rascalcat

i am sure eventually no one will bother to go through the process the legal way. It seems you get it thrown back in your face if you do.

I am just speaking from experience. I have been through a situation much the same years ago, and unless you have actually been there yourself then you have no idea what it is like.
Knowing what i know now, and the help that is out there, it would have been an easier choice to make the decision to keep the baby. I however miscarried. I still think about the baby i lost. It is something i will carry with me for the rest of my life. Had i gone through with a termination, i know this would have been even harder on me still. At the time i had no idea how hard it would have been.
Having been in a similar situation, i am trying to shed some light on things, not put pressure on any right or wrong. There is no right or wrong. The decision is not an easy one to make either way.
I have a baby now, and I can say that having a child made me want to strive for the very best. This is not about manipulation, i am just being open and honest here. I always wanted to be a mother just like Meg. And now that i am i really understand what i have been missing out on. The slightest hint of having a second thoughts of having a termination is usually an indication that deep down its not the option you want to choose.

I am just speaking from experience. I have been through a situation much the same years ago, and unless you have actually been there yourself then you have no idea what it is like.
Knowing what i know now, and the help that is out there, it would have been an easier choice to make the decision to keep the baby. I however miscarried. I still think about the baby i lost. It is something i will carry with me for the rest of my life. Had i gone through with a termination, i know this would have been even harder on me still. At the time i had no idea how hard it would have been.
Having been in a similar situation, i am trying to shed some light on things, not put pressure on any right or wrong. There is no right or wrong. The decision is not an easy one to make either way.
I have a baby now, and I can say that having a child made me want to strive for the very best. This is not about manipulation, i am just being open and honest here. I always wanted to be a mother just like Meg. And now that i am i really understand what i have been missing out on. The slightest hint of having a second thoughts of having a termination is usually an indication that deep down its not the option you want to choose.

Put your husband`s brothers belongings outside, and change the locks. Let him move in with his mother and see how that goes for her if she thinks he is so golden! He is an adult and has had plenty of time to sort his situation out. You are doing him a favor also, as he needs to take responsibility for himself and be an adult.
If that were me.. as soon as he ripped the bathroom out he would have been out the door! What kind of mother thinks that kind of behaviour is normal in the house of her other son and daughter in law. If he cant treat you with respect, then he should expect no respect from you. The same goes for the mother! As for your husband.. you need to talk to him because it might be his family, but he needs to stand up for himself and take control of his life. It shouldnt be put on you. You have already made plenty enough sacrifices. He needs to support you on the decision of making his brother leave. Your marriage is more importaint than his brother`s childish, selfish behaviour!

Ugh, I can't believe you guys have been waiting so long since your interview for the visa. I really hope you guys hear something today.

Put your husband`s brothers belongings outside, and change the locks. Let him move in with his mother and see how that goes for her if she thinks he is so golden! He is an adult and has had plenty of time to sort his situation out. You are doing him a favor also, as he needs to take responsibility for himself and be an adult.
If that were me.. as soon as he ripped the bathroom out he would have been out the door! What kind of mother thinks that kind of behaviour is normal in the house of her other son and daughter in law. If he cant treat you with respect, then he should expect no respect from you. The same goes for the mother! As for your husband.. you need to talk to him because it might be his family, but he needs to stand up for himself and take control of his life. It shouldnt be put on you. You have already made plenty enough sacrifices. He needs to support you on the decision of making his brother leave. Your marriage is more importaint than his brother`s childish, selfish behaviour!

Put your husband`s brothers belongings outside, and change the locks. Let him move in with his mother and see how that goes for her if she thinks he is so golden! He is an adult and has had plenty of time to sort his situation out. You are doing him a favor also, as he needs to take responsibility for himself and be an adult.
If that were me.. as soon as he ripped the bathroom out he would have been out the door! What kind of mother thinks that kind of behaviour is normal in the house of her other son and daughter in law. If he cant treat you with respect, then he should expect no respect from you. The same goes for the mother! As for your husband.. you need to talk to him because it might be his family, but he needs to stand up for himself and take control of his life. It shouldnt be put on you. You have already made plenty enough sacrifices. He needs to support you on the decision of making his brother leave. Your marriage is more importaint than his brother`s childish, selfish behaviour!

The courier system is confusing. Originally they told me to wait for a confirmation email from them. An email never arrived.
Its always best to call them yourself to sort these issues out, as you can explain exactly what you are waiting for to be delivered, what you were instructed to do (whether you payed online or was told at the interview to wait to be called), and how long ago you had your interview at the Embassy. As they seem to have different ways of dealing with the delivery, depending if you did things online or not. Personally i think they should scrap the online payment etc. for delivery online, as it doesnt seem very efficient. It would be better to pay at the Embassy on the same day as the interview for delivery, so that they can deliver straight to your door (none of this collecting at a hub business when you have already paid for delivery!). Plus the embassy always gave receipts for delivery payment which was nice, as you had automatic proof you paid, and the date etc. Much more professional and simple. I dont understand why they scrapped the courier payment desk at the embassy.

Well your happiness is all that matters right now.

Things will get better Meg. He is a very selfish person. He has problems dealing with his own emotions, so denies you of yours. This is not a person you want to be married to. The way he handled the whole situation is totally unforgivable. Ask your self if you were really deciding to have an abortion to please him. Did he even say that keeping the baby was an option? I am sure he swayed you to a decision of abortion. He sounds exactly like an ex boyfriend of mine from many years ago. I was in a very similar situation to you, (although it did not involve emigration). As you have already stated, you have feelings that your ex has totally disrespected. He does not deserve you at all. I can only imagine what you have had to endure through the course of your relationship with him. Enjoy every second of your pregnancy, because you deserve this little bundle of joy. If you felt that you always wanted a child one day, then having this child is going to be beneficial to you. Having a baby leads you to meeting a lot of new people too, and a lot of happiness. You will find love again when you are ready.. and when you do, it will be the right person. You will not feel like you are always treading on eggshells trying to keep someone happy. You should never feel like you have to ask for respect in any way, especially just to have your feelings heard and respected. You cannot have a real relationship without this. When you meet the right man he will treat you with respect in every way, including your feelings. You will be able to be yourself without worrying about upsetting anyone. You will feel that mutual connection of respect. Never settle for less that the best.. which is what you deserve. This is your child and your life.. enjoy them both.

Like I stated before... I was a single mother to 3 children. 2 girls and 1 boy. They are the best 3 things that have ever happened to me. When I was raising them we didn't have a ton of extra money but if you have half a brain, you can work things out. We always went shopping, we always went out to eat as a treat. They always had the most up to date clothing and shoes ( and so did I and still do). i own my home and I have a car I did not graduate from college. I don't have the best paying job and I was laid off a few times during all that time...We always made it. My mother was the only person who ever babysat for me and that was only here and here. She was more than happy to help. All three went to daycare while I worked.
I just always made my kids the number one thing. I don't have any kind of relationship with their father. He was NEVER around. I never thought about the kids being "HIS" kids or do I want "HIS" kids. Of course I wanted them... It was always about me raising these kids to be the best people they can be. He walked away and I made the best life I could for them. I'm not saying a child doesn't need both parents because in a perfect world that is the best situation .... I am saying that when you get dealt a crappy hand, you have to eliminate the obstacles and do the best you can with what you have.
Abortion is a touchy subject. It is not ok for some and ok with others. It is a personal choice and nobody here should be telling anyone what they should or shouldn't be doing. Some people are not religious and some people do not believe life begins a conception...
I believe that children are a gift. I know what I would do in her situation in a blink of an eye but its not for me to tell anyone what to do. I just want her to know that there is always a way to work things out. You have to do what is right for you. Only you know what you can live with.

Things will get better Meg. He is a very selfish person. He has problems dealing with his own emotions, so denies you of yours. This is not a person you want to be married to. The way he handled the whole situation is totally unforgivable. Ask your self if you were really deciding to have an abortion to please him. Did he even say that keeping the baby was an option? I am sure he swayed you to a decision of abortion. He sounds exactly like an ex boyfriend of mine from many years ago. I was in a very similar situation to you, (although it did not involve emigration). As you have already stated, you have feelings that your ex has totally disrespected. He does not deserve you at all. I can only imagine what you have had to endure through the course of your relationship with him. Enjoy every second of your pregnancy, because you deserve this little bundle of joy. If you felt that you always wanted a child one day, then having this child is going to be beneficial to you. Having a baby leads you to meeting a lot of new people too, and a lot of happiness. You will find love again when you are ready.. and when you do, it will be the right person. You will not feel like you are always treading on eggshells trying to keep someone happy. You should never feel like you have to ask for respect in any way, especially just to have your feelings heard and respected. You cannot have a real relationship without this. When you meet the right man he will treat you with respect in every way, including your feelings. You will be able to be yourself without worrying about upsetting anyone. You will feel that mutual connection of respect. Never settle for less that the best.. which is what you deserve. This is your child and your life.. enjoy them both.

I am just speaking from experience. I have been through a situation much the same years ago, and unless you have actually been there yourself then you have no idea what it is like.
Knowing what i know now, and the help that is out there, it would have been an easier choice to make the decision to keep the baby. I however miscarried. I still think about the baby i lost. It is something i will carry with me for the rest of my life. Had i gone through with a termination, i know this would have been even harder on me still. At the time i had no idea how hard it would have been.
Having been in a similar situation, i am trying to shed some light on things, not put pressure on any right or wrong. There is no right or wrong. The decision is not an easy one to make either way.
I have a baby now, and I can say that having a child made me want to strive for the very best. This is not about manipulation, i am just being open and honest here. I always wanted to be a mother just like Meg. And now that i am i really understand what i have been missing out on. The slightest hint of having a second thoughts of having a termination is usually an indication that deep down its not the option you want to choose.

All i can tell you is that having a child gives us something to live for, and even more drive and ambition to strive for the best in life.

If you ever need to talk Meg, i am always here. You can private message me here anytime you want. I have been in a very similar situation to you many years ago.

Things will get better Meg. He is a very selfish person. He has problems dealing with his own emotions, so denies you of yours. This is not a person you want to be married to. The way he handled the whole situation is totally unforgivable. Ask your self if you were really deciding to have an abortion to please him. Did he even say that keeping the baby was an option? I am sure he swayed you to a decision of abortion. He sounds exactly like an ex boyfriend of mine from many years ago. I was in a very similar situation to you, (although it did not involve emigration). As you have already stated, you have feelings that your ex has totally disrespected. He does not deserve you at all. I can only imagine what you have had to endure through the course of your relationship with him. Enjoy every second of your pregnancy, because you deserve this little bundle of joy. If you felt that you always wanted a child one day, then having this child is going to be beneficial to you. Having a baby leads you to meeting a lot of new people too, and a lot of happiness. You will find love again when you are ready.. and when you do, it will be the right person. You will not feel like you are always treading on eggshells trying to keep someone happy. You should never feel like you have to ask for respect in any way, especially just to have your feelings heard and respected. You cannot have a real relationship without this. When you meet the right man he will treat you with respect in every way, including your feelings. You will be able to be yourself without worrying about upsetting anyone. You will feel that mutual connection of respect. Never settle for less that the best.. which is what you deserve. This is your child and your life.. enjoy them both.

Things will get better Meg. He is a very selfish person. He has problems dealing with his own emotions, so denies you of yours. This is not a person you want to be married to. The way he handled the whole situation is totally unforgivable. Ask your self if you were really deciding to have an abortion to please him. Did he even say that keeping the baby was an option? I am sure he swayed you to a decision of abortion. He sounds exactly like an ex boyfriend of mine from many years ago. I was in a very similar situation to you, (although it did not involve emigration). As you have already stated, you have feelings that your ex has totally disrespected. He does not deserve you at all. I can only imagine what you have had to endure through the course of your relationship with him. Enjoy every second of your pregnancy, because you deserve this little bundle of joy. If you felt that you always wanted a child one day, then having this child is going to be beneficial to you. Having a baby leads you to meeting a lot of new people too, and a lot of happiness. You will find love again when you are ready.. and when you do, it will be the right person. You will not feel like you are always treading on eggshells trying to keep someone happy. You should never feel like you have to ask for respect in any way, especially just to have your feelings heard and respected. You cannot have a real relationship without this. When you meet the right man he will treat you with respect in every way, including your feelings. You will be able to be yourself without worrying about upsetting anyone. You will feel that mutual connection of respect. Never settle for less that the best.. which is what you deserve. This is your child and your life.. enjoy them both.

Everyone goes through tough times, however he should not be blaming you for finding it difficult to adjust in a different country. As you already said, he bought a truck and is doing o.k financially.. however some people are never satisfied and always want more. It certainly does not sound like it is your fault that your husband is unhappy. It sounds more like the fact that he is blaming you for things in his own life that he is unhappy with.. things that are his responsibility. Some people expect too much straight away in life, and life is not like that. You have to work hard to get where you want to go. The fact that he is blaming you for things not going exactly how he wants everything to be, is very childish of him. Yes he needs to act like an adult and accept his responsibilities in life instead putting the blame on you. You cant do everything for him.. he has to accept and do this for himself. He is an adult! And he should respect his wife! When you love and respect someone, you do not say those things that he has said to you... that he will hate you forever if he has to go back and start again? His resentful attitude is totally unacceptable! He is treating you like a doormat. The fact that you are together should be the most importaint thing to him. Yes times are tough but things change. And if he really cares about you then he will treat you better than this.
Personally, i think he is being very selfish. What about the sacrifices you had to make to be together? And so what if you both had to move again.. the whole point in it is to be together. Sounds more like he is only there to get everything out of it for himself. He sounds very self importaint. Maybe you should tell him to man up or get out! Do not allow yourself to be treated like a doormat or he will keep doing it. Threatening you with divorce? what kind of loving husband does that?! there is no excuse for being a complete jerk! kick his #### out the door!

There is only so much you can do to prepare when you are thousands of miles apart. We already have everything ready for the interview.. with no guarantee of when we are going to get an interview. There is no excuse for the process to not be designed for being courteous over the telephone. The advice people are given by the USCIS is to contact by telephone to speak to a representative. There is also no reason why they should not be answering peoples concerns when we are seeing later petitions being processed Nov/ Dec petitions ahead of people still waiting from July.. who have everything in order. More than enough evidence with a contents page in correct order, plus the required paperwork included.
If they can cash so many cheques so fast, then there is no excuse to keep putting people on hold.
Clearly the system is broken, like most Government departments are. It was a terrible mess when i went to register my sons birth abroad for hos U.S. citizenship. The guy behind the desk was trying to argue that our son could be my ex husband`s.. even though i clearly pointed out the fact that we had been separated for 2 years prior, and my ex was in Canada while i was in the U.S. at the time of conception (my passport clearly showed). But apparently he though it was possible that i could have been pregnant for 12 months (even if he thought i had still been with my ex.. i left Canada 12 months before my son was born!) Imagine that.. 12 weeks overdue?! ummm i think not!!! i would have been induced at 2 weeks overdue at the latest! Then when they finally issued my son`s U.S. passport, they sent the wrong passport. Not only did they send the wrong passport, but they also sent me someone`s old passport and an enclosed envelope with that persons address on that it was supposed to have been mailed in... WOW! Clearly someone was not doing their job properly!
Then i was on hold for at least an hour over the phone, trying to notify them of this mistake! When i finally got through, the representative did not at all seem surprised that this had happened as if he deals with this a lot. So i am guessing they send a lot of wrong documents out to people.
I can quite honestly say that they actually made a complete hash of everything! It delayed my son`s passport and i had to mail everything back to them.
It makes me wonder if they just drag people off the street to work in their offices?!
lol my fiance is Native American (lived in the U.S. all his life.. and they saw his birth certificate, driving licence, SSN and dates he served in U.S. Army and Marines) and.. is a Crow Creek tribal member .. and they were still arguing whether my fiance was actually an American citizen at the interview. :bonk: :bonk:

I think we need to sign a petition about all these delays. Its not like situation was not bad enough already! Every day their work load gets higher and higher which is causing more setbacks. The way its going we will be lucky to get an approval this year! Petition to the ombudsman???

Weird tangent rant? What is weird about it? What i said in my last post is factual. Issues which still exist to this present day. And an important part in how immigration came about.. the start of immigration that made it what it is today. This is relevant to the topic of this forum post. When asking people in the forum if it is worth it, surely it is about asking everyone their thoughts on the matter. Discussing the process of immigration and how it has changed over the years is the basis of importance for what it has become today.
The factors i mentioned play a part of this, in changing America to what it is today. Including the political views, and law of immigration and its process.
I would like to share "The following talk was given by Mahtowin Munro, a member of the Lakota Nation and co-leader of United American Indians of New England (UAINE), at a Nov. 18 Boston Workers World Party forum entitled “The Struggle for Indigenous sovereignty and immigrant rights.” (taken from http://www.workers.org/2006/us/native-immigration-1130/) that really sums this up:
"I am going to be talking about immigration tonight from a North American Native viewpoint. Many of us who are Native to this country have been outraged as our sisters and brothers from Mexico, Central America and South America have come under increasing attack by the right wing.
We are deeply alarmed by the existence of white vigilante groups such as the Minutemen, and by the stated intention of the U.S. government to build a wall separating the U.S. from Mexico.
As Indigenous peoples, we have no borders. We know that our sisters and brothers from Mexico, Central America and South America have always been here and always will be.
The immigrant nation that is the U.S. has a short memory and is in denial of its historical facts. This government is descended from immigrants who came here and took our lands and resources, either by force, coercion or dishonesty, and banned the religions, languages and cultures of the original Indigenous peoples of this continent.
In the various discussions of so-called “illegal immigrants,” one historical fact is always overlooked: America’s own holocaust directed against African and Native people, carried out by uninvited foreigners who came to these shores and took everything they could.
Surely the deaths of tens of millions of Native and African people at the hands of marauding, manipulative European immigrants during a 400-year span should be worth bearing in mind.
U.S. history brims over with brutal, bloody instances of inhuman European immigrant actions that are far removed from the basic aspirations so often associated with today’s immigrants. The undocumented workers today in this country dream of a better life and seek to escape the poverty and repression engendered by U.S. imperialism.
Unlike the earlier immigrants and the perpetual forces they set into motion, I highly doubt that today’s immigrants are plotting to seize others’ property, kill babies and earn bounties based on body parts brought back from raids.
Consider that, in the late 1630s, the British wiped out nearly every man, woman and child of the powerful Pequot tribe of southern New England in retaliation for conflicts arising out of fur-trade struggles. A few years later, Dutch authorities in charge of the settlement of “New Netherland” on the island of Manhattan carried out nighttime raids against the local Indigenous people, where infants were torn from their mothers’ breasts and hacked to pieces in the presence of their parents.
Legislation approved in Massachusetts and elsewhere in New England in the 1700s authorized bounty payments for scalps or heads of Indians, young and old.
As it turns out, the immigrant authorities were just beginning their efforts to obliterate “the savages,” as American history chronicles.
Some of the best-known names in American history are dripping with prejudice and arrogance aimed at Native people. Not only did Thomas Jefferson—a holder of hundreds of Black men, women, and children—live a life of ease on his great plantation as a result of that slave labor. He also was convinced that the best solution in dealing with Native peoples was to drive all of us west of the Mississippi.
The war-hero president, Andrew Jackson, was one of the most despicable Indian-haters on record. He made no bones about his racism and championed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which forced the Cherokee and other southeastern Native peoples from their homes and caused thousands of them to die on the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma.
The 19th century in particular is rife with accounts of the foreign intruders’ invasions of Indian country, especially in the Southeast and West, and the carnage that resulted. The December 1890 Massacre at Wounded Knee of over 300 unarmed Lakota children, women and men by the U.S. Army is perhaps the best-known of what were countless massacres carried out by the immigrants and their army.
The wholesale abuse of Native peoples continues to this day, and it springs from the same destructive capitalist practices that were brought here by foreigners long ago.
As I listen to some people call other people “illegal” immigrants, I often wonder: How could it possibly be that their ancestors were considered to be “legal” while so many immigrants now are considered “illegal”?
These comparisons between past and present miss a crucial point. So few restrictions existed on immigration in the 19th and early 20th centuries that there was no such thing as “illegal immigration.”
For instance, the government excluded less than 1 percent of the 25 million European immigrants who landed at Ellis Island before World War I, and those mostly for health reasons.
We begin with a simple fact: We Native peoples had no immigration policies. When the Europeans began arriving and stealing our land from us and massacring our people, we did not have them take a citizenship test. We did not have them pass through Ellis Island. We did not have quotas for how many could come into the country.
So, when did the U.S. begin to have immigration policies, and what were those policies?
For many years, whiteness was the prerequisite for citizenship. The first naturalization law in the United States, the 1790 Naturalization Act, restricted naturalization to “free white persons” of “good moral character” once they had resided in the country for a specified period of time.
The next significant change in the scope of naturalization law came following the Civil War in 1870 when the law was broadened to allow African Americans, whose ancestors had been forced to immigrate here in slave ships, to become naturalized citizens.
During the 1800s, male Chinese immigrants were excluded from citizenship but not from living in the United States, because their labor was needed by the big railroads. Female Chinese immigration was severely curtailed. Congress in 1882 passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was a virtual ban on further Chinese immigration. The Chinese immigration ban was not repealed until the 1940s.
In the early 1900s, Japanese immigration was limited as well, but the Japanese government continued to give passports to the Territory of Hawaii, where many Japanese resided. (At that time, Hawaii was not yet a U.S. state.) Once in Hawaii, it was easy for Japanese to continue on to settlements on the West Coast, if they so desired.
An 1882 law banned the entry of “lunatics” and infectious disease carriers. After President William McKinley was assassinated by a second-generation immigrant anarchist, Congress enacted in 1901 the Anarchist Exclusion Act to exclude known anarchist agitators. A literacy requirement was added in the Immigration Act of 1917.
During the 1920s, the U.S. Congress established national quotas on immigration. The quotas were based on the number of foreign-born residents of each nationality who were already living in the United States.
In 1924, the Johnson-Reid Immigration Act limited the numbers of southern European immigrants. Italians were considered not “white” enough and an anarchist menace. The numbers of Eastern Europeans were also limited because Jews, who made up a large part of those leaving that area, were not “white” enough and were considered to be a Bolshevik menace.
I should mention that we Native people were “naturalized” and “granted” citizenship by the U.S. government in 1924.
In 1932 President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the State Department essentially shut down immigration during the Great Depression.
In 1952, the McCarran-Walter Act revised the quota system again. This act removed overt racial barriers to citizenship but solidified inequalities. Most of the quota allocation went to immigrants from Ireland, the United Kingdom and Germany who already had relatives in the United States.
This law was also particularly aimed at preventing socialist, communist or other progressive immigrants from entering the country. The anti-”subversive” features of this law are still in force.
During all these years, the entire Western Hemisphere, including Mexico, was exempted from immigration regulations. That changed in 1965 with the Hart-Cellar Act, which abolished the system of national-origin quotas.
A last-minute political compromise introduced, for the very first time, quotas for Mexico and the rest of the Western Hemisphere. This law racialized “illegal aliens.” A hierarchy of those deemed worthy and those deemed unworthy of becoming an “American” became increasingly deeply rooted.
Several pieces of legislation signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996 marked a turn towards harsher policies for both legal and “illegal” immigrants. These acts vastly increased the categories for which immigrants, including green card holders, can be deported. As a result, well over 1 million individuals have been deported since 1996.
In short, the notion of “illegal aliens” is a construct, an invention of the racist U.S. ruling class. The dominant powers for centuries codified Indigenous, African, Chinese and other people as essentially not “American.”
The revolting use of the word “illegal” as a noun is a linguistic way of dehumanizing people and reducing individuals to their alleged infractions against the law.
I do not have time tonight to discuss the details of the economic and social conditions created by U.S. imperialism and neoliberalism that have forced our sisters and brothers from Mexico and many other countries to come to the U.S.
The United States is the true culprit in this situation through the robbery of the Mexican people, which began with the theft of their land and has continued with economic policies like NAFTA, which have destroyed the economy that sustained thousands of families, forcing them into exile and particularly into emigrating to the U.S.
As an aside, I want to explain what I mean when I say that the U.S. government stole land from the Mexican people, because this is rarely discussed in school or anywhere else. First of all, the land of course belongs rightfully to Indigenous peoples. Later, the various colonial governments claimed territory.
The “Mexican Cession” is a historical name for the region of the present-day southwestern United States that was ceded to the U.S. by Mexico in 1848 under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo following the Mexican-American War.
The cession of this territory from Mexico was a condition for the end of the war, as U.S. troops occupied Mexico City and Mexico risked being completely annexed by the U.S.
The United States also paid the paltry sum of $15 million for the land, which was the same amount it had offered for the land prior to the war. Under great duress, Mexico was forced to accept the offer.
The region of the 1848 “Mexican Cession” includes all of the present-day states of California, Nevada and Utah, as well as portions of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming. Note that the United States had already claimed the huge area of Texas in its Texas Annexation of 1845.
So we see that the U.S. literally stole millions of acres of land from the Mexican people, then established arbitrary borders such as the Rio Grande, and now hunts down those who dare to cross those borders.
The U.S. government has now escalated its war against the Mexican people, whether they are in Mexico or in its Diaspora, by approving $2.2 billion to begin construction of what is to be a $6 billion apartheid wall between the two countries.
At the same time, massive raids are being carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a branch of the Department of Homeland Security. In cities across the country, ICE is trying to push immigrant workers further underground and scare them away from organizing and fighting for their rights.
Local and state governments, most notably in Pennsylvania and Arizona, have been passing vicious anti-immigrant legislation. I just read on the Internet the other night that the Bush administration and the Justice Department now claim the right to hold any non-U.S. citizen indefinitely, without the right to a trial in a civilian court.
In recent years, we have also seen how attacks against even documented immigrants, particularly Muslims, have been carried out under the guise of “homeland security.”
So all in all, there is a calculated attempt to create a thoroughly intimidating and threatening climate for immigrant workers, especially the undocumented.
Further, racists continue to push their “English-only” campaigns and to oppose bilingual education. I feel outraged by these “English-only” campaigns. Is English the Native language of this country? Generations of Native people were beaten for speaking their Indigenous languages and forced to learn English. Instead of English-only, maybe we should be insisting that people speak Mayan or Cherokee or Wampanoag.
Well, things were looking pretty bleak for a while. It had appeared that the capitalist ruling class and its representatives in the U.S. government had the upper hand completely, and that the mass struggle was dormant.
But then came the magnificent immigrant rights demonstrations of last spring. These were led by workers from Mexico and Central America and South America, but they were joined by Caribbean, Asian, African and other allies. This development shook the ruling class. It frightened and deeply worried them. It gave a glimpse, even in the midst of periods of reaction, of the crucial struggles that are on the horizon.
Step by step, day by day, this movement will grow. The government can pass anti-immigrant laws but those laws will be repealed in the streets. It was the earlier heroic struggles of immigrants in the U.S. that led to the historic International Women’s Day as well as May Day. Without a doubt, immigrants will make that kind of history again.
Let’s ask some basic questions here: Why does the U.S. need immigrant workers? This country depends on immigrants being the most exploited workers, the ones who work in sweatshops and keep the luxury hotels running.
Without immigrant labor, the economy would collapse. So why the witch hunt? To drive immigrants further underground and to manipulate this reserve army of labor. The corporations want to super-exploit immigrant workers. They just don’t want to be responsible for paying them the value of their labor or for providing benefits, services and basic democratic rights.
The corporations and the government are using the anti-immigrant legislation to mask the truth about the crisis looming for U.S. workers and the huge financial debt of the government.
This criminalization is also aimed at the rising tide of change developing throughout Latin and South America, from Venezuela to Oaxaca and Chiapas, a tide of resistance like that of the people of Cuba to U.S. global policies.
Capitalism thrives on the scapegoating of certain groups of people, which they use to try and divide us as workers. They want to keep us divided amongst each other because they want to prevent us from uniting to fight back against their bloody-handed system.
This is not the first time that immigrants have been scapegoated. Irish immigrants of the mid-1800s were vilified. During the 1800s, Chinese workers in the western part of the U.S. were subject to the most virulent racism, including lynching, and endured the most brutal working conditions.
From World War I until the 1920s, the government conducted anti-Jewish and anti-Italian reactionary attacks, including the Palmer Raids. Former President Theodore Roosevelt and many other prominent citizens of his era proclaimed their fears that the Anglo-Saxon was an endangered species due to immigration and to higher birth rates among the immigrants.
On the West Coast, Japanese immigrants were interned in concentration camps during World War II, and there were widespread police attacks on Chican@ youth in California during the same era.
The current attacks against immigrants must be seen as attacks on all workers. This current assault on immigrants is just another tactic—like racism, homophobia and sexism—that the ruling class uses to pit workers against each other. The only winners when this happens are the bosses."
Many will argue this has nothing to do with this forum topic. However after following comments on here regarding fairness and its balance, everything is connected to immigration and makes it what it is today. Furthermore, its an interesting quote i found that i felt like sharing!

(I also have emails, cards, hotel bookings, photos, flight itineraries, barcoded luggage tags from flights, boarding passes, notarized affidavits from friends and family, copy of an old tenancy agreement (place he used to rent, but since moved, however he still has the same landlord) with me and my fiancee`s name on.) I included all this evidence in our k-1 application. Is this enough evidence that i included?
Plus - Since this k-1 application was sent, i have been back to the U.S.A with our baby to visit my fiancee, spent Christmas there with his family and our sons birthday with his family. I have photos of this too, plus ATM and shopping recepts from me shopping over there, hotel bookings, me and our baby`s flight itineraries , our boarding passes, barcoded luggage tags, up to date emails from before and after my visit to the U.S., valentines card my fiancee gave me in February, my fiancee`s 2012 tax returns and employment information, and a statement of earnings from one of his paychecks dated 09/02/2012.
Would this be enough evidence to take to my future interview?
I attended the London Embassy, United Kingdom for our son`s Consular Report of Birth. He has his passport and report of birth certificate and is a U.S. citizen. During the process of the Consular Report of Birth, my fiancee had documents signed and notarized as requested by the embassy. The one document was an affidavit of parentage that was signed in front of a public notary to prove his consent that he is our child`s father. The other was a document that showed his consent to issue our son his U.S. passport, signed in front of a public notary. Before handing these original documents in to the London Embassy, I had them photocopied.
I included these photocopies in our k-1 petition, along with a photocopy of our sons report of birth (certificate).
Are these photocopies good evidence of our ongoing relationship? I thought it would be, as it shows that we worked together as parents to get our sons U.S. citizenship. These documents for my sons report of birth were taken to the Embassy back in June 2012. Is this good evidence??

Its sad how people forget this. Just makes me realize how crazy the world is.

Its sad how people forget this. Just makes me realize how crazy the world is.

Weird tangent rant? What is weird about it? What i said in my last post is factual. Issues which still exist to this present day. And an important part in how immigration came about.. the start of immigration that made it what it is today. This is relevant to the topic of this forum post. When asking people in the forum if it is worth it, surely it is about asking everyone their thoughts on the matter. Discussing the process of immigration and how it has changed over the years is the basis of importance for what it has become today.
The factors i mentioned play a part of this, in changing America to what it is today. Including the political views, and law of immigration and its process.
I would like to share "The following talk was given by Mahtowin Munro, a member of the Lakota Nation and co-leader of United American Indians of New England (UAINE), at a Nov. 18 Boston Workers World Party forum entitled “The Struggle for Indigenous sovereignty and immigrant rights.” (taken from http://www.workers.org/2006/us/native-immigration-1130/) that really sums this up:
"I am going to be talking about immigration tonight from a North American Native viewpoint. Many of us who are Native to this country have been outraged as our sisters and brothers from Mexico, Central America and South America have come under increasing attack by the right wing.
We are deeply alarmed by the existence of white vigilante groups such as the Minutemen, and by the stated intention of the U.S. government to build a wall separating the U.S. from Mexico.
As Indigenous peoples, we have no borders. We know that our sisters and brothers from Mexico, Central America and South America have always been here and always will be.
The immigrant nation that is the U.S. has a short memory and is in denial of its historical facts. This government is descended from immigrants who came here and took our lands and resources, either by force, coercion or dishonesty, and banned the religions, languages and cultures of the original Indigenous peoples of this continent.
In the various discussions of so-called “illegal immigrants,” one historical fact is always overlooked: America’s own holocaust directed against African and Native people, carried out by uninvited foreigners who came to these shores and took everything they could.
Surely the deaths of tens of millions of Native and African people at the hands of marauding, manipulative European immigrants during a 400-year span should be worth bearing in mind.
U.S. history brims over with brutal, bloody instances of inhuman European immigrant actions that are far removed from the basic aspirations so often associated with today’s immigrants. The undocumented workers today in this country dream of a better life and seek to escape the poverty and repression engendered by U.S. imperialism.
Unlike the earlier immigrants and the perpetual forces they set into motion, I highly doubt that today’s immigrants are plotting to seize others’ property, kill babies and earn bounties based on body parts brought back from raids.
Consider that, in the late 1630s, the British wiped out nearly every man, woman and child of the powerful Pequot tribe of southern New England in retaliation for conflicts arising out of fur-trade struggles. A few years later, Dutch authorities in charge of the settlement of “New Netherland” on the island of Manhattan carried out nighttime raids against the local Indigenous people, where infants were torn from their mothers’ breasts and hacked to pieces in the presence of their parents.
Legislation approved in Massachusetts and elsewhere in New England in the 1700s authorized bounty payments for scalps or heads of Indians, young and old.
As it turns out, the immigrant authorities were just beginning their efforts to obliterate “the savages,” as American history chronicles.
Some of the best-known names in American history are dripping with prejudice and arrogance aimed at Native people. Not only did Thomas Jefferson—a holder of hundreds of Black men, women, and children—live a life of ease on his great plantation as a result of that slave labor. He also was convinced that the best solution in dealing with Native peoples was to drive all of us west of the Mississippi.
The war-hero president, Andrew Jackson, was one of the most despicable Indian-haters on record. He made no bones about his racism and championed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which forced the Cherokee and other southeastern Native peoples from their homes and caused thousands of them to die on the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma.
The 19th century in particular is rife with accounts of the foreign intruders’ invasions of Indian country, especially in the Southeast and West, and the carnage that resulted. The December 1890 Massacre at Wounded Knee of over 300 unarmed Lakota children, women and men by the U.S. Army is perhaps the best-known of what were countless massacres carried out by the immigrants and their army.
The wholesale abuse of Native peoples continues to this day, and it springs from the same destructive capitalist practices that were brought here by foreigners long ago.
As I listen to some people call other people “illegal” immigrants, I often wonder: How could it possibly be that their ancestors were considered to be “legal” while so many immigrants now are considered “illegal”?
These comparisons between past and present miss a crucial point. So few restrictions existed on immigration in the 19th and early 20th centuries that there was no such thing as “illegal immigration.”
For instance, the government excluded less than 1 percent of the 25 million European immigrants who landed at Ellis Island before World War I, and those mostly for health reasons.
We begin with a simple fact: We Native peoples had no immigration policies. When the Europeans began arriving and stealing our land from us and massacring our people, we did not have them take a citizenship test. We did not have them pass through Ellis Island. We did not have quotas for how many could come into the country.
So, when did the U.S. begin to have immigration policies, and what were those policies?
For many years, whiteness was the prerequisite for citizenship. The first naturalization law in the United States, the 1790 Naturalization Act, restricted naturalization to “free white persons” of “good moral character” once they had resided in the country for a specified period of time.
The next significant change in the scope of naturalization law came following the Civil War in 1870 when the law was broadened to allow African Americans, whose ancestors had been forced to immigrate here in slave ships, to become naturalized citizens.
During the 1800s, male Chinese immigrants were excluded from citizenship but not from living in the United States, because their labor was needed by the big railroads. Female Chinese immigration was severely curtailed. Congress in 1882 passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was a virtual ban on further Chinese immigration. The Chinese immigration ban was not repealed until the 1940s.
In the early 1900s, Japanese immigration was limited as well, but the Japanese government continued to give passports to the Territory of Hawaii, where many Japanese resided. (At that time, Hawaii was not yet a U.S. state.) Once in Hawaii, it was easy for Japanese to continue on to settlements on the West Coast, if they so desired.
An 1882 law banned the entry of “lunatics” and infectious disease carriers. After President William McKinley was assassinated by a second-generation immigrant anarchist, Congress enacted in 1901 the Anarchist Exclusion Act to exclude known anarchist agitators. A literacy requirement was added in the Immigration Act of 1917.
During the 1920s, the U.S. Congress established national quotas on immigration. The quotas were based on the number of foreign-born residents of each nationality who were already living in the United States.
In 1924, the Johnson-Reid Immigration Act limited the numbers of southern European immigrants. Italians were considered not “white” enough and an anarchist menace. The numbers of Eastern Europeans were also limited because Jews, who made up a large part of those leaving that area, were not “white” enough and were considered to be a Bolshevik menace.
I should mention that we Native people were “naturalized” and “granted” citizenship by the U.S. government in 1924.
In 1932 President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the State Department essentially shut down immigration during the Great Depression.
In 1952, the McCarran-Walter Act revised the quota system again. This act removed overt racial barriers to citizenship but solidified inequalities. Most of the quota allocation went to immigrants from Ireland, the United Kingdom and Germany who already had relatives in the United States.
This law was also particularly aimed at preventing socialist, communist or other progressive immigrants from entering the country. The anti-”subversive” features of this law are still in force.
During all these years, the entire Western Hemisphere, including Mexico, was exempted from immigration regulations. That changed in 1965 with the Hart-Cellar Act, which abolished the system of national-origin quotas.
A last-minute political compromise introduced, for the very first time, quotas for Mexico and the rest of the Western Hemisphere. This law racialized “illegal aliens.” A hierarchy of those deemed worthy and those deemed unworthy of becoming an “American” became increasingly deeply rooted.
Several pieces of legislation signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996 marked a turn towards harsher policies for both legal and “illegal” immigrants. These acts vastly increased the categories for which immigrants, including green card holders, can be deported. As a result, well over 1 million individuals have been deported since 1996.
In short, the notion of “illegal aliens” is a construct, an invention of the racist U.S. ruling class. The dominant powers for centuries codified Indigenous, African, Chinese and other people as essentially not “American.”
The revolting use of the word “illegal” as a noun is a linguistic way of dehumanizing people and reducing individuals to their alleged infractions against the law.
I do not have time tonight to discuss the details of the economic and social conditions created by U.S. imperialism and neoliberalism that have forced our sisters and brothers from Mexico and many other countries to come to the U.S.
The United States is the true culprit in this situation through the robbery of the Mexican people, which began with the theft of their land and has continued with economic policies like NAFTA, which have destroyed the economy that sustained thousands of families, forcing them into exile and particularly into emigrating to the U.S.
As an aside, I want to explain what I mean when I say that the U.S. government stole land from the Mexican people, because this is rarely discussed in school or anywhere else. First of all, the land of course belongs rightfully to Indigenous peoples. Later, the various colonial governments claimed territory.
The “Mexican Cession” is a historical name for the region of the present-day southwestern United States that was ceded to the U.S. by Mexico in 1848 under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo following the Mexican-American War.
The cession of this territory from Mexico was a condition for the end of the war, as U.S. troops occupied Mexico City and Mexico risked being completely annexed by the U.S.
The United States also paid the paltry sum of $15 million for the land, which was the same amount it had offered for the land prior to the war. Under great duress, Mexico was forced to accept the offer.
The region of the 1848 “Mexican Cession” includes all of the present-day states of California, Nevada and Utah, as well as portions of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming. Note that the United States had already claimed the huge area of Texas in its Texas Annexation of 1845.
So we see that the U.S. literally stole millions of acres of land from the Mexican people, then established arbitrary borders such as the Rio Grande, and now hunts down those who dare to cross those borders.
The U.S. government has now escalated its war against the Mexican people, whether they are in Mexico or in its Diaspora, by approving $2.2 billion to begin construction of what is to be a $6 billion apartheid wall between the two countries.
At the same time, massive raids are being carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a branch of the Department of Homeland Security. In cities across the country, ICE is trying to push immigrant workers further underground and scare them away from organizing and fighting for their rights.
Local and state governments, most notably in Pennsylvania and Arizona, have been passing vicious anti-immigrant legislation. I just read on the Internet the other night that the Bush administration and the Justice Department now claim the right to hold any non-U.S. citizen indefinitely, without the right to a trial in a civilian court.
In recent years, we have also seen how attacks against even documented immigrants, particularly Muslims, have been carried out under the guise of “homeland security.”
So all in all, there is a calculated attempt to create a thoroughly intimidating and threatening climate for immigrant workers, especially the undocumented.
Further, racists continue to push their “English-only” campaigns and to oppose bilingual education. I feel outraged by these “English-only” campaigns. Is English the Native language of this country? Generations of Native people were beaten for speaking their Indigenous languages and forced to learn English. Instead of English-only, maybe we should be insisting that people speak Mayan or Cherokee or Wampanoag.
Well, things were looking pretty bleak for a while. It had appeared that the capitalist ruling class and its representatives in the U.S. government had the upper hand completely, and that the mass struggle was dormant.
But then came the magnificent immigrant rights demonstrations of last spring. These were led by workers from Mexico and Central America and South America, but they were joined by Caribbean, Asian, African and other allies. This development shook the ruling class. It frightened and deeply worried them. It gave a glimpse, even in the midst of periods of reaction, of the crucial struggles that are on the horizon.
Step by step, day by day, this movement will grow. The government can pass anti-immigrant laws but those laws will be repealed in the streets. It was the earlier heroic struggles of immigrants in the U.S. that led to the historic International Women’s Day as well as May Day. Without a doubt, immigrants will make that kind of history again.
Let’s ask some basic questions here: Why does the U.S. need immigrant workers? This country depends on immigrants being the most exploited workers, the ones who work in sweatshops and keep the luxury hotels running.
Without immigrant labor, the economy would collapse. So why the witch hunt? To drive immigrants further underground and to manipulate this reserve army of labor. The corporations want to super-exploit immigrant workers. They just don’t want to be responsible for paying them the value of their labor or for providing benefits, services and basic democratic rights.
The corporations and the government are using the anti-immigrant legislation to mask the truth about the crisis looming for U.S. workers and the huge financial debt of the government.
This criminalization is also aimed at the rising tide of change developing throughout Latin and South America, from Venezuela to Oaxaca and Chiapas, a tide of resistance like that of the people of Cuba to U.S. global policies.
Capitalism thrives on the scapegoating of certain groups of people, which they use to try and divide us as workers. They want to keep us divided amongst each other because they want to prevent us from uniting to fight back against their bloody-handed system.
This is not the first time that immigrants have been scapegoated. Irish immigrants of the mid-1800s were vilified. During the 1800s, Chinese workers in the western part of the U.S. were subject to the most virulent racism, including lynching, and endured the most brutal working conditions.
From World War I until the 1920s, the government conducted anti-Jewish and anti-Italian reactionary attacks, including the Palmer Raids. Former President Theodore Roosevelt and many other prominent citizens of his era proclaimed their fears that the Anglo-Saxon was an endangered species due to immigration and to higher birth rates among the immigrants.
On the West Coast, Japanese immigrants were interned in concentration camps during World War II, and there were widespread police attacks on Chican@ youth in California during the same era.
The current attacks against immigrants must be seen as attacks on all workers. This current assault on immigrants is just another tactic—like racism, homophobia and sexism—that the ruling class uses to pit workers against each other. The only winners when this happens are the bosses."
Many will argue this has nothing to do with this forum topic. However after following comments on here regarding fairness and its balance, everything is connected to immigration and makes it what it is today. Furthermore, its an interesting quote i found that i felt like sharing!