27 February 2008
Immigration Woes
Posted by Joy Bischoff under: General; Guest Blogger .
Guest Blog by Cavetrollhead
Let me tell you my family’s story on immigration. My beautiful wife, Iryna, is from Ukraine (Russian speaking). She and I met at BYU, in Provo, UT. I was continuing with my Russian language studies and she was a language facilitator in the Russian House.
We were married in December of 1999. We rushed the marriage by a few months because falling for me had caused her grades to slip. She was therefore losing her scholarship and, therefore, her student visa.
So when we were married she had to apply for a change of status from student visa to married visa. This is not as easy as you might think. To change to married visa, one has to apply for a green card. We did this by spending about 1000 dollars, submitting the proper paperwork and waiting. She was not allowed to work in the mean time. I dropped out of college and started to work (recession time 2000.)
We messed up. We neglected to inform the INS (now BCIS) when we moved. Therefore, by the time we contacted them, we had missed one appointment they had scheduled for us. To make a long story short, they punished us by making us restart the application process, extending the period of time that she couldn’t work and making us repay all fees–again about $1000. The year was 2002.
I was making less than $10/hour at the time and was dealing with a debilitating illness. Iryna was not allowed to receive financial aid, get instate tuition, or be counted in the number in household for any government assistance. Not being counted in the household meant that we, with one child could not qualify for any government assistance. However we were living below the poverty level with three in household with a baby on the way. But because she was not counted in our household, we counted as only two.
So we crossed every t and dotted every i. She didn’t work, and we struggled to get by. We moved into the cheapest apartment we could find, and lived paycheck to paycheck.
Iryna complied with every legal requirement and received her work permit, and then her green card and finally after eight years of marriage and two children together and after buying a house, she is becoming a citizen on March 19, 2008.
Now consider the effort that we made to do things legally, rectify problems responsibly, and get her citizenship. It was well worth the effort, but it wasn’t cheap or easy or illegal. As a Ukrainian, she had no political power. When we look back at our struggle, which was sometimes bitter and hard, her citizenship will be all the sweeter. She loves the USA. However now we see that Latino ILLEGALS have political power. They receive government help. They have secret representatives in government (the clandestine All For Us and None For Them group which avoids helping anyone but Latino immigrants.) They are moving very close to amnesty. And to cap it off, they successfully branded themselves as victims.
It is hard not to feel a little bitter after we worked so hard. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame illegal immigrants. I blame the status quo of illegal immigration. I blame politicians like McCain, Bush, and others who have cheapened citizenship and encouraged ethnic discrimination in the immigration process. They have rewarded illegal behavior for one ethnicity while punishing the efforts of legal immigrants from elsewhere. It seems ironic that our government cannot racially profile Arab immigrants but it can reward only one ethnicity for illegal immigration.
I have no animus for illegals. I don’t encourage such animus. I am opposed to it. I just want readers to see the irony from our perspective. Please consider our story when you consider illegal immigration. Also understand that we are not the exception, but rather, the rule for non-Latinos. Please don’t let Latino special interest groups make this an issue about race. Don’t let them bully you with guilt. Don’t let them cheapen citizenship. Don’t let them defame the United States with claims that we are not compassionate, while continuing to take advantage of all we offer, including our continued tolerance.
10 Comments so far...
Terrie Soberg Says:
27 February 2008 at 7:29 am.
My son married a girl from Bolivia and is going through the process the legal way. They just had their second son and money is tight for them as well. They live in Tennessee, which is inundated with illegal aliens. Tennessee enacted a new law as of the first of the year to deal with employers who hire illegals. Hopefully that will make a dent, but I doubt it.
I am sure it is very frustrating for the people who follow the rules, but I am sure those people who did appreciate their life here and their citizenship much better than the ones who sneak in outside of the law.
Angela Rogin Says:
27 February 2008 at 9:13 am.
Cavetrollhead,
Iryna sounds worth it. What a challenge and so frustrating and unfair. I’m glad you shared your unusual story with us. Do your children speak Russian?
Matt Says:
27 February 2008 at 9:20 am.
That’s ridiculous. You miss one appointment and loose all that money and have to start over when the government bends over backwards for illegal immigrants. What a crock. Sorry you had to go through that.
Mac Says:
27 February 2008 at 10:11 am.
Do it the illegal way and you’re the victim, do it the legal way and get punished. Everything is upside down. Makes me sick.
E.E. Says:
27 February 2008 at 10:16 am.
Cave, sorry you and Iryna had to go through all that.
Terrie, I hope your son and his wife have an easier time. I used to think if there was marriage involved it was easy.
Cavetrollhead Says:
27 February 2008 at 11:20 am.
Thanks for the comments. I wasn’t sure this was going to make the blog. Thanks to Joy and Roy and Terrie.
It used to be easier for marriage, E.E. But my case was harder because we switched visa from student to married. It is simpler when you just start with a married visa. And of course we messed up and missed an appointment. That was our fault.
Yes, Angela, Iryna is well worth it. She is my best friend and a true Angel.
Matt and Mac, I am glad you see the irony.
Good news from Tennessee, I think Terrie.
I am glad you all read my story. Thanks. I hope nobody thinks I hate illegals. I would probably do the same as them if the law meant nothing (and I had their phenomenal health and ambition.) Most of them are good, hard working people and we can’t expect them to respect our laws if we don’t enforce them. But I think that this is an important enough issue that we must make all immigrants respect the laws, even if it causes some pain. I do resent the victim label though.
But weather you agree or disagree with me, I am glad you have taken the time to consider what I have written.
T. Fan Says:
27 February 2008 at 12:05 pm.
No it came across very clearly that you don’t hate illegal immigrants. I like what you said about not expecting them to respect our laws if we don’t enforce them. We’ve had the welcome mat out for them. Very mixed signals.
Pickles Says:
27 February 2008 at 3:02 pm.
What a sweet love story. I bet your marriage is a lot stronger because of all you had to go through. It’s great that your wife loves America enough to go through all this, and you to.
Cavetrollhead Says:
27 February 2008 at 3:34 pm.
Garsh thanks Pickles. But seriously everyone here is so nice. Yes I am a very lucky man. She is a real angel. And she has a very good grasp on American heritage and does love this country.
CindyL. Says:
27 February 2008 at 6:32 pm.
The Latinos are becoming an important voting block so the politicians are catering to them. It’s discouraging and this should be brought out into the open but even with all this going on, we still live in the greatest nation on earth and I can tell Cave and his wife feel that way too.
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