Agencies obstacle to fair immigration

There has never been a time in U.S. history that this country hasn’t greatly benefited from the immigration of people from around the world.

When my ancestor John Bradley landed in New York Harbor in 1801, all he had to do was gather his stuff and get off the ship and head to that new state that was being carved out of the old Northwest Territory called Ohio. There was no Immigration and Naturalization Service he had to check in with to make sure he was of the right religion or ethnic group. All he had to do was to go and make a better life for himself.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service was created in the late 19th century by political elites to give favored status to white Anglo-Saxon Protestants and to try to keep the others out. Needless to say they weren’t too successful, but today there are people, even in the White House, who are trying to be successful where the elites of the 19th century were not.

We who have been in the country the longest need to speak up and say all are welcome who want to better themselves and their families. Today’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a political football for the use of bigots who happen to get elected to high office.

It’s the ones who fear immigrants who need to leave this country, not the ones whose only wish is to improve their life for themselves and their families. Wasn’t that John Bradley’s dream more than 200 years ago?

Stan Bradley Lithopolis