Grandchild

All writers in Op Ed are here to inform and acknowledge issues of importance to our communities, however these writings represent the views and opinions of the authors and not necessarily of The Advertiser.

By Linda Nidiffer

Immigration is a hot topic for me and President Biden isn’t doing anything to cool me off.  I am a grandchild of immigrants.  My maternal grandparents were from Germany and Austria and my parental grandparents were from Poland.  Of those grandparents the only one I knew was my maternal grandfather and his second wife who was born in Lithuania. She spoke seven languages and was not a nurturing grandmother at all.  All of my grandparents came here legally and the process took years lots of study.

Can you imagine? They had to study and study hard.  They had to learn a new language and were proud when they could understand what was being said to them by native born people and even more proud when they spoke and could be understood by others.  They had to hurry up and learn the basics because they had to earn a living.  My grandparents, all four of them, were too proud to take welfare or charity as they called it from anyone. 

My grandparents were not particularly well educated immigrants so I suppose that learning our confusing language was very difficult for them. Remember how difficult it was for us to learn all the nuances of our languages in school? The difference between to, too and two or how about there and there is hard for some children to learn.  For adults who are used to a language that uses masculine and feminine forms for everything and that conjugates verbs differently American English is no picnic to learn.

Immigrants also have to pass a civics test.  Most legal immigrants know more about our history and constitution than we do.  As native born we rarely have to swear allegiance to the constitution (unless we are in the armed forces or politicians), but when you finally gain legal status you must so swear.

Illegal immigrants today don’t have to learn our language. They don’t have to learn our history. They certainly don’t swear allegiance to the constitution. Many of them come here expecting a better life but have no idea how to do so.  They expect that the rest of the citizenry will help them along for as long as it takes starting as soon as they cross the border.  Uncle Joe has invited them, but doesn’t have a realistic plan to accommodate the hundreds of thousands who are trying to get in.  When my grandparents came in there were quotas in place.  The United States didn’t let just anyone one come in.

Bring me immigrants please! I believe in diversity. I believe in legality. I believe in sovereignty. But what we have now is inhumane, illegal, chaos.  The only ones who are happy with the situation are the cartels who are making big bucks trafficking these people. I think Uncle Joe has painted himself and our country into a corner and we are waiting for the paint to dry meanwhile thousands of people are rushing over the Rio Grande to the camps. This is just obscene.