May 2006                                                                The Megaphone                                                                    Page 5

Immigrants

by Jerry Kaser

  There are so many questions about “illegal” immigrants from Mexico. Are they here to reclaim the Border States as some people claim? Maybe they came to the U.S. to escape prosecution for a crime committed in Mexico? Perhaps they are looking for a better life or maybe just a job so they can send money home to Mexico to keep their family from starving. Most of us will never have the answer to all the questions about immigration and some of us will have the opportunity to be up close and personal with a few of these illegals.

  One of my first close encounters was with a young man my daughter was dating; of course you must realize he was on thin ice from the beginning. Art was a personable young man and a hard worker. He didn’t speak English well at all and he worked in a nursing home at minimum wage. Wow, did he have a lot of strikes against him. When my daughter began to get serious about this young man, she approached my wife and I about sponsoring him for his citizenship. We learned that he had been going in and out of Mexico since he was 14 years old. His father had died when he was 10. His father had worked for the railroad in the USA but Art only knew that he worked in Chicago. Art thought he might have been retired at the time of is death.

  After several arguments and ceiling replacements, we agreed to sponsor Art. Sponsorship of an illegal or green carded Mexican is a large responsibility; made smaller of course by hard work and diligence on the part of the illegal. Rewarding, yes. Today my son-in-law is a U.S. citizen nearing retirement from the Coca-Cola Company. He provided me with 2 lovely grandchildren that were a delight for my wife and me and a good life for my daughter and the grandchildren.

  Later in life I was approached about sponsoring another “green card” Mexican. His name was Joel and he was the custodian at the Elks lodge during my tenure as Exalted Ruler there. Our lodge secretary and good friend of mine said it would be a piece of cake and he would take care of all the details. While I did obligate the lodge to continue this man's employment, it was I that would bear the ultimate responsibility for his behavior on his way to US citizenship. I had one heck of a fight with some lodge members and the PERs over this. That was in 1990. Today Joel works full time for the Elks lodge; he cooks for the lodge too. Joel takes on other part time jobs to manage his busy life. He has a family and is buying a home. Every occasion I have to see Joel he lets me know how happy he is. Another success story.

  After retirement I had an occasion to work part time in construction for a friend of mine. This friend only had 2 full time employees; his son and a green card Mexican. I have never met a man that worked more diligently than Arturo. The man was strong as a bull. He was great at demolition but would tackle anything. We poured concrete, put up steel buildings, built and expanded offices inside of buildings and laid cinderblock. We put in a lot of hours at a place called Foamex. Our toughest job was building a fireproof room around an ongoing operation that mixed chemicals and began the process of making foam. The room was about 30 by 50 feet and 35 feet high. Arturo would haul those 4 x 12 sheets of 3/4in drywall around like they were nothing. At the top of the room he would crawl around on pieces of conduit working the steel studs into place so there could be a real ceiling. My friend, the contractor, once confided in me that Arturo said he rather work with me than any of the other part time guys because I tried to keep up with him (impossible). Arturo was not really close to anyone (that I knew of) and it was really off the wall on time when we were taking a break he asked me if I had ever killed anyone (Whoa Nellie). I told him that I had not and he mumbled something about not being able to get back into Mexico. I finally gave up the part time work and parted company with Arturo as his friend.

  You just never know about anyone until you give them a chance, some will make it as your friend and some will not. God bless you all and I hope you can just keep testing the waters.
  

Jerry Kaser '55

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