My Immigration Story

A series of posts by Daryanani & Bland staff describing their own “immigration” stories, whether they themselves are immigrants or how they came to work in the immigration field. 

My immigration story starts out here in the United States. When people ask me about my ethnicity, I have always struggled in coming up with an answer. The most accurate answer is “American,” although I used to feel plain saying that. Originally from England and Ireland, most of my family has been in the US for many generations, in some instances traceable back to the 1500s. Through old records and photographs, my family has learned that my ancestors helped found colonies and cities in Connecticut, coexisted with Native Americans, ventured west and came back, and had streets named after them in upstate New York.

 

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Immigrants and the Affordable Care Act

The National Immigration Law Center has a short guide on how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) applies to immigrants. The guide notes that naturalized citizens have the same access and requirements for affordable coverage as US-born citizens, lawfully present immigrants have limited federal coverage depending on the circumstances, and undocumented immigrants are not eligible for federal coverage, as noted in our previous post. Think Progress also has a (more detailed) guide on health insurance options for immigrants under the ACA. 

 

Opposing Views: "U.S. Immigration Cannot Use Healthcare.gov To Arrest Or Deport Undocumented Immigrants"

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has issued a memo (in PDF here) stating that information about the applicant or household members obtained on healthcare.gov cannot be used by ICE to arrest or deport undocumented immigrants, OpposingViews.com reports. The memo states:

...ICE does not use information about such individuals or members of their household that is obtained for purposes of determining eligibility for such coverage as the basis for pursuing a civil immigration enforcement action against such individuals or members of their household, whether that information is provided by a federal agency to the Department of Homeland Security for purposes of verifying immigration status information or whether the information is provided to ICE by another source.

While undocumented workers are not eligible to gain access to lower rates under the Affordable Care Act, the article notes: "This should make those legal immigrants living with undocumented immigrants more comfortable signing up for health care coverage."

USCIS REDESIGNS WEBSITE

USCIS revealed its new redesigned website on October 30, 2013. The English version is at uscis.gov and Spanish version at uscis.gov/es. The agency press release explains the motivation for the redesign: “[t]he new and improved USCIS website is part of the Department of Homeland Security’s Web strategy to use a common content management system and consolidate the Department’s public websites. The agency plans further enhancements in the coming months.” The site now includes many more images and icons and features a large “rotating banner” with the latest news on the homepage. Once I recovered from my initial concern at not being able to find the case status check in the usual upper left hand corner of the site, I found I rather liked the redesign. The content remains very similar but the site seems easier to navigate and the addition of images and colors certainly enhances the experience.

Ellis Island Reopens

Ellis Island Entrance by Michael Gray via creative commons

Nearly one year after Hurricane Sandy hit New York City, Ellis Island has partially reopened. Reuters reports:

Repairs are ongoing, but from Monday morning visitors will be able to see its famous views of the downtown Manhattan skyline and tour parts of the immigration museum in the island's Beaux-Arts main building, including the Great Hall that was once crowded with newly arrived immigrants.

And in other Sandy news, The NY Times reports on how many businesses and homes are remembering Sandy--by preserving the waterline.  

 

"Why I Will Never, Ever, Go Back to the United States"

Dutchman Niels Gerson Lohman has sworn off travel to the United States after being turned away at the US/Canada border. He raised suspicion, he recounts, because his passport showed frequent travel to what the CBP officer described as "Islamic" countries (Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Yemen), along with a suspicious raincoat ("'Who takes a coat to the U.S. in the summer?'" the officer asked). 

He describes the ordeal:  

Six customs officers went through my two phones, iPad, laptop and camera. In my wallet they found an SD card I had totally forgotten about. They did not like that. By now I was the only one left in the dining car and the center of attention.

"It was a very surreal experience," he says in the HuffPost Live interview "because there was so much sarcasm in the voice of the officers." Responses to his article on his twitter range from "Wish I could apologize on behalf of US Govt, but they're closed just now. US fear of everything global is embarrassing" by @KimberlyArtist to "Pleased to hear that your sniveling overprivileged self won't grace our shores anytime soon" by @sally_siegel. 

 

DREAMERS

In the long-running and contentious political debate surrounding immigration reform, one of the most widely discussed issues has been how to resolve the immigration status of those brought to the United States as children. While pundits often argue that passing comprehensive immigration reform will reward law breakers, few seriously contend children should be punished because their parents or guardians may have violated immigration law in bringing them to the United States illegally or overstaying their visas. It is hard to insist that young people who have grown up almost exclusively in the United States should abandon their homes, families, jobs--and the only lives they’ve known--in order to come into compliance with immigration law.

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