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Guest Commentary: What an Illegal Immigrant Looks Like

More than 40 years ago, my mother stumbled upon an answer to the question now facing Arizona police: What does an illegal immigrant look like? To enforce Arizona’s controversial new immigration law, police will have to know what to look for, and Gov. Jan Brewer promises that racial profiling will not be used.

As someone of Russian-Jewish heritage, growing up during the Depression, my mother was well aware of stereotyping. And later, as a librarian, she bristled at the way sitcoms portrayed her profession -- as mousy women, wearing glasses, their hair tied in a bun, walking around putting a finger to their lips and saying “shhhh.”

So a vow against stereotyping illegal aliens would have suited her fine.

Her father was a legal immigrant from England, and her mother was born in Denver. My grandparents lived most of their married life in Detroit, but spent quite a bit of time with relatives in Toronto – and my mother was born there during one of their stays.

My grandparents registered the birth with the authorities in Toronto, and a few weeks later made the short drive back to Detroit. No passports or paperwork were needed to make the routine border crossing. It didn’t even seem like a journey between two countries – just a commute between two cities.

More than 40 years later my mother applied for a passport, for her first overseas trip. She filled out an application, turned in her birth certificate and waited.

She received a call to go to the office where passports were issued, and went there, expecting to receive hers.

Instead, a passport official confronted her with the news that she would not be getting one.

It seems that her parents had never registered her birth when they returned to the U.S., and all she had was a Canadian birth certificate.

In those days, before records were computerized, it took her months to compile school transcripts, work records and other proof that she had lived her whole life in Detroit and that her parents had been U.S. citizens.

Until then, every time she looked in the mirror, she saw what an illegal immigrant looked like.

Mike Revzin is an Atlanta journalist who has worked in Asia, Europe and various parts of the United States. He recently returned from two years in Shanghai, where he was a reporter and editor. He now runs ChinaSeminars.com, designed to teach Americans about Chinese culture, etiquette, history and politics. He may be reached by calling (404) 633-0817. 

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