Stu Bykofsky: Immigration reform should ease legal efforts
IF SUCCESSFUL Indian immigrant Vincent Emmanuel wanted to sponsor his brother to bring him to America today, he says, the process would take 15 years.
IF SUCCESSFUL Indian immigrant Vincent Emmanuel wanted to sponsor his brother to bring him to America today, he says, the process would take
15 years
.
Fortunately, Vincent brought his brother Paul over in 1997. It took only 11 years. Paul is now a supervisor with the Philadelphia Parking Authority.
When it comes to immigration reform, I'd put the needs of U.S. citizens who guarantee that their close relatives will not become a burden on taxpayers ahead of bailing out those who are here illegally.
U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services spokesman Bill Wright couldn't address the 15-year wait, saying that that was a function of the State Department, where John Echard Jr. said it was impossible to determine.
I'll take Vincent's word for it.
Vincent, 57, and his wife, Bridget, 56, arrived from India in 1976, the year they married. The immigration process took less than a year because times were different then, she was a nurse and there was a nursing shortage.
Bridget found work quickly at Chapel Manor Nursing Home, on Welsh Road in the Northeast. Despite his B.A. in economics from New Delhi University, Vincent wasn't hitting home runs.
Following the path worn in the lawn of time by countless immigrants before him, Vincent started on a low rung of the ladder, taking a job as a security guard for $2.35 an hour. After a few months, he quit and took a slot behind the deli counter at Acme. He liked the job, not so much the hairnet, and after a year found a clerk job at the 7-Eleven on Ridge Avenue near Shurs Lane.
That was a life-changer for him.
Owner Doris Pateckis took a shine to the hardworking immigrant, nurtured him and taught him the ropes. With her help, he bought a 7-Eleven at 29th and Morris for $17,500 in 1981. He worked 80 or more hours at the start. He slept in the store, he was robbed regularly, but he thrived.
Over the years he bought and sold a couple of other 7-Elevens, becoming prosperous. The family now owns the 7-Eleven at 23rd and Passyunk, but Vincent spends most of his time as regional manager of AsiaNet Television, a cable channel for Indians, and as a columnist for a weekly newspaper published in the Indian dialect of Malayalam.
Immigrants from India - about 52,000 live in the Philadelphia area - have the highest annual median household income ($61,322) of any ethnic group, according to the U.S. census.
Vincent and Bridget found success in America, and happily share the secret - education and hard work - with anyone, starting with their daughters, three shining stars.
The daughters heeded their parents. How Old World and quaint. Lisa, 31, is a pediatrician. Tisha, 26, is a loan specialist with Citizens Financial Group. Jasmine, 24, is in medical school.
I'm sitting in their mirrored, formal dining room sipping tea and swapping stories of immigrants in America. Photos of family members - scores of them - are on the walls, along with awards and certificates.
We're talking about family and also about immigration policy and practice in the United States. The family is upset that the government accepts the presence of about 13 million illegal immigrants while creating a glue pot for citizens who want to sponsor family members who won't be a drag on anyone.
The majority of the so-called undocumented (many actually have documents, but they are fake) did not jump the border, said Vincent. They arrived on visas and overstayed them.
Spokesman Wright could not confirm that, because Citizenship & Immigration Services doesn't crunch numbers that way.
Vincent fumed that "illegal people are choking the system," creating a backlog that slows entry for people who fill out the paperwork, pay the fees, and wait and wait and wait. Wright denied that illegal aliens clog the immigration system, saying that it's more likely they clog the law-enforcement system.
Vincent may not be right on every specific, but he's hurting.
Tisha complains that Jinu, her 28-year-old cousin in India, can't get a visa to attend her sister Lisa's May wedding here. Jinu lives in a friendly nation. He has relatives who are U.S. citizens and he cannot get a visa to visit.
That's just wrong, and contrary to the family values most of us espouse.
The government may fear that he'll overstay his visa, as many have. Vincent proposes a remedy:
People seeking visitor visas should have sponsors post a $10,000 bond to guarantee that they depart when they should. If they don't, the government gets the money and the sponsor would not be eligible to sponsor anyone else. If they don't have a sponsor, visitors would have to post the money themselves.
Would such a policy discriminate against the poor? "When was the last time poor people came here to visit?" Vincent replied.
E-mail stubyko@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5977. For recent columns: