The crazy irony is that my friends in Norway and Switzerland have zero desire to immigrate to the US and part of that is our delusional politicians but also that their countries have an excellent social safety net far surpassing ours...
Apparently that is not always the case, Our neighbors from Finland came here to Texas over twenty years ago, which has little safety net except for county hospitals, to make money. That's why all my neighbors from various other countries came here, and many are people of color, as are many of my neighbors who were born here.
That's what's so so great about Houston; there are lots of friendly folks who have immigrated from all over the world! The president of our neighborhood HOA immigrated from India some years back. Further into the subdivision are people who have also immigrated from India and other parts of Southeast Asia. I only know them enough to wave at them when I am driving in that part of the subdivision. The president of the HOA walks the length of the subdivision often, so he knows many of them personally, based on discussions we had at the HOA meetings.
Speaking of knowing immigrants personally, my little CPA/Law Practice had clients who had immigrated from all over. Their countries of origin included Mexico, Cuba, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama,, Chile, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, China, Taiwan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, and the former country of Czechoslovakia. It was like a little UN every tax season!
“And we ought to elect leaders who understand the gravity of guiding a nation that so many others look to as a place of possibility.
Immigration requires structure and policy choices crafted with empathy and foresight. Immigration does not and should not entail imposing a racial hierarchy on nations.”
Btw, this weekend we finally had a chance to view Rob Reiner’s “God and Country” documentary and somehow hadn’t realized that you were in it yet were pleasantly surprised!
I don' t know about the rest of the country, but in Texas, and especially the Houston metropolitan area, all immigrants are welcome. The only exceptions would be terrorists, thugs, drug smugglers, Human traffickers, gang members and drug cartel members who used the cover of desperate people to come in when the current administration opened the border without vetting anybody.
According to Migration.org: " Nearly one-quarter of the population in the nine-county metro area is comprised of immigrants, well above the Texas share of 17 percent and U.S. share of 13.6 percent."
Houston metro area is, very roughly, 42% Hispanic, 35% Anglo, 16% Black and 7% Asian. My direct knowledge includes my church, which is Bilingual Hispanic and English, the members being primarily Hispanic. The senior pastor is a Black African-Colombian descendant of slaves. Since he is now naturalized, one could append "American" to his racial description. No one is keeping score but half the church appears to be immigrants from Mexico and all points south, some probably illegal. This observation is based on the various accents and idiomatic expressions from these countries the pastor has to keep up with to avoid saying something he did not mean. This group also includes Black Africans from the same area of Columbia as the pastor. There is a scattering of bi-lingual Whites and the rest are mostly of Mexican descent and have been here longer than a lot of whites. The pastor preaches a sentence or two in one language followed by the same thing in the other. Everybody really likes that, since the whole extended family can be in the same service even if the older folks or newer immigrants have trouble with English and the kids prefer English while preserving their heritage. Oh, and closer to home, I can also stand at my front driveway and see the three houses of my Black immediate neighbors, the four houses of my Hispanic neighbors, one of my Asian neighbors and my four White neighbors including the immigrants from Finland. I always thought my neighborhood was not that dissimilar to the demographics of Houston.
Hope, Thanks for pointing out that I said "illegal" when I should have said, "some of whom may be here illegally," I really do know better. Sometimes the lawyer is less precise than the pastor and just gets ahead of him.
Hope, you are absolutely correct that no person is legal or illegal and that we are all His children and we all bear His image.. He cares for each of His children even more than a nursing mother cares for her child. You are also correct that legality is a status of immigration. It has been my job as a lawyer in representing immigrants to make sure I find every legal basis to avoid their classification as illegal so I can help them get a green card, clarify their status as part of a recognized class entitled to asylum, or even help a Korean pastor's wife get into the U.S. to rejoin her husband. I am primarily a tax attorney so I was able to call an IRS attorney I had worked with before to get the immigration lawyer to recognize that his opposition to the Korean wife's entry was based on an incorrect interpretation of the Internal Revenue Code. When the IRS attorney heard my problem he became angry when the Immigration lawyer wouldn't listen to him either. So he promised to call his boss in Washington, D.C. and get him to talk to the Immigration lawyer's boss there in D.C. to get him to call the Houston Immigration attorney and set him straight. That is what the IRS attorney did for me and the wife was able to rejoin her husband here in Houston. Amazing how the Lord works, isn't it.
The crazy irony is that my friends in Norway and Switzerland have zero desire to immigrate to the US and part of that is our delusional politicians but also that their countries have an excellent social safety net far surpassing ours...
That's an important point. We need to stop putting the USA on a pedestal and start asking what other countries are doing that we can learn from.
Apparently that is not always the case, Our neighbors from Finland came here to Texas over twenty years ago, which has little safety net except for county hospitals, to make money. That's why all my neighbors from various other countries came here, and many are people of color, as are many of my neighbors who were born here.
Thanks for sharing the case of your neighbors from Finland, I had not met any Scandinavian recently immigrated.
That's what's so so great about Houston; there are lots of friendly folks who have immigrated from all over the world! The president of our neighborhood HOA immigrated from India some years back. Further into the subdivision are people who have also immigrated from India and other parts of Southeast Asia. I only know them enough to wave at them when I am driving in that part of the subdivision. The president of the HOA walks the length of the subdivision often, so he knows many of them personally, based on discussions we had at the HOA meetings.
Speaking of knowing immigrants personally, my little CPA/Law Practice had clients who had immigrated from all over. Their countries of origin included Mexico, Cuba, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama,, Chile, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, China, Taiwan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, and the former country of Czechoslovakia. It was like a little UN every tax season!
Keep speaking truth Jemar...praying that white folks like me will have ears to hear, hearts to feel, hands to change...
Yes and yes and more yes!
“And we ought to elect leaders who understand the gravity of guiding a nation that so many others look to as a place of possibility.
Immigration requires structure and policy choices crafted with empathy and foresight. Immigration does not and should not entail imposing a racial hierarchy on nations.”
Btw, this weekend we finally had a chance to view Rob Reiner’s “God and Country” documentary and somehow hadn’t realized that you were in it yet were pleasantly surprised!
I don' t know about the rest of the country, but in Texas, and especially the Houston metropolitan area, all immigrants are welcome. The only exceptions would be terrorists, thugs, drug smugglers, Human traffickers, gang members and drug cartel members who used the cover of desperate people to come in when the current administration opened the border without vetting anybody.
According to Migration.org: " Nearly one-quarter of the population in the nine-county metro area is comprised of immigrants, well above the Texas share of 17 percent and U.S. share of 13.6 percent."
Houston metro area is, very roughly, 42% Hispanic, 35% Anglo, 16% Black and 7% Asian. My direct knowledge includes my church, which is Bilingual Hispanic and English, the members being primarily Hispanic. The senior pastor is a Black African-Colombian descendant of slaves. Since he is now naturalized, one could append "American" to his racial description. No one is keeping score but half the church appears to be immigrants from Mexico and all points south, some probably illegal. This observation is based on the various accents and idiomatic expressions from these countries the pastor has to keep up with to avoid saying something he did not mean. This group also includes Black Africans from the same area of Columbia as the pastor. There is a scattering of bi-lingual Whites and the rest are mostly of Mexican descent and have been here longer than a lot of whites. The pastor preaches a sentence or two in one language followed by the same thing in the other. Everybody really likes that, since the whole extended family can be in the same service even if the older folks or newer immigrants have trouble with English and the kids prefer English while preserving their heritage. Oh, and closer to home, I can also stand at my front driveway and see the three houses of my Black immediate neighbors, the four houses of my Hispanic neighbors, one of my Asian neighbors and my four White neighbors including the immigrants from Finland. I always thought my neighborhood was not that dissimilar to the demographics of Houston.
Hope, Thanks for pointing out that I said "illegal" when I should have said, "some of whom may be here illegally," I really do know better. Sometimes the lawyer is less precise than the pastor and just gets ahead of him.
Hope, you are absolutely correct that no person is legal or illegal and that we are all His children and we all bear His image.. He cares for each of His children even more than a nursing mother cares for her child. You are also correct that legality is a status of immigration. It has been my job as a lawyer in representing immigrants to make sure I find every legal basis to avoid their classification as illegal so I can help them get a green card, clarify their status as part of a recognized class entitled to asylum, or even help a Korean pastor's wife get into the U.S. to rejoin her husband. I am primarily a tax attorney so I was able to call an IRS attorney I had worked with before to get the immigration lawyer to recognize that his opposition to the Korean wife's entry was based on an incorrect interpretation of the Internal Revenue Code. When the IRS attorney heard my problem he became angry when the Immigration lawyer wouldn't listen to him either. So he promised to call his boss in Washington, D.C. and get him to talk to the Immigration lawyer's boss there in D.C. to get him to call the Houston Immigration attorney and set him straight. That is what the IRS attorney did for me and the wife was able to rejoin her husband here in Houston. Amazing how the Lord works, isn't it.