Whenever an immigrant is the subject of a negative news item, especially regarding a notorious crime, a palpable wave of unease sweeps over the entire group. It has always been tense. Now, it is bad.
My soft spot toward immigrants comes from my father. Cruz Rivera left Puerto Rico for the same reason as millions of foreign-born immigrants and asylum seekers, to find a better future, in his case, driving a cab in New York City. I smile, riding with the immigrant Uber drivers of today, all following in Cruz’s footsteps.
He was the first of seventeen siblings to learn English, graduate from high school, and leave the island for the mainland. He lived to see children and grandchildren graduate college, even law school and in varying degrees find the American Dream.
His dream included marriage to the former Lily Friedman, a second-generation child of an Eastern European Jewish immigrant family that fled pogroms. Cruz served in the U.S. Army a staff sergeant during WWII. Thanks to the G.I. Bill, we were able to leave Brooklyn for a home in West Babylon, Long Island.
Regardless of whether immigrants are humble or highborn, there is among many a kind of collective worry that all will be judged by the misdeeds of the few. My dad certainly carried that anxiety. Growing up, whenever a serious crime was committed, he would pray the perpetrator was not a fellow Puerto Rican.
These are tough times for immigrants, many poor and disenfranchised. Among the humblest, the Somali refugees concentrated around Minneapolis. Right now, they are at the heart of an enormous scandal involving corruption. Tens of millions of state and federal dollars earmarked during the pandemic to feed the poor, house the homeless and provide services to those dealing with autism has instead been stolen by brazen, greedy operators who created fake beneficiaries and robbed their programs blind.
“Fraud is the business model,” says James Clark, the Inspector General of the Department of Human Services as quoted in the New York Times. Estimates of the fraud exceed $100 million.
By far more grievous than this epic Somali-centered financial scandal is the ambush of two National Guardsmen last week in Washington, D.C. The suspect, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, entered the U.S. through a special visa program for Afghans who served the U.S. military and are fleeing Taliban rule.
The despicable attack on Thanksgiving Eve claimed the life of 20-year-old Specialist Sarah Beckstrom and critically injured Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, just two kids who wanted to serve their country in the guard and improve their own prospects for a better life. Heroic Sarah Beckstrom is being mourned by the nation she proudly served.
In the wake of this monstrous crime, all asylum applications for Afghanistan have been halted.
The terrorist has been charged with First-Degree Murder and will righteously face the death penalty. For all intents and purposes, the shooter has mortally wounded the program designed to help those who risked the lives to help us on the bloody battlefield of Afghanistan.
By this past weekend, the president had seized on the shooting to stop all immigration, especially from dysfunctional countries like Afghanistan and Somalia. It is hard to blame him. Hopefully, this will pass, but it is going to be an especially difficult road for immigrants to follow.
