(This blog was originally posted by tgdindenmark1, March 30, 2013)
During the last two days, while enjoying the Easter vacation of 2013, by catching up on household chores,followed by lounging on the sofa, watching movies and eating junk food (which I ordinarily deny myself, I may add), I have, concurrently, been able to ponder about the topics of which, on the large spectrum of immigration issues, I should spend the rest of the vacation days to write about. Then it dawned on me, that before I go on barking about issues which seems to be reserved for politicians, analysts and journalists, I should let anyone who may read this get to know who this writer is.
So, allow me to introduce myself by stating that I am, other than a heavy-lifting champion-wanna-be of serious immigration issues: Woman, mother, sister, daughter, human rights advocate; blogger, soon-to-be mother-in-law, facebooker, choco-holic, researcher/writer; a fan of creative minds, bookworm, founder of Int. Humanitarian Alliance, addicted to Pinterest (in a really bad way!). Last, but not least: I have been an immigrant...twice! My expertise in the area of immigration, thus have originated and evolved quite differently than that of any of my “peers” in this field.
As a child I had a very different dream of what I wanted to become as a grown-up. The world of medicine awaited, and my closet of dismembered dolls who had all undergone “surgery” was a direct evidence of such fate. So, I followed my dreams. After completing the senior year of High School as an exchange student in the USA, I decided to pursue my career path of medicine by applying to colleges there as opposed to continuing such education in Europe. It didn’t take much time or effort in order to get accepted to an undergraduate program. And before I knew it, I was once again venturing off to the Big Land of Promise. Bright eyed, excited and well equipped with two over-sized suitcases, legal papers in my purse in addition to the right stamps in my passport, my border entrance to the United States by exiting a Boeing and standing in line to show off my new credentials, in form of a shiny new student visa, was a very different experience than many of the 11,5 million undocumented aliens who had a much more humble and strenuous journey in order to make their United States’ border entrance. Despite the fact that my introduction to American life was very different than many of the immigrants currently residing there, I have, throughout the 23 years of which I have resided in the USA, had a fair share of challenges with regards to immigration, and I therefore know by real-life experiences how tiresome the bureaucracy of immigration procedures can be.
Trust me when I say that there is always a splendid lesson to be learned in the hour of adversary: In a series, of what one may be perceive as unfortunate events, I can mention, for example, the time of being detained for six hours by immigration customs after returning from a vacation in Mexico only to be released after the officer whom so frantically tried (among so many accusations) to accuse me of bringing counter-fit merchandise into the United States was left with nothing to hold me on, after proven wrong that the purse for which I was carrying was, in fact, not counter-fit, rather it was an authentic Dooney & Bourke leather bag, given to me by my then recently former-spouse; or, the time when two unmarked SUVs with ICE agents in bullet-proof vests pulled into my driveway in a quiet suburban neighborhood only for the agents to find that all the paperwork was in order and departed only after apologizing for the fact that they were disturbing a pregnant suburban housewife, (yes, moi!) rather than arresting what they had expected to find: a drug-dealing, un-documented prostitute which they had been “informed” was living at my residence! (herein, it should be noted that both incidents were acted upon by the agents due to false information given by “concerned” citizens). Such events became the very force which turned my life and career in a very different direction as I shortly thereafter began to research everything within the perimeter of U.S Immigration rules and regulations, procedures and law.
In the year of 2007, the research went beyond the study of law. As there are plenty of studies with regards to immigration and economics as well as immigration and law/reform, I have found very little information regarding immigration issues and psychology. I suspected that there had to be evidence that there may be a direct link between a person’s mental/emotional state and the lack of effort(s) by such a person’s ability to handle the task of reversing an adverse immigration status to that of a satisfactory one.
So, I put myself in the most awkward situations in order to get close to other documented as well as undocumented aliens for the sole purpose of monitoring behaviors. I have, after all of these years come to the conclusion that, despite the time and endless efforts by U.S lawmakers/politicians to reform immigration, the problem why the number of 11,5 million of undocumented aliens isn’t minimizing lies elsewhere. Allow me to explain my point of view: Anyone whom may have studied the Code of Federal Regulation (C.F.R) and the United States Code (U.S.C) as extensive as I have, will know that there are already laws in place to solve the legal problems of these individuals. But these laws are useless if they are not put in effect through a legal process AND by legal representation whom are actually competent enough to interpret the immigration laws properly. Furthermore, a person cannot even begin to seek such legal council and start the process if two obstacles are present. These obstacles are:
1. Any person with unsatisfactory immigration status who are classified as “indigent” may not be to able to seek proper legal counsel due to their financial situation as most attorneys require a steep fee to be paid prior to preparing immigration legal documents; non-profit organizations helping indigents are bombarded with requests and will usually focus on those already in deportation proceedings. There are countless examples of “sticky” issues: For instance, if the issue such as the inability of legal aliens to pay the naturalization application fee of $680, which was addressed by Senator Charles E. Schumer in a press release on the 17th of November, 2011, in his proposal to allow such a fee to be paid in affordable installments so that the status of so many eligible aliens could be processed-then why would anyone think that individuals considered un-documented, somehow have a better chance to pay for legal representation AND application fees? Even with the various Pro-Bono services found that would not fall into the category already mentioned, the programs are only designed to help a fraction of the individuals in need.
2. Any form of emotional distress caused by the fear of coming forth to resolve the legal issue; worse yet, the distress caused by any combination of fear and financial problems. Such distress may be triggered by the fear of the worst case scenario of being detained followed by deportation- or by something as mild as the pure humiliation of having to go through the whole legal process while dealing with the perception of being stigmatized.
Ergo: Without creating some sort of support system which can break down the barriers buildt by fear which may be the very factor why so many individuals have not come forth to resolve their immigration problem, and without providing a solution how these individuals should be able to pay for a rather expensive legal procedure, the immigration laws may serve very little purpose…!
Ok, so now that I have spilled my so-called intellectual beans all over this blog, let me take the opportunity to say that the most important important thing which I could write about in order to introduce myself properly is that all the research throughout the years has done nothing more than to make an activist out of me, more so than I had ever imagined. And no, I am not talking about hold-up-a-sign-to-express-my-dismay-of-the-path-immigration-reform-is-taking; nor am I going to get involved in rallies or other events which I find too radical. I am talking about the fact that it only made sense to become a part of the solution- I therefore founded Int. Humanitarian Alliance.
As my children have patiently waited for over two years in the USA while I have been in Denmark working day and night trying to form the concept and creating strategies for such organization, I can only hope that this organization will be running at a full pace shortly, so that my brave Scandinavian-American offspring who have lived without their mom for some time know that their sacrifices have been worth it. More importantly, that their sacrifices as well as my own sacrifices will be such a small price to pay if it means that the programs which will be offered through the organization can prevent other families with immigration issues to be split apart.
Kindest regards,
TheGreatDane
Here you go...the resumé of a very unpaid founder ready to do some heavy lifting when it comes to providing solutions for very, VERY, serious issues:
Name: Ea C. Rasmussen
Title: Founder
A.K.A: Executive Director/blogger: ”The Great Dane-BarkingAboutImmigration!”
Place of origin: Denmark
Citizenship: Danish
Family status: Mother of American children/aunt/mother-in-law/ex-wife-of-so-many/granna…!
Education: Yes!
Age: 43!
Languages: Danish/Norwegian/English/French; enough Spanish to make a Latino/Latina laugh;
enough Chinese to utterly confuse an Asian; and not enough Polish (yet)!
“With a Danish father and a Norwegian mother, the founder learned early in life the challenges
associated with immigration. After spending the first six years of her life in Denmark, she moved with her newly widowed mother and infant sister to Norway, where she remained until 1988. After a year as an exchange student in the United States of America in 1989, she returned to Norway, though only for a short period of time. In the year of 1990, she returned to the USA as an undergraduate student, pursuing a medical career. 23 years, several children and close to half a battalion of ex-husbands later, she left a very American
(and quite a colorful) life behind in order to become an immigrant once again, and has since 2011, resided in Copenhagen, Denmark. In the past 2 years, she has continued the immigration research which began in 2007, and simultaneously paving the ground for the organization, Int. Humanitarian Alliance, to be established in Europe.”
ZERO TOLERANCE: Discrimination; violence against children; an office environment without coffee, cake or humor; and absolute NO tolerance for: racism, sexual discrimination/orientation, discrimination against anyone with disabilities!
Favorite movie(s): ”Pay it forward”
Favorite book(s): The ones in paper format containing lots and lots of information.
*Thanks to JIBJAB for creating our promotional video for $1.99/ SKYPE web-cam for the the snap-
shot picture
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