Immigrants Are The Backbone To America

Several years ago, while working as a recruiter at a Vocational Training Center in Santa Maria, CA. I met this older gentleman and his wife. He was from Mexico. He was illiterate in his language. He carried some plastic bags everywhere he went. He walked to conduct his personal business because he did not own a car.

As I attempted to enroll him, the Social Services Technician would not approve his educational grant because of his illiteracy, and the lack of an educational background.

She was heartless, I was heartbroken, and he was humble. The VTC enrolled this gentleman through a Federal Government grant from the Department of Labor specifically targeting Farm Workers.

State Law allows this gentleman to receive unemployment benefits while he is receiving a formal training education at an Institute of Higher Learning approved by the State and Federal government.

As we applied for his state unemployment benefits, we learned he did not qualify because he did not have a history of paying into the unemployment benefits reserve funds. His previous employer had not reported his payroll taxes.

When I asked him, if he could provide us his work compensation history, he reached into those plastic bags he carried everywhere he went, and said, to my surprise, “aqui esta Don Ross.”

Although it took this gentleman longer than normal to graduate. He did graduate. He was job placed at a local aviation refurbishment facility. And we celebrated his achievements!

This is not an unusual story for many immigrants that come from other countries with the hopes of improving their family’s quality of life, and their economic status. It may not be much according to our standards, but for him, it was enough. This gentleman came undocumented and somehow he found the right people that wanted to help him.

You see, many immigrants are people who come into this country seeking an opportunity to develop their lives. Some lack higher education. Some do not read and write in their own language. Many are not properly documented to be in this country. So they work in the shadows, hoping they are not found, yet they risk their confidentiality because they trusted someone.

He received his residency status. However, there is something about this man I learned to love. He was a humble person. He loves the United States as his own country, yet most importantly, he carried a very dignified respect toward our country’s laws.

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

Those words have stood for more than a century as a symbol of America’s openness to immigrants, including poor ones at Ellis Island.

Former Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Ken Cuccinelli suggested a major revision, “give me your tired and your poor who can stand on their own two feet, and who will not become a public charge.”

This kind of attitude is exactly the kind of attitude the majority of the people of the United States do not like. The United States has been a graceful nation, it is a nation that has had a stellar moral compass. We are a nation founded by immigrants, built by immigrants from many other nations, thus it is how we became the United States.

This column was submitted by Ross Griego and edited for brevity from its original version.