Alien Like You and Me

Oct 9, 2020
8 min read

Updated: Oct 16, 2020

Part 4 of “For God So Loved the United States…”

Dreamers, Assylum Seekers and the Destitute

I want to begin by discussing what a Dreamer is and what DACA means to them. Later I will discuss the process of becoming a citizen. I believe the reader will be surprised in what they discoverer as I was.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)

DACA is intended to give hope to thousands of young Aliens residents who have lived in America their entire lives. These young people live in constant fear of being ratted out and deported to a place they have no knowledge of. Turns out We have a lot of rodents, and to our shame.

To be clear, Dreamers is only a nickname to those receiving temporary legal status for young immigrants brought into America as children under DACA. It does not provide permanent legal status to individuals and must be renewed every two years. Recently, Trump has required Dreamers to renew every year—because he can.

There also is legislation called the Dream Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) that provides a pathway to legal status for undocumented youth who came to this country as children. The Dreamers Act has been tossed over and over since 2001 and seems to be nothing more than political fodder by those who are not “Good Samarians.

During the Obama Administration, Legislative action was enacted to give such people hope, or an attainable "Dream" to remain in the United States without fear-Without the fear of looking over one's shoulder constantly for someone to grab you, imprison you, and then send you to a place you never knew.

I believe the best way to understand what these Dreamers go through is to mentally put your feet into their shoes so

as to feel their anxiety and their internal feelings for being treated as a second rate human being.

Try To Imagine...

Imagine if your Mexican family crossed over the border illegally when you were just a baby.

You find yourself now as a teenager and fully assimilated into the American way of life; which is the only one you ever knew. Furthermore, you only speak English and have no memory or connection with your homeland.

Now imagine you are in high school with peers of your same age and the only difference between you and your friends is that you were born just south of the border.

You see your friends going to college to get a good education and a job thereafter. Wanting to join your friends in College requires you to have a driver’s license for identification and a social security number; two things you cannot acquire without being a legal resident in the United States. Imagine how you would feel about yourself when you discover you really aren’t “as important as your peers” and have no shot at competing with just take it for granted that they must be special-in comparison.

Then someone in the White House throws you a life line through DACA. Fiercely fought over, the Republicans tried to stop DACA from seeing the light of day, but President Obama was able to get DACA passed but barely. And DACA is no “golden ticket” to be sure. DACA, for the time being, provides a potential path to citizenship of certain undocumented young people should they go to college and or serve in the military. For others unable to serve in the military and are unable to go to college, DACA defers deportation for the time being.

As noted above, President Obama fought hard to pass DACA but was successful even under the scorn of Republicans who tried to stop its passage at every corner. When Trump became President, he tried killing DACA immediately after his inauguration,

Had it not been for the Supreme Court, which upheld DACA, Trump would have succeeding to destroy it as indicated below. “On June 18, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court that the way the Trump administration ended DACA was arbitrary and not justified, and therefore violated the Administrative Procedure Act.

The Supreme Court's decision overruled the Trump administration's ending of DACA, meaning that DACA continues to be in effect.”

DACA is celebrated by approximately 750,000 undocumented immigrants who benefit from it. To get in the program, there are rigorous requirements, and too many to describe herein.

Although DACA appears to have been a success, its future is tentative. Trump, however, remains committed to "blow it up" destroying the dreams of the Dreamers. Should he be re-elected, I assume he will eventually kill it and the dreams of those who are only looking for a home, the very one they have lived in their entire lives, and of no choice of their own.

Doing My Homework On How One Becomes a Citizen

I took a course regarding immigration several years ago. I was amazed how difficult it is to come to America, especially for citizenship. Prior to the attending the class, I use to grumble with my friends complaining as follows:

“They (immigrants) must follow the rules to get into America just like anybody else—get back at the end of the line with the rest of them and wait your turn.”

After taking the class, I am embarrassed I ever said something so stupid and insensitive because it is not accurate and it is intentionally misleading in at least two major ways.

First, “like anybody else” is blatant false advertisement. It turns out if you bring in enough money into the United States and promise to create jobs to America, you don’t have to wait in line-you get to jump over it as well as others who have been waiting in line for years. Congratulations!

Secondly, assuming you aren't rich, you must to go to the end of the waiting line. From what I learned from this class, I now know what it means to a poor immigrant when he or she is told to get back in line, and, wait your turn over and over again.

Telling an immigrant to get back in line is "code" for “Get back in line and stay there because there is no chance in hell you will ever get in.

I learned a lot from that class and suggest others research the subject of immigration into the United States so as to have a mature one's understanding of the immigration process. It is guaranteed to open your eyes and feel pity rather than scorn.

For me, the information in that class turned out to be an eye opener. Following the class, it was humbling to know I live in a country where so many people want to live here but cannot because they were not lucky enough to be born on American soil.

It’s not fair—there are many people worthier than me and more capable of making a better place for all here in America and in the world as well. It isn’t FAIR.

In the class materials, there was a flowchart describing how to proceed through the immigration process. In the flowchart there are what I call “Decision Trees.” If you pass a certain milestone, you are allowed to move forward to the next Decision Tree—if you pass that one, you go to the next, and the next, and the next….etc. The Decision Tree is the Actual one facing anyone wanting to become an American.

There are many such decision trees apart of the immigration process exhibited above, and if you fail to obtain a “YES and Continue” at any of the many decision trees, the game is over, which happens to almost everyone. I now understand that 99% of immigrants wanting to live in America never really had a chance. Maybe its 99.99%

You may disagree with immigrants coming to America illegally, but knowing there are no jobs to feed their families south of the border, they feel they have no choice but to risk crossing the border illegally to find a job—any job. I’d do the same, any you would too.

Many of these jobs available are located at farms where they pick your fruit for a few bucks a day; barely enough to feed and house his family.

I have an example that brings this point home. I spent years as a board member for a very worthwhile NGO “Children of the Nations” (CONT) helping orphans and destitute children by feeding them and educating them in schools which they built for them.

Once, when I was in the Dominican Republic as part of the COTN team, it came to my attention, that the parents of one of our Haitian students wanted to pull their child out of school because they needed his labor in the field picking tomatoes for 5 cents a day.

The organization paid the nickel a day to keep the child in school.

This is still going on today in the Dominican Republic and to a certain degree to “illegal Aliens in the United States, who have no one to go to if cheated, because to speak up, can mean being turned over to the border patrol.”

The bottom line –If the same immigration rules applied a century or two ago, we Anglo-Saxons would be somewhere else far, far away looking in from the outside. We too may be picking tomatoes for 5 cents a day.

With all of the difficult realities Aliens are going through, this is what Trump says about them…

"They are not our friend, believe me," he said, before disparaging Mexican immigrants: "They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."

The part where he ends with “And some, I assume are good people” was the real hypocrisy coming out. After destroying the character of Mexicans, he throws them a crumb but only after the damage was done.

Christian White Evangelicals gave Trump the Presidency. Had it not been for this block of voters, we would not have a man who demeans God’s #1 Creation and one that was created in His image—better known as “People.” People like you and me.

Do you have Empathy?—It’s a Simple Question

Imagine your family was born just south of the border begging for what Lazarus once begged for from the fat rich man in Luke 16. Lazarus was hoping to catch a few dropped crumbs from his table. Imagine if that was you begging for crumbs, but even worse—much worse, imagine if you were begging for crumbs for their children.

When Trump is asked how he could treat people this way, he blames Obama—FOR REAL...

These lies are beyond the pale and they are being sponged up in the hearts and minds by many claiming to be “Christian Evangelicals.” This degrading of one race over another has fueled and given rise and permission to be a racist. Don’t take it for me—Turn on the TV and see it for yourself.

"When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people," Trump said at his campaign announcement"

Many of these same Evangelicals supporting Trump are the same ones who cry Pro-Life when they are walking all over lives just south of them as if they didn’t count—and they don’t count to them.

I too am Pro-Life but it extends to all lives and especially those “alien lives” so specifically called out in the Bible and knocking at our door for a hand. Throughout history, the question of when life begins following conception continues on to this day, but there is No compromise when Jesus tells us to love those those in need. Those, like these, who are put at our doorstop to feed the hungry and to see who We and American have come.

I had the pleasure to sit next to a Nun on a plane one day. She had worked closely with Mother Teresa. We talked throughout our trip, and especially what Mother Teresa stood for. She told me that Mother Teresa pushed hard for literacy. She felt if a child could learn, they would learn to get out of poverty, and help others to attain the same.

**I have a friend who flew to Calcutta to learn from Mother Teresa. She was not impressed. She ended up lecturing him about God's call for them -*not hers.*** She told them their purpose was to respond to what God puts in front of them. Don't look up, instead look down for your opportunity to serve. She has given us Americans something to think about when she said...