On the dining room table before me is a rumpled piece of paper, barely bigger than a sticky note.
It is the reason that I exist.
The “Alien Head-Tax Receipt” recorded the fare paid by my grandmother at what was then called the Mexican Border District.
To me it’s precious, like the companion she had with her that day — my then-infant father — as she crossed from Mexico northward into the United States.
Purple stamped ink gives the details: “Feb. 7, 1918. Admitted. Destination, El Paso.” She paid an $8 fee to the United States Immigration Service.
Like a lot of people who are aware of their family history, the documented kind, not family lore — I’m deeply troubled by the day-to-day assaults on the character of current Latino immigrants.
First-, second- and third-generation offspring can imagine drastically different outcomes that might have come about if an immigrant ancestor had been less lucky. What if the draconian policies of the Trump administration had been in place then?
What if my father had been taken from his mother’s arms that day? What if, he had been locked into some kind of shelter, hundreds of miles from her? Would he have been emotionally scarred, stunted in his development like some among the 2,000 separated children of today?
How would such trauma have affected the rest of my father’s life? Would he have met my mother?
The visa that accompanied my grandmother’s head-tax receipt is interesting because of what it doesn’t show: grandmother’s face. It’s been scratched and torn off. But you can see my father wearing a little bonnet and her hand holding his. He’s not smiling.
Years later, long after her death, I was told by her elderly sister why my grandmother left Mexico City as a 22-year-old. Her husband, my grandfather, was abusive.
A woman in her situation would face a different welcome today. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has deemed that domestic violence is not a reasonable basis for asylum.
Not that she could seek it then. The myriad of visas, of regulations we have now didn’t exist.
Rather, the Immigration Act of 1917 had just passed. It was a sweeping piece of legislation that enacted literacy tests.
Both our immigration policy and law have long been buffeted this way and that by the whims of the U.S. populace, of opportunistic politicians and of employers looking for a ready supply of cheap labor. They have not always aligned with principles of fairness or economic rationality.
Take the recent news that some immigrant members of the U.S. military have been drummed out of service, appropriately discharged for nebulous reasons that appear to be more about being foreign born than a provable threat.
Our military has long been infused with foreign-born soldiers. It’s part of our strength, particularly in recent years with the need for language skills and knowledge of differing cultures.
My father received his citizenship partly with the help and paperwork of the U.S. Navy following his service on Dec. 27, 1946. The idea that anyone would ever question his loyalty to this country is offensive.
Just as it is for so many other immigrants who came before and after him, and many of those who are arriving each day at U.S. ports. They deserve a fair chance to migrate legally.
Immigrants, by definition, are a cut above. Only the extraordinary dare to make the journey. And therein resides the potential for their greatest gifts to this land as new Americans.
About the Author
