership, the faultiness of our memories, and our tendency to gloss over the things that work against our worldview. Sounds like a tall order for a short post but I will do my level best and keep it light.
I am a life-long lover of history. I am in a history-focused book club and read a lot before joining the club. Frequent readers will also know that I am not nostalgic. I believe life gets better as it has for the last 5000 years in a steady path. I think that those who purport “things are falling apart and yearn for the good old days” have likely not taken the time to study what they were like. I think this is a symptom in people’s lives when they stop looking outward. It is certainly common as we age and is worth guarding against in my opinion.
Compromise Is Leadership
Reaching the voting age in 1980 was an interesting time. The previous twenty years had critically shaped America. Here is a set of timeline highlights:
1960 — Mark is born :)
1963 — President Kennedy assassinated
1964-1965 — Civil Rights 100 years after the Civil War
1968 — RFK & MLK Assassinated, Nixon, Act 1 elected
1972 — Watergate break-in, Nixon, Act 2, Inflation
1973 — Vietnam War ends (19 years of involvement)
1974 — Nixon resigns, national disgrace, OPEC Oil Crisis #1, More Inflation, Failures in energy-intensive businesses, Recession
1976 — Bicentennial
1979 — OPEC Oil Crisis #2, Continued breakdown of energy-intensive businesses (cars, steel, etc), Recession
1980 — Reagan elected
What’s In A Leader?
Great leaders seem to emerge when the times demand them. Perhaps there are always fundamentally decent people ready to step up when people need them. The recent past gives me doubts.
I believe that Ronald Reagan was elected at a crossroads period for America. I think that he had many policy initiatives that were important. I also believe that he came into power at the end of a massive period of malaise as the country had struggled with the oil shocks and was transitioning away from the Industrial Age and embracing the Information Age. Being (or becoming) President in the 1970s was being dealt a bad hand. Living in Buffalo, NY, and having a Dad working at a steel plant built before World War I with limited improvements over the years presented challenges. Oil was $4 a barrel (fixed price) in 1973. By 1979, oil was $25 a barrel. In a post-World War 2 period, Europe and Asia were largely destroyed and the United States enjoyed the period from 1946 to 1973 with oil prices ranging from about $2 to $4 a barrel. Growth and prosperity were hard to avoid. Here’s the history of oil prices.
As the Industrial Age was ebbing and international businesses had been rebuilt after the War with more modern approaches (electric furnaces, not slow-cooked coal, Toyotas not Oldsmobiles), the OPEC oil shocks transformed the nation.
While many ignore it, Reagan was a forward-thinking leader from a state that had flourished and led the American economy since the end of World War II. A place that welcomed immigrants and was already setting the trends for tomorrow. When times are tough, we look for others to blame. While there was always resistance, Reagan is the last American President with the leadership skills to do comprehensive immigration reform. All Presidents have since just yelled around the edges and offered little of value. Reagan brought compromise and that was his genius. His nickname through the years was “The Great Communicator”. Bill Clinton accomplished similarly on a smaller scale. What set these men apart was leadership and the ability to compromise. They had a vision, focus, and attention span beyond social media. One of the things that make their ability to govern all the more amazing is they did it by negotiating with the “other” party. Hooray!
What these two men have in common is that the most avowed extremists in their own parties would never countenance their approach to governing today. The parties have both become rock-throwing zealots. Reagan dealt with “Tip” O’Neill while Clinton worked with Newt Gingrich. For those that read “Thanksgiving Dinner”, imagine sitting those two men together! The party of Reagan would crucify him today for his forward-thinking policy and action on immigration. Likewise, the party of Clinton would crucify him today for his forward-thinking policies on means-testing all sorts of social spending and government subsidies. Crazy people (on both sides) have constructed an alternate universe in their minds and have figured out how to rationalize that their thinking is sound.
What has set America apart from the rest of the developed world since World War II is that slowing birthrates did not cripple the United States as it has in parts of Asia and throughout Europe. This is not because Americans continued having five children but rather we wisely continued to supplement native-born children with the fresh influx of immigrants. Many times in our history, the hatred pointed at immigrants has been significant.
It will always be easiest to find someone to blame rather than look in the mirror. This will never be mistaken, in the long-term as leadership but rather just good old-fashioned jingoism. One of the expressions that strike a chord for me in the debate about immigration is that “these illegals are all committing immigration fraud so they are all criminals”. Since the statute of limitations has long expired, I thought tonight I might talk about that.
Immigration & Me
So what does THIS seeming tangent have to do with today’s title Immigration Fraud? Frequent readers know that I like to sneak in a play on words at times as a title. Today is a little bit of that. I enjoy the genealogy hobby and we will go there next. Methodically piecing together the story of my paternal family has been an off-and-on project of mine for the last five-plus years. My paternal grandmother had the maiden name of Durkin. Her Dad was named John and he traveled to America and established the basis for citizenship for my family, or so it appears…
As part of my genealogy research, I have recovered the citizenship papers of my paternal grandmother’s father (my great-grandfather). My great-grandfather was named John DURKIN. Prevailing law at the time allowed him to come to America, stay UNINTERRUPTED for a period, and attain citizenship. By virtue of his sacrifice, his children would be allowed to come and become citizens. This is what some recent “leaders” refer to as “chain migration”. In the same way that my great-grandfather knew of the “Irish need not apply” signs, presumably better educated “thought leaders” of the current age have figured out similar catchphrases to express their disdain.
Here’s what I know. Thank you to the wonderful organization of one of my second cousins “M”, who I have come to know through a genealogy project I organize. My paternal grandmother, Marie DURKIN, and five of her siblings became American citizens through the efforts of their Dad. Her father John DURKIN (one of my great grandfathers), who many referred to as “Jack the Yank”, traveled to the United States in the early 1890s and achieved citizenship on February 2nd, 1901 in a Buffalo, NY Courthouse.
What I also know is that his wife, Mary (Normanly) Durkin remained in Ireland and never traveled to America. I also know that they managed to have a son in 1895, 1898, and 1901 in rural Ireland. Part of my Catholic faith includes the Immaculate Conception and virgin birth of Jesus but I am sure this does not apply to the last three Durkin children born in County Sligo Ireland while John toiled UNINTERRUPTED in the Buffalo area. My only conclusion is that my great-grandfather committed “immigration fraud”. I would imagine such occurrences were common in the day. The truth, for me, is that life is not black and white but shades of gray. My family was part of the continuing stream of “tired and poor” that Emma Lazarus speaks of.
Why today’s title? In these polarized times, it seems there are many of my fellow citizenry who would load my great-grandfather into a detention center and deport him. This is where black-and-white thinking leads I am afraid.
For my fellow history lovers who might remember the seven Wonders of the ancient world, Emma Lazarus wrote “The New Colossus”. It may be useful for those whose opinions remain malleable in these times. What I surely know is that the sacrifice of my great-grandfather regardless of its imperfection has been part of the transformation of all the lives that came afterward. There are nearly 8 billion people on the rock and a precious few of us (< 5%) reside in this special place where remarkable opportunity exists.
Are we “chosen” or perhaps fortunate? So much of our faith traditions linger on the chosen thing. In a world of so-called good and evil are people GENUINELY prepared to believe or accept that 5% are chosen and the rest are simply chaff? What is the threshold? What is the standard? When you are born into a good fortune (or chosen) what is your responsibility toward others? I rarely am political in this Newsletter because:
I choose not to be
I believe most all of us are trapped in an echo chamber that reinforces what makes us feel good and justifies our worldview
I know from my experience that regardless of the bond that might exist between friends, acquaintances and even closer bonds, a challenge of any sort to our beliefs brings out some darkness
I am writing this originally as St. Patrick’s Day approaches, the patron saint of Ireland brings some celebration for some in our country. I am glad there was not a movement to deport all these fraudsters as the lives they have made helped define my occasional Zoom calls that bring our family together on a regular basis. While some people that know me well might disagree, I think our family has been a net positive for America. I kinda like a lot of them. I hope that my family that might read my Newsletter, as well as those to who I am not related to, will take a pause and realize that immigration has always been the lifeblood of what has made our country so great. It has also always been gray, not black and white, as real life is. I also realize that big words like “immigration fraud” ARE PREPOSTEROUS and not applicable to those who know how the system works (and perhaps might simultaneously benefit from its inherent exploitation while they simultaneously rail against it).
Did you know that President Trump’s third wife (President Trump single-handedly tripled the total divorces of all American Presidents in our hallowed near 250-year history) Melania is an immigrant (as was his first wife)? By the way, President Reagan was our first divorced President and remains one of my favorites because he arrived in truly desperate times. Perspective, nevertheless, never hurts and can lead to better understanding. An interesting fact is that Melania’s parents got their green cards and citizenship through “chain migration”. I guess it wasn’t always a dirty word or immigration fraud. Thankfully they didn’t come from “shithole countries”. I suppose in the mid-1800s the same euphemism seemed to apply to Ireland by some.
What I know is that amongst the eight DURKIN children born in rural County Sligo Ireland, six came to America and their lives were transformed. They arrived due to the (1) sacrifice of their father and mother (2) the immigration fraud that he participated in (3) the “chain migration” that a significant portion of my fellow citizens now believes to be abhorrent.
I am glad that Melania Knauss’ parents are citizens. I am also glad that my grandmother Marie DURKIN was also welcomed into the fold along with her sister Bea DURKIN who arrived under contract as an indentured servant for a term of ten years1. It has been a joy to rediscover all of my family that sprouted from rural Ireland in County Sligo. I hope that I never forget their sacrifice and can always let their experience inform my thoughts and opinions about who we want and need as Americans.
ADDED AFTER ORIGINAL POST:
This is what was on President Reagan’s mind as his Presidency wound down. I love this speech. One way to assess the character of our Presidents is to observe how they choose to spend their time afterward and the political and personal “capital” they accrued. It is fun when posterity and the public record helps us make an honest assessment of the person. Thanks to my friend Scott for reminding me of this!
The Poll & Music
Tonight’s song is GREAT. Sometimes we just know a tune, love it, and might not even realize what it is about. This might be one of them as the title surprised me. I am confident that my friend “M”, my musicology major already knows what is about to play. He recently shared with me that the band in question had a pretty good run of albums in their day. I hope the rest of you just enjoy it. NOW FOR THOSE OF YOU THAT PRESSED THE LINK FOR THE EARWORM THAT WAS PROMISED, IN THE SAME WAY, THAT REAGAN’S FINAL SPEECH HAS STAYED WITH ME, HERE’S A BOP SONG WITH A CONTAGIOUS BEAT that just might stay with you.
What’s Next
Next time, it will be “Let's Play Pong”. When scientists make a hypothesis, they rarely turn out. That is the genius of the scientific method. Each time we prove something WRONG, we get a little smarter. Imagine if someone approached you and surmised “I bet flies could be pretty good at playing video games”.
My 2nd cousin corrected my earlier claim of an indentured servant. Bea remained connected to the family she worked for most of her life and retained a connection to the children. While there may have been a service expectation, Bea was not indentured.
Great read. I love your interpretation of “immigration fraud”. I do believe that immigrants who wished to become American citizens, had to study our constitution and familiarize themselves with our government in order to be able to vote. Unfortunately, today, many people are of the opinion that illegals should be allowed to vote! I believe the old standard should prevail and that neither legal or illegal immigrants should be granted the right to vote, unless they studied the laws of our land, passed a citizenship exam, and then finally took the oath of Allegiance to our great country. Becoming a citizen of the US is a goal, an earned honor to be a permanent part of these United States.
Check out Reagan’s last speech as president.