When Do Legal Immigrants Get to ‘Speak Out’?

AT: I went to El Salvador last year.  This commentary explains how the experience finally reconciled me with the conservative position on immigration.  I emphasize the pain caused to a beautiful people, the Salvadorans, by their living in a state not like Jesus in Egypt, but more like the Babylonian captivity of the Old Testament.  Sometimes history presents lose-lose scenarios where a trend has no winners. Illegal immigration belongs in such a category.

Since the Washington Post and the New York Times will never cover what I learned, I will “speak out” here.  I hope it does some good.

Immigration is emotional

In the Los Angeles Civic Center, my wife took an oath to become a citizen.  After sixteen years together, fourteen years of marriage, and over a decade with a green card, she had finally cleared all the hurdles, made her decision, and decided to become American.

Few experiences can rival such a scene.  Masses of people from every corner of the globe, dressed in their finest, carry bouquets and snap photographs.  This happened before the homelessness crisis caused tents and human waste to cover the sidewalks downtown.

I recall waiting with Iranians, Mexicans, Filipinos, Germans, British, Nigerians, Indians, Israelis, Russians, Poles, Cubans, Venezuelans, and Guatemalans, wiping the sweat from our multicolored brows, as we waited for our people to emerge with envelopes full of all-important papers.

Papers, papers, papers.  I grew up knowing that documents really mattered.  Because before my wife became a citizen, my mother and father were immigrants.  more here