Immigration dustup

In the political news of late there has been considerable angst concerning porous borders and illegal immigration. Yet we as a country are a nation of immigrants. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my light beside the golden door." -- Emma Lazarus. So it says right there on the base of the Statue-of-Liberty in New York Harbor. What happened?

Here in Southwestern Nebraska we have two excellent examples of immigrants building community while transforming into Americans. Not hyphenated Americans just proud Americans.

The early 1900s attracted to free land in this area a large number to ethnic Germans emigrated here from Russia. The movie and stage play "Fiddler on the Roof" depicted the disruption of their lives when leaving Russia. Earlier Catherine the Great of Russia had evidently been a little disappointed with the native Slavic people that farmed in the rich breadbasket of Europe in and around the Ukrainian area. She provided incentives for a large number of Germans to come to the area farm and do business. Those people brought Germany with them and never really assimilated with the natives to become Russian. They kept their German language, religion and customs. Their descendants told me that the women never even learned the Russian language and the men only to do business.

Then in a great upheaval the Bolshevik Revolution took over governing the great Soviet Union. The dead Empresses' promises of German settlers being exempt from military service among a long list of cherished promises that caused them to go to Russia in the first place was conveniently forgotten. Their answer: Immigrate to the United States, cheap land and freedom. They came in droves. Those that settled here came from the Volga River valley around the city of Frank.

These were the people, a majority of our neighbors, that I grew up with. They were good farmers, industrious, a tight Lutheran community. To cause insult all one had to do was call them "Rooshions". Services in the Westside Congregational Church in McCook and probably others were totally conducted in German. We lived on a telephone party line and the preferred language spoken among neighbors was German. 'Twas a bit disconcerting for neighbors who wanted to listen in. All that stopped though during WWII. The German language here died and ever since English has been the preferred tongue. No longer are they "Germans from Russia" they are 100% American.

Another immigration success story in this area concerns several families that came from Mexico in the very early 1900's. No money they lived in old boxcars south of the tracks. They quickly earned a reputation for being good workers. Sugar beets, potatoes, corn and truck gardens all raised nearby required hand labor and these immigrants accompanied by their natural born kids knew how to work! The original couples' language was Spanish but the generation born here quickly learned English and taught their parents. Most of the grandkids refused to learn Spanish (a mistake in my way of thinking) and insisted on being 100% American. Good people, a real asset to this community.

Illegal immigration has been a non-problem for most of this country's history. Those arriving from overseas were processed, those with disease rejected, registered and sent their way. Those arriving from Canada and Mexico with intent to immigrate also were registered and given papers to make their "visiting" status legal. Most succeeded through stint of hard work, made the effort to learn English and became proud citizens of their adopted country.

Now we are experiencing large numbers of non-citizens sneaking across our borders in hopes of getting a better life than was possible in their country of birth. Unregistered these "illegal aliens" tend to hide from police and ICE for fear of having their illegal status exposed and being deported. Having no way to gain the rights and privileges that come with citizenship they are condemned to hide from society. A system that forces them to not integrate with their neighbors and become American is just dumb.

President Reagan in 1986 signed a bill granting amnesty for illegal aliens in country at that time. The agreement was to also stop illegal immigration so all newcomers would be registered and would have a path to citizenship. The amnesty worked just fine but the rest didn't happen. The illegal hopefuls just keep coming.

I can't blame people for wanting a better life for themselves, their children and succeeding generations. Obviously our immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed. It is a problem for we who vote as it is hard to sort out how the candidates running for office stand on the matter. If their intended course of action for solution to the mess is one of compassion and good sense let's get them elected. If their solution is only a political gambit in an attempt to buy votes do not mark their name on the ballot. For sure we don't need any more liberal/progressive Democrats who want for "Hope and Change" to our country.