Am I Illegal? Are You?

If “birthright” citizens, as anti-immigrant Republicans and tea baggers call them, are declared illegal, how far back will we go? Will I, and other descendants of illegals, become retroactive non-citizens?

My mother’s father came to this country illegally from Italy in the World War I era wave that brought most of the people who later produced such cultural touchstones as the Godfather epics, Little Italies in major cities, pizza as fast food, and the reality show Jersey Shore.

On his first attempt to become an American, my teenage grandfather spent the crossing in the hold of the ocean liner George Washington alternately trying to memorize the identity on the papers he purchased illegally and vomiting from seasickness. When the boat finally landed, he was held at Ellis Island and found to be without papers — a WOP — and shipped back to Italy.

Many months later, after earning enough money to try again, he made a second crossing, studying his illegal papers until he had his false I.D. down perfectly. He had also made connections with Italians in this country who vouched for him at Ellis Island by telling the authorities that he had both family and a job here.

He repaid the debt to them within only four or five years by performing various services (see the previous reference to the Godfather movies) but without landing any jail time. He also taught himself to speak English by studying the newspapers left behind on the New York subway, worked many legitimate jobs, like delivering ice for ice boxes, and married my grandmother. She was born in America but I don’t know if her parents were “legal” Italian immigrants, although instinctively I doubt that. Sometime in the ’40s or ’50s, long after my mother was born, he studied for his citizenship test and became a proud, naturalized American.

So if we repeal the citizenship clause of the 14th amendment, which states that, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside,” where does that leave me and the millions of other Americans with a similar family history? For that matter, where does it leave all Americans except those who were here before the first Europeans began illegally arriving from Spain? Or the ones who were here when the Spanish arrived, but themselves traveled illegally over the land bridge across the Bering Strait?

Making even the most lily white among us, say Sen. Lindsey Graham for example, retroactive non-citizens will do nothing to solve the much ballyhooed illegal immigration problem. People come to America, as my grandfather did, to make new and better lives than they left behind. And, as was the case for my grandfather, no hurdle is too high to discourage that goal. There is no point in trying to figure out who is worthy of a piece of the American pie. That kind of thinking is based in fear and scarcity. We should instead try to make our country more like the shining symbol that inspires this human determination.

Connect: