Turnover

As the Greatest Generation passes on - hopefully to a more peaceful existence, free of the wounds from their collective past, I think it's worth considering who and what we have replaced, and will continue to replace, that legacy with.

Oliver Eli Carpenter, my father's brother, passed away yesterday. It was for the best - he was in his 90s and in ill health. He served in WWII, as did my mother's brother, Jim Rourke, who recently passed away as well. My father, who was a B-24 pilot, has been gone for 12 years, though it seems as if he is still here in many ways. They all served - not just my relatives, but everyone of that time - and seldom talked about it. My guess is that they just wanted to leave it behind. Some things are too hard to keep with you in your every day consciousness.

Discovering the frailties of human nature - the thinness of the membrane that separates our brilliance (love) from our nemesis (hate and fear) - takes a toll on one's ability to remain optimistic and to enjoy all that life has to offer. That generation sacrificed everything in this way when they chose to literally save our world from Hitler. They sacrificed their lives, sometimes by dying terrible deaths, and more often by losing the core of human happiness - optimism - while spending the rest of their lives trying to find it in other places. That optimism was snatched away in places called Omaha Beach, Sicily, the Ardennes and Berlin. Saying thank you is so completely insufficient. It is one of the few situations where words fail, and deeds must instead adopt that role.

Several generations have lived since that time, but as that Generation passes on, memories of it will ebb away. Our world has changed radically. We still fight, we still lose too many young men and women. But domestically, here in the U.S., we have changed as well. We are all busier than we'd like to be. We all think life is terribly difficult, and it is, but not relative to what our society has weathered in the recent past. What will the legacy of the existing generations be? I have no idea, but I hope it includes finding a solution to the vexing problem of immigration, and that the solution includes healthy doses of common sense, sympathy tempered by realism, and a perspective that welcomes a new generation of foreign nationals who want to contribute with their unmatchable optimism, even in the face of the horrors so many grew up with in their homelands.

Hardship indeed breeds character, and that is why immigration is so important. We are soft. Most immigrants are not. They'll pick grapes in 105 degree heat, 6 days a week, for $60 a day, and not complain. They'll start businesses because they can, and work themselves silly to succeed. Not all, mind you, and those that don't respect the opportunities and laws we offer, should go home or not come at all. But understand this: Most immigrants have a mindset very similar to the Greatest Generation. They believe they have been called to do something better. They believe the hardship from which they come, to find a better life, is a lifelong journey that starts with hard work and ends with hard work. They have learned firsthand that unfairness, horror, fear and hate never leave your soul, but can be suppressed by building new memories and legacies.

In the spirit of replacing Robert and Oliver Carpenter, and Jim Rourke, and all of the rest of that generation, here's a roll call of the fabulous additions to our generations that have been added recently with our office's help:

D., and Indian national U.S. citizen, recently had her petition for her husband approved. He lives in India apart from his wife and U.S. children. The U.S. CIS misread the law and denied her petition, despite the couple having children together. The Detroit Field Office of the U.S. CIS not only botched the law, but secretly taped a conversation between Patricia Capt Carpenter and her client at their offices, and cited that conversation in the erroneous denial. We did not take kindly to either the misapplication of the law, or the abrogation of lawyer-client confidentiality. Two U.S. citizen's Fifth Amendment rights to be free from unreasonable searches (secret taping) had been abridged. We told them, as well as others, loudly and persistently. They apologized and approved the petition. We have requested a Congressional hearing on the practice of taping lawyer-client conversations secretly, and Senator Levin's office has opened an investigation.

Family-based permanent residence was granted to nationals of Trinidad, Ireland, the UK, India, Pakistan, Niger and Mexico.

Three difficult waivers of inadmissibility were granted, and three fathers were re-united with their families by having the U.S. Consulate in Mexico grant permanent resident status. Contrary to popular opinion, marrying a U.S. citizen and/or having children in the U.S., gives you absolutely nothing. Any person who entered the U.S. without inspection forfeits the right to stay in the U.S. and acquire permanent residency or any other status. For those that entered without inspection, their road to permanent residency is as arduous as it is uncertain. A Mexican national must first have a petition approved for the benefit, but then visit the U.S. Consulate in Juarez, Mexico (currently the most dangerous city in the world), to apply for the issuance of the green card. This, in turn, can only be accomplished by applying for a waiver of inadmissibility, because Section 212 of the Immigration and Nationality Act poses a ten-year bar to re-entry for anyone unlawfully present in the U.S. for more than one-year who has left the U.S. The waiver requires a showing of extreme hardship to the U.S. citizen spouse. Waivers are hard to come by - Brian Sather procured one by offering two Licensed Clinic Social Worker reports and thoroughly briefing the law. Two of the three waivers were granted in less than four months.

Thanks for reading. RIP Oliver.