September 2006

711 Stewart Avenue, Garden City, New York is owned by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), although most of the signs that say “INS” have been covered with taped-up pieces of photocopier paper and new seals hanging below say “Department of Homeland Security”. Because INS alone didn’t make foreigners quite scared enough.

At 9:06 AM on a mildly humid Monday morning, I sit with my parents in the back of a room that is nearly 50 yards long. Hundreds of chairs are arranged in long rows and at the front of the room is the most diverse crowd I’ve ever seen in one place.

Five hundred legal aliens are about to take their oaths of citizenship and become American citizens- as legit as Thomas Jefferson himself. They are from China, Jamaica, Belarus, Italy, Burma, Albania, and beyond. Dressed in their best attire, which in some cases is just jeans and sneakers with a button-down shirt, these 500 souls have moved their lives and their families across the world in pursuit of the American dream. My family is here to support Elaine, a close family friend who lived in the US legally for 30 years before deciding to become a citizen.

The supervisor stalls for time while wayward oath-seekers trickle into the building late. He puts the applicants at ease, tells a few jokes that are self-deprecating and funny. He reminds the new citizens about forms they have to file to get their full benefits: passports, documents for children which will enable college grants, and correction forms to fix typos on their certificates. He seems to be honestly and sincerely excited about the multi-national delegation seated in front of him and their decision to become American citizens.

At the end of one stalling tirade about the applicants’ new lives as Americans, the supervisor segues from his personal take on what it means to be a good citizen to his personal take on America’s reputation. He talks about how America is “really” a good country, even though a lot of other countries “knock it”. It seems as if he is suddenly trying to excuse all of America’s shortcomings and convince the new citizens that this really isn’t a bad place after all- as though someone in the crowd was having second thoughts on account of America’s bad rep. Then he asks if there are any applicants serving in the military.

I look around for some comrades, but see no hands go up. He continues in a reverent tone, “The country is very grateful for the service of men and women in the armed forces, and if you see them, you should thank them.” Then, returning to his apology on behalf of America: “Most people in the military joined just so they could go to college. They don’t have any say in foreign policy; they’re just doing their jobs.”

I flush. I feel my face turn red and sweat forming on the back of my neck but I remain motionless.

Did I hear that right? Did the supervisor of an INS facility about to swear in 500 foreigners as citizens of the United States just apologize for American policy and trivialize the commitment of over a million brave souls? Seated in front of him are men and women who have sacrificed untold amounts to save money, travel around the world, overcome culture shock and racism, learn English, study American history, assimilate, and run a bumpy gauntlet of interrogative paperwork- to become part of, and share personal responsibility in, the very country he is masochistically excusing.

Did any of the more the nearly 4,000 men and women killed in Iraq die for their college benefits? I don’t think so. They died because their courage was so unflappable that without question or hesitation, they placed themselves in dangerous situations with no regard for their own peril, because that’s what their citizens demanded. Sgt Yarbrough never asked me to write a college recommendation for him- although I would have in a heartbeat- instead he asked me to promote him and went on to request another deployment to Iraq. When he was killed in Iraq, it wasn’t for college; it was for his only obligation: the Constitution, and it was at the will of every American citizen forming the majority, including all the new ones, no matter where they came from.

Why are Americans so self-conscious about their country’s foreign policy? Is it because they don’t support it? Is it because they feel guilty about not speaking up when they didn’t support it or because they are too ignorant to know what to ask for from their delegates? Is it because they sense its illegitimacy?

How can we be so insecure about something as absolutely monumental and ethically concrete as fighting a war, that an INS supervisor is compelled to, voluntarily and without provocation, apologize to new citizens minutes before they join the country and share the responsibility themselves?

Oh yeah, and FYI: we don’t die for college.


Further Reading: 2 Dinar on non-US citizen veterans