One Immigrants Story

have decided to tell a story today. It is a long story, though I will try to keep it short. It is a story of a man who served his country, fell in love, and was nearly destroyed for following the law. Of course, that man was me.

I served in the US Navy for six years, and while stationed in Japan I met the lady of my life. My wife-to-be was Bolivian/Japanese, born and raised in South America, and had followed her father back to the land of his birth only four years before.

I was honorably discharged from the Navy, and almost immediately was employed in a technical support position working for Citibank Japan.After eighteen months in my consultant position, my work was noticed by personnel in Citibank, New York, and I was offered a permanent position, with a significant pay raise, and all the titles and accoutrements associated with the position. I was extremely excited as I gave them an emphatic, “Yes!”, and made preparations for the transfer.

Unfortunately, this excellent twist of fate was soon turned into the worst decision of my life. You see… My wife needed a Visa to enter the US due to her Bolivian nationality.

The US Embassy in Tokyo recommended that we pursue the Visa in Bolivia, as there was insufficient time to start the process, and due to paperwork my wife needed from Bolivia, we agreed.

So my wife and our 7-month old daughter headed to Bolivia as I went to New York City for what we expected to be a relatively short separation.

Two years and three months later, with no end to the immigration nightmare in sight, I resigned my dream position, and moved to Bolivia. Both my wife and I were suffering from severe depression, my work had been suffering, and she was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown.

Because of the economic situation, and my lack of having any type of work available in Bolivia, I brought my daughter up to the United States to live with my mother, content with the possibility that even if we had to live in poverty, we would be together.

Fortunately, Amoco was in the process of acquiring part of the Bolivian state-owned oil company (YPF Bolivia), and I was able to obtain a position as the Director of IT for the new company created, EP Chaco SA. The next few years were some of the best in my life. I loved my job, my family was eventually reunited, and we added a new son. The problems of my wife’s Visa were out of sight and out of mind, as we could wait forever as long as we were together; though the battle of the bureaucracy did continue.

In 1998, after I had been in Bolivia for a little over a year, my father, who lives in Topeka, KS, contacted Senator Sam Brownback, now the presidential candidate from Kansas, to request his assistance in pushing my wife’s Visa paperwork. When I heard this, I got rather excited, as Senator Brownback was the sitting chairman of the Senate Committee on Immigration. Surely, my home state Senator could do something to help out a veteran.

Boy, was I wrong. The simple response was that, “I’m sorry, he’s not a constituent.” I found his response to my father who WAS and still IS a constituent to be highly unsatisfactory. But I let it slide, because the Senator was technically correct. Despite being born and raised in Kansas, my last place of residence in the US was New York.

Then the economic crisis hit Bolivia. In 2000, the economy of Bolivia crashed. I had stepped out to create my own company, and within a two month period, the vast majority of the clients we were supporting could no longer pay their bills. As I was the most expensive employee, and I could not afford my own salary, I took the easy way out and returned to the US, once again, bringing my daughter with me to stay with my mother.

Despite landing in Kansas City, the only immediate work I could find required me to relocate to Dallas. Once again, I started working my way back up the job scale, changing over to a full time position at a new company once my initial six-month contract was completed.

Since I was in Dallas, my wife and I contacted the Mexican Embassy in Bolivia to request a Visa to allow her to “visit” Mexico while waiting for the final issuance of her Visa. However, the Mexican government turned her down, telling her that she was a “risk” of illegally immigrating into the US!!!!! Isn’t that a crock?

Finally, after yet another eighteen months of waiting, with the family starting the downslide into depression yet again, I was able to contact Senator Phil Gramm of Texas. After the experience with Brownback, I wasn’t too hopeful. However, Senator Gramm’s office responded quickly, and despite the incident of 9/11, and with the push of Senator Gramm, the US Embassy finally issued my wife and step-daughter their Visas in January of 2002.

So why do I tell this story? I tell this story for a variety of reasons.

1. Because I insisted that my wife and step-daughter enter the United States LEGALLY, it caused us a delay of almost six years over if I had them enter the US Illegally.
2. I question Senator Brownback’s “conservative values” when he refuses to help a person trying to follow the legal process, then turns around and sponsors a bill (last year) to give amnesty to those who violated the law.
3. Why are we even considering giving criminals an amnesty when those who followed the law have had to pay such a high price?
4. What impact will this bill have on our government’s budget? What will happen to our schools when the current illegal immigrants bring in all of their OTHER children and flood our schools with now legal immigrants.

Our government, including Sam Brownback, is selling out Americans for their own political motives. Whether it is the Republicans kowtowing to their big business contributors, or the Democrats trying to “win” the Hispanic vote, it is the American Taxpayer who ends up footing the bill.

Let both Senator Brownback and Senator Roberts KNOW the harm that they this bill promotes. The first amnesty in 1986 was compassionate, and it failed. This amnesty is simply stupid, and it will also fail (though we will get another 30 MILLION citizens over the next 12 years). As we have all heard a million times, “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me!” So who is going to be the fool here?