The reality for immigrants in the United States is very different from what is being portrayed, said a panelist who appeared Tuesday at the Tom and Jean Dirksen Symposium at Bradley University.
The day-long symposium was a series of one-hour panel discussions covering important subjects for students before the midterm elections: Immigration/What Does It Mean to be an “American;” Representation and Congress; the Current State of the U.S. Economy; AI, the Environment and Technology; and Congress and the Media.
There also was a film-in-progress preview showing of the documentary “Saund vs. Cochran,” which tells the story of Dalip Singh Saund, who, in 1957, became the first Sikh, Punjabi American, Indian American and Asian American elected to Congress.
Each panel featured national public policy experts — the hope being the panels would promote and encourage policy discussions among students who could interact with experts.
The first panel, starting at 9 a.m., focused on immigration and what it means to be an American. Panelists included attorney Lauren Aronson, director of the Immigration Law Clinic at the University of Illinois; “Saund vs. Cochran” director Mridu Chandra, whose work has been nominated for a BAFTA and Emmy; and Eric Saund, grandson of the late congressman.
The panel was moderated by Bradley assistant professor Taraleigh Davis.
Aronson believes every American has an immigration story in their past. She avoided immigration when first studying law. Being Jewish, she thought she would be too emotional. She found that to be a correct assumption, but once she found her way into immigration law, she knew it was the right course for her.
“When you’re a Jew, you grow up learning about the Holocaust,” Aronson said. “So, as a young child, I knew how important immigration was for the survival of people in that context of the Jewish people, but now that I work in immigration, I see how important immigration is for the survival of all people.”
Aronson does not like using the term “undocumented immigrant” because she said they usually have lots of documents, but they aren't the needed documents to achieve legal status in the United States.
Almost 60% of unlawful U.S. immigrants came completely legal with the required documents, said Aronson, but have outstayed their lawful presence in the states. She likes to stress that because it is not the usual image depicted of unlawful immigrants, adding the image of immigrants has changed over the past 10 or so years.
“During the first Trump administration, we know, it’s no secret, there was a big crackdown on immigration,” said Aronson. “It made it harder for people to come, and also people have felt less welcome.”
Sense of self-determination
All but one of documentarian Mridu Chandra’s films has been about America in some way. A New York City resident, Chandra said people’s immigration history is not crucial because they are all New Yorkers. People in the city tend not to even ask if someone is an immigrant.
“It doesn’t mean that it doesn’t matter, but I think that it’s actually a radical act also to not ask about immigration,” Chandra said. “Because we’re more than just an immigrant…There’s also just relating to people as humans.”
A child of immigrants growing up in Virginia, Chandra always felt being American meant the chance to do what she wanted to do in life, that she had a sense of self-determination people may not have in other countries.
Until someone sees another like themself, they do not always feel like they belong, said Chandra, who never felt she could participate in the governance of the country until she learned about California U.S. Rep. Saund, who not only was the first, but was the only Indian-origin congressman for another 50 years.
Chandra said learning about Saund changed her sense of belonging and threw her for a loop.
“I was like, ‘Oh, did I never feel like I belonged,” Chandra said. “Just knowing that immigrants have been here, and that there have been people of color that have got into the second highest position in the U.S. government, it inspired me.”
Eric Saund, the late congressman's grandson, thinks being an American means participating in the country first on an economic level and then getting involved in the institutions.
“When we work together, for a common cause, that’s what makes the country develop economically, socially and politically,” Saund said. “That’s just the story of how we are what we are.”
Saund said there is a huge dependency on the impressive talents of immigrants. The ambitious first, second or third generation immigrants he runs across in California tend to make up the majority of the area’s entrepreneurs. The challenge for them, he said, is often navigating immigration law. It is literally a lottery, and immigrants go through a lot.
“We’ve talked about policy issues in the country about every time you get a diploma, you should have a green card stapled to it,” Saund said. “That would certainly benefit our industry and the economy because these are the go-getters.”
Aronson never thought about what it meant to be an American growing up, which make her lucky. As an adult, she believes being an American is about privilege.
“All of us who were born here have a tremendous privilege, and for new Americans, I would say the prevailing feelings are hope and gratitude,” she said..
Aronson sees the gratitude toward the U.S. people and U.S. institutions even when those institutions don’t treat immigrants well.
Legal changes
While legal changes have occurred, the basis of immigration law has not changed much since 1952, said Aronson. The non-immigrant status is available to U.S. immigrants who have been victims of crimes while in the country who then help law enforcement investigate or prosecute those crimes.
Such a program is in the best interests of everyone’s public safety in the country, Aronson said. But when the law passed in 2000, officials did not necessarily anticipate the number of people who would qualify for it. That means only 10,000 people are accepted a year and around 220,000 people are left on a waiting list with a minimum wait of 20 years.
“To me,” said Aronson, “the mismatch is that we have had no immigration reform on the humanitarian front to address the world’s problems and our hemisphere’s problems.”
Aronson said one thing that has changed is the dismantling of the immigration courts. Almost all the Chicago immigration judges have been fired or forced to resign. They have been replaced with prosecutors or judges with no background in immigration law.
Most of the judges, Aronson said, were forced out of their positions while on the bench hearing cases, them suddenly being locked out of their computer privileges during hearings.
All immigration institutions are overwhelmed now, said Aronson. The amount of immigrants needing help has not changed, but since conveniences that used to be allowed to relieve some of the burden on the courts are not being allowed anymore, she has more work to do for each client and cannot take on as many clients as she used to.
Lawyers and clients are often not allowed to Zoom call into a hearing now, for example.
“Now, I’m having to drive from Champaign to Chicago for these hearings,” Aronson said, “and my clients are, [too], who don’t have a lot of money to spend on gas, to go to Chicago or time to take off work or to have their parent to take off work to drive them.
“That’s not to mention the fact that they’re terrified to go to immigration court because that’s where you could get arrested by ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement].”
One community member who spoke during the panel’s Q/A period said she thinks there needs to be more investment in education toward the U.S. Constitution and young people need to get excited about politics again.
She said she got in an argument with someone once who said they were taught in high school that someone with a green card can vote. She said that was not true, that citizenship is required. When she stressed to a local high school the importance of constitutional education, she said she was thrown out.
Aronson thinks it's important for people not to assume that if someone is an immigrant that they will vote a certain way that is a danger to Americans.
“I think it’s a matter of education and changing what’s required education, and then obviously changing the discourse in our society about voting,” Aronson said. “None of this is accidental, and the voting laws that are changing…immigrants are a scapegoat, because [voting security] is not a real problem.”
Aronson said it is vital for people to educate themselves on the issues,and encourages people to talk to immigrants and immigration lawyers.
“The more that people talk to those people who are on the ground, who are dealing with it either personally or professionally,” Aronson said, “the more that you can understand and the more opportunities that you will find to be able to do something and help.”
