We received this letter via email over the weekend and we feel it was to important to now share for several reasons:
- This whole Ellis Island romanticism is insulting. To say that ALL immigrants from Ellis Island acted this way is just inaccurate.
- The stupidity of the overgeneralization of current immigrants today. This is so much more complicated that saying the following: “Ellis Island immigrants are the GOOD immigrants, while the new undocumented now are the EVIL, CRIMINAL immigrants.”
BTW, this letter was shared by a Latino. Here it is:
We should turn to our history books and point out to people like Mr. Lujan why today’s American is not willing to accept this new kind of immigrant any longer. Back in 1900 when there was a rush from all areas of Europe to come to the United States , people had to get off a ship and stand in a long line in New York and be documented.
Some would even get down on their hands and knees and kiss the ground. They made a pledge to uphold the laws and support their new country in good and bad times. They made learning English a primary rule in their new American households and some even changed their names to blend in with their new home.
They had waved goodbye to their birth place to give their children a new life and did everything in their power to help their children assimilate into one culture. Nothing was handed to them. No free lunches, no welfare, no labor laws to protect them. All they had were the skills and craftsmanship they had brought with them to trade for a future of prosperity.
Most of their children came of age when World War II broke out. My father fought alongside men whose parents had come straight over from Germany , Italy , France and Japan . None of these 1st generation Americans ever gave any thought about what country their parents had come from. They were Americans fighting Hitler, Mussolini and the Emperor of Japan. They were defending the United States of America as one people.
When we liberated France , no one in those villages were looking for the French American, the German American or the Irish American. The people of France saw only Americans. And we carried one flag that represented one country. Not one of those immigrant sons would have thought about picking up another country’s flag and waving it to represent who they were. It would have been a disgrace to their parents who had sacrificed so much to be here. These immigrants truly knew what it meant to be an American. They stirred the melting pot into one red, white and blue bowl.
And here we are with a new kind of immigrant who wants the same rights and privileges. Only they want to achieve it by playing with a different set of rules, one that includes the entitlement card and a guarantee of being faithful to their mother country. I’m sorry, that’s not what being an American is all about. I believe that the immigrants who landed on Ellis Island in the early 1900’s deserve better than that for all the toil, hard work and sacrifice in raising future generations to create a land that has become a beacon for those legally searching for a better life. I think they would be appalled that they are being used as an example by those waving foreign country flags.
And for that suggestion about taking down the Statue of Liberty, it happens to mean a lot to the citizens who are voting on the immigration bill. I wouldn’t start talking about dismantling the United States just yet.
KEEP THIS LETTER MOVING. FOR THE WRONG THINGS TO PREVAIL, THE RIGHTFUL MAJORITY NEEDS TO REMAIN COMPLACENT AND QUIET. LET THIS NEVER HAPPEN!
I sincerely hope this letter gets read by millions of people all across the nation
Calling an illegal alien an ‘undocumented immigrant’ is like calling a drug dealer an ‘unlicensed pharmacist’
Franky Benítez 
May I suggest you watch a couple of movies about some of those early Ellis Island immigrants?: The Godfather (all 3 parts), Gangs of New York, Far and Away
HA! Of course! Thanks for adding to this!
With the ridiculously low number of visas currently issued for “unskilled” laborers (or, indeed, anyone without a college degree) and today’s restrictions on family members allowed to join siblings, parents, etc. already in the U.S., many of those who came through Ellis Island (like one set of my grandparents) would “stand in a long line” not for hours or days — but for decades. And then many would have seen their applications denied.
There is just so much to refute in the letter included here that I don’t even know how we start.
AMEN!!!!
I’d love to see more empathy and compassion surrounding the immigration discussion, instead of nativist sentiments. I don’t know if it’s the case with this writer, but it feels as though the more generations some are removed from family who struggled to emigrate, the easier it is label the “deserving” from the “undeserving.” Thanks for posting this, Julio.
Exactly, Ezzy!!!! We need to keep questioning and exposing this thinking!
FEAR restraints people to have the courage to express what they really believe in. FEAR holds back the ability to be who you really are or want to be.FEAR creates in most cases anonymity, for the FEAR to be rejected, exposed or simply afraid to say what you want to say, with your name next to it, can bring repercussions with the long tentacles of civil or criminal prosecution and eventually even capital punishment resolution to protect the “conventional wisdom” that prevailed during that specific time in history ( or even today). Thus since the beginning of mankind gathering into communities, cities , countries and nations, FEAR has reigned and provided control over the masses to religious zealots, nobility or non-democratic forms of governments that have used FEAR to stay in power.
But FEAR has also brought about change, for it too has inspired those human beings that refused to live in FEAR to REBEL. Yes, REBELS have always been considered dangerous at the beginning of any type of revolution or movement that has turned the table against those that were using FEAR as the tool to force all others to quietly stay under their control. For it also has been FEAR that has caused those in power to react against the REBELS that refused to accept FEAR to prevail even willing to give their lives in order not to live in FEAR and pave the road for others to have the choice of not having to live in FEAR.
Now a days because of the existence of the quick movement of information on a worldwide basis through the Internet, FEAR is being cornered and exposed for what it really is, a “BULLY”, an illusion. Finally the dissemination of information, in a multimedia manner, has lifted that “curse of ignorance” that for thousands of years had kept the many ruled by the few through the use of FEAR.
I encourage all the people that are tired of FEAR reigning in their lives to become true REBELS, to stop fearing FEAR , to convert FEAR into LOVE and COMPASSION , for by doing this we attain the FREEDOM to live our own lives to the fullest, while ALLOWING others to do the same.
Today we celebrate the FREEDOM of the USA, through-out the year many other countries also celebrate their FREEDOM by allocating a day of remembrance to their yearly calendar of events. Unfortunately, there are many other countries that don’t have the ability to celebrate their FREEDOM and that still live in FEAR, just like it is also very unfortunate that because of FEAR we have not being able, as citizens of the WORLD, to conquer the FEAR of eliminating ALL the barriers that separate us and permit us to eliminate that FEAR of one day celebrating the FREEDOM OF THE WHOLE WORLD!
The idealized Ellis Island “melting pot” is a myth. The desperately poor immigrants from Europe in that era were subjected to the same scurrilous attacks leveled against Latinos today.
Exactly.
y en español ….ES una verguenza que olvidaran sus raizes y sus bandera de origen pero ala misma vez de esperarse por que su situacion era totalmente distinta(perseguidos por la religion en su tierra)(Judios,religion y raza perseguidos por un loco con poder)y aqui eran esperados con los brazos abiertos. y triste es que sus decendientes son los mismos que ahora discriminan.oooh y tambien esta persona quire que olvidemos nuestras CULTURA Y BANDERA