President Obama’s changes to the immigration status of millions of illegal immigrants has caused the expected firestorm of controversy. I have previously criticized the decision to withhold the details of the plan until after voters went to the polls and I continue to view the changes as an assault upon the doctrine of separation of powers. While I have always recognized the wide latitude given to presidents in the past in prioritizing enforcement, this is an open circumvention of Congress to achieve by executive fiat what was denied in legislation. However, I have also been thinking about the families themselves and my own family’s history in coming to this country. Many Americans are finding themselves taking journeys of their own — retracing the often harrowing steps of their ancestors in coming to this country in looking for a better life.
With the release of the President’s new immigration measures, much of the national debate has focused on the constitutional implications of a president unilaterally ordering such sweeping changes. For the millions of immigrants, the new legal status means a new home and future. For those looking to the future, the immediate past is often a place to escape from; a prior identity shed at great cost and effort. However, that is likely to change as it has for so many American families when descendants find returning to the past is the only way to fully understand their own identity. That is a voyage that I took last month to retrace the steps of two people who came in the last massive immigration wave at the turn of the twentieth century. My journey took me to a small village on a mountain in Sicily. It took me to Cianciana.
My grandparents — Dominico Piazza and Josephine Moscato — came to this country from Sicily when the Statue of Liberty was still a relatively new addition to the New York harbor. They saw that statue from the decks of different wooden ships.
Finding answers about Cianciana proved a bit more perilous than a spin on ancestry.com. The roads in the Agrigento Province were built for carts so that two cars barely fit and the series of switchbacks leave you with what seems the choice between a front-end collision or a dive hundreds of feet off a cliff. The burning of fields being cleared adds a menacing smell and glow to trip. Then suddenly Cianciana appears like a time capsule with terracotta roofs and stone houses nestled into the side of the mountain.
First settled in 1269 and then rebuilt after an earthquake in 1646. The village remains much as it has always been. At night, the streets become full of people chatting for hours. Old men gather in coffee clutches as smoke waifs down the main street from the roasting of chestnuts. Children have the run of the town – scurrying around in packs into restaurants and stores.
Walking down the main street, I was called over by a group of old men who heard that my grandfather was named Dominico Piazza. They then proudly produced an elderly man, Dominico Piazza. While we could not confirm concretely that he was relative, he bore a striking resemblance to my grandfather. We were surrounded by men probing for other names from my family like Moscato and La Corte. In the end, it really did not matter. To them, a Ciancianese had returned home. Home. It meant something different here. Despite being half Irish and half Sicilian, they viewed this as my home and my return as completely obvious and inevitable.
The response continued wherever we went. A pizza shop owner, Maddalena Chiazza, would not let me pay for our meal when she discovered that I was a “paisan” returning home. Maddalena lived near Toronto, Canada and returned with her family to her father’s village. I asked her why she decided to stay and she looked perplexed by the question – as if I had asked about something incredibly obvious and evident. She simply said “we built this. Of course, we came home.”
It soon becomes clear that Americans return to places like Cianciana for the same reason that their relatives once left them: to find something essential. In the early 1900s, my grandparents came to find a life and escape dire economic conditions. It must have been a journey that was both exciting and terrifying that journey must have been for the families of my grandparents which never ventured beyond the nearest village: first to Palermo and then to New York and ultimately to Ohio.
The voyage back for so many to places like Cianciana is motivated by a similar pull to a distant place for something essential. We sense that part of who we are can only be found where we began. Where our ancestors sought a future in America, we seek a past in the old world.
Over 700 years, the world has changed around it but Cianciana remains the same in its pace and its people. On Sunday, we went to the main church and watched women bring their breads from long cuddura to twisted mafalda to loaves of pane siciliano to baskets of little Rosette rolls. The church smelled heavenly as the local priest blessed the bread laid before the statue of St. Anthony and the women returned home with blessed breads to feed their families.
There is a profound sense of belonging in this place – a feeling that is lost in the transience of modern life. This is their place. We built it, as Maddelena said. “We” is not used in the immediate but the generational sense. It is passed along to children as more than their legacy. It is their identity. This is why, when you come back, they remind you that this is your home; this is where you are from. We are all proud to be Americans, but part of that identity resonates in different lands.
On my last night in Cianciana, I sat with my wife Leslie next to the little fountain in front of the 17th Century Holy Trinity Mother Church where my grandparents were baptized. They found something wonderful in America but they also left something wonderful behind. It was left but not lost.
None of this, of course, offers any answers for the immigration debate. However, for those new seeking to remain in this country, they will discover that they left more behind than misery or poverty. Their descendants may find, as I did, an inexorable pull to these places in search not of a future but a past.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University.
Dr. Turley,
All the more reason for America to have a sane and wholesome foreign policy that makes the entire world a better a place.
People wouldn’t need to escape to America if America remained true to them from afar.
http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/politics/2014/11/21/500000-in-texas-eligible-to-dodge-deportation/70040182/ “President Obama’s executive action on immigration means some families can now emerge from the shadows of society.
“Yes, they can,” said Daisy, 29, who agreed to speak publicly if her last name was not used.
She was brought into the United States from Mexico illegally when she was a teenager. A couple years ago, she qualified for Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, meaning she doesn’t have to worry about being deported.
Now, Daisy said, her brothers and cousins no longer have to be afraid after the president’s announcement.
“I think they’re going to be so happy,” she said. “I have close family that was waiting on this one.”
Obama didn’t announce amnesty Tuesday night — not even legal status. Instead, if an undocumented immigrant can prove they have lived in the United States for five years or longer, can pass a background check, have paid taxes, and have children who are citizens, then they can apply to live here legally.
Essentially, the president’s action gives them protection from being deported.
“We’re going to be very busy,” said Fernando Dubove, a Dallas immigration attorney.
He and others expect to be overwhelmed because of it, considering an estimated 500,000 immigrants in Texas likely qualify.
“Just going to work is dangerous. Going to and from work, get pulled over by police, don’t have a driver’s license, you end up in deportation proceedings for something as innocuous as going to work and going to buy the groceries,” Dubove said. “It’s big!”
The last surge of people who illegally crossed the border this summer cannot take part in the president’s plan. Neither can anyone else planning to enter illegally in the future.
These cases don’t have to go to court. It’s all done through paperwork, like filing taxes, Dubove said.
But no one will be able to officially apply until it takes effect, likely sometime in January or February.”
@jim22
Oh, I just found a picture of Inga getting her information that she turns around and posts here.
https://birtherthinktank.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/elephant-poop.jpg
Here is what will really happen. First, many of the back filers will get a big refund from the government if they have children. They will probably owe little or no income tax, and the earned income credit will be larger than the self-employment tax they will owe. This could be several thousand per year for three years.
Next, the one who do owe taxes, will be able to file bankruptcy in 3 years and discharge the taxes, so there will be no collection there. That is the reality.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeeky Fromm, Girl Reporter, What are you talking about? According to Inga, they are going to save social security with all the taxes they pay! This ais a great day for all of us.
“Bring”? They’re already here, already working.
Inga – I think I would need proof of working.
@jim22
Lol! Actually, I think we are pretty lucky to be getting invaded by Hispanic Catholics instead of Arabs like they are in Europe. The big problem is, there is no serious enforcement against the people who hire illegals, and nothing is changing in that regard. This problem will be rinse and repeat until we get serious.
The other problem is that as a nation, we don’t seem to have enough work for citizens who are here, sooo why bring in a bunch more unskilled laborers??? My goodness, there are a lot of poor people here working 29 hour weeks, and we bring in millions of more???
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
squeeky – not so fast there. We, not the feds, are prosecuting the owner and managers, of Danny’s Car Washes in the Phoenix area. They were hiring illegals, firing them and then hiring them back under new names. Right now they are pushing for the owner to get prison time. Of course, the Feds are harassing the state for going after the illegals because it is racist.
So , what should be done about this circumvention of congress ?
I don’t think there is a double standard at all. No matter if you are progressive, liberal, conservative, tea-party, coffee drinker, someone who loves snow, or whatever hat you profess to wear, it is time to push back against government. The great problem here is the exact comment above, “…, unlike Reagan who unloaded the prisons… .” Yes, he did, but is IT a reason (precedent) to use in this case?? No! Overreach is overreach, and it is high time to push back. Like I said, feel personal harm and insult now if you need to, but it is a lot better than what can come down the road now due to “precedent.” Maybe we’ll end up like Thailand where they are living the nightmare they go to see in the “Hunger Games.” A couple of more executive orders in coming years and we can be there.
slohrss29 – I say a comment today from a Republican saying “Just wait for the next Republican President. Just think what they will do with executive orders given the example that Barack Obama has given them.”
MDT,
I do remember that, why did all those people get to stay? Why did/do most Cubans coming here illegally recieve asylum? Because Cuba is a Communist country? Well so what, so is China. It most certainly is a double standard.
Inga – there is a wet foot/dry foot policy with Cuban refugees. You get on American soil, you get to stay. If not, you get a trip back to Cuba or a holding area someplace else.
Inga, unlike Mr. Reagan who unloaded the prisons in Cuba to Florida… there a double standard here
MDTurley – I think it was Fidel Castro who unloaded the Cuban prisons to send his felons to the United States. Took us a while to round them up again.
Inga, That’s right. They are distorting the facts as usual.
I believe President Obama is not allowing people with a known criminal history to stay, no matter if they had children here or not.
Inga – he has been allowing felons to stay on a regular basis, what is going to change now? Nothing.
Great column, Prof. Turley. I think you hit the nail on the head about the search for, and attachment to, one’s roots.
If you get amnesty if you have a baby here, what do you think the chances are that pregnant women will risk dangerous crossings when they are close to giving birth?
The question is not whether there are wonderful, deserving people who should be allowed to immigrate here.
The question is whether we should have any laws that must be obeyed to immigrate here.
Should a henchman for a Mexican gang be given amnesty because he had a child born here? The Mexican gangs are very serious here in CA, and we keep weakening efforts to root them out.
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/immigration-reform/asian-american-advocates-say-immigration-action-falls-short-n253261 “President Obama’s executive action to enact temporary deportation relief for millions of undocumented immigrants received mixed reviews among Asian Americans, with many leaders and legal experts expressing dismay the president’s plan did not go further.
There are an estimated 1.4 million Asian and Pacific Islander undocumented immigrants in the U.S.
“The President’s action is a bold move that will benefit large numbers of deserving immigrants–especially those with U.S. citizen children,” said Bill Ong Hing, USF law professor, and the founder of the Immigrant Legal Resource Center in San Francisco, to NBC News.
But Hing says parts of the community still need help.
“Many deserving individuals are left out of his announcement,” said Hing, “like those who are waiting patiently on waiting lists, those with minor criminal offenses, and the parents of DREAMers.”
Some, like Kathy Ko Chin, president and CEO of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF) called deportation relief a “welcomed step” that was “fair and humane.” “
How about if the next president just unilaterally decides which laws he is going to uphold, and which he is going to change? He took an oath to uphold the law, but apparently he thought oath be damned.
No country in the world does not enforce immigration rules. Because if you don’t have an enforceable border, you are a region, not a country.
Every country has the right to decide the criteria to get in – no convicted rapists, murderers, cartel, etc. Plus, we have the right to determine quantity. It is negligent in the extreme to import millions of unskilled workers when black youth unemployment was 26% last time I checked. When unemployment rises, immigration should lessen, and vice versa. Having unlimited immigration would immediately crash our Welfare system. Can you imagine if we announced anyone could come? There would be 40 million people waiting at the gates tomorrow.
I want to improve the efficiency of our legal immigration system, plus improve services for new immigrants, such as classes on language and navigating our laws. Make illegal immigration practically impossible by strengthening our borders. This wouldn’t be such an issue if we actually had robust border enforcement. But border patrols are told to ignore crossers. And here in CA, law enforcement is not allowed to report illegal aliens to ICE. We have Mexican cartel gangs in LA.
All right, I’ll do the deed for today… a lot of those people who are here got here because of the winky-wink service W did dealing with an exploding problem while he was in office. Remember him fondly saying that they do work no one else wanted to do??
That is no justification for this matter at all; just a little hindsight at how dangerous a seed laid can become. Can’t wait for the next McCain-like prez. What’s he going to have us do by executive order?? Work in the fields if the economy is bad?? Slippery slope. Slippery slope… no climbing back up from here…
I have to agree with Justice Holmes as well. Even though my father’s generation was the first not to speak German at home, they, or us, only ever thought of ourselves as American. Not German-Americans, just Americans. This could be a problem going forward.
We are unable to trace the Turley Clan across the Pond as they say… both branches arrived well before Ellis Island.
SWM, “and the goodwill of Hispanics might be something the right should actually care about if they ever want to win another national election”.
The right does care about Hispanics, but why is it bad to want to do it the legal way with Congress than the illegal way Obama has done. My son-in-law is El Salvadoran and Hispanic and states that what Obama did was teaching people how to subvert the Constitution with an Executive Order. He is Republican by the way and very smart. His mother is from El Salvador and his father is from Mexico and he is a Marine. His mom & dad did it the legal way.