Children of Immigrants in the News

The debate over the definition of an American got more heated this week as two stories about children of immigrants grabbed headline news.

Jose Antonio Varga and Mandeep Chahaj don’t know each other, but they have something in common. Both were brought to America at young ages but they have never become legal residents. In the case of Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer-prize winning reporter – his mother sent him to the U.S. from the Philippines when he was 12 to live a better life. He grew up with his grandparents (legal citizens) in California, near San Francisco. This week, he decided to stop hiding his true citizenship status and in a New York Times article, wrote of the fear of being found out, as well as his love for America and his strong identity as an American. “This is my home,” he wrote. “Yet even though I think of myself as an American and consider America my country, my country doesn’t think of me as one of its own.”

Mandeep Chahal came to the United States with her mother when she was six to join her father, a legal U.S. resident. Mother and daughter had both been scheduled for deportation to India this week, but thanks to Chahaj’s Facebook campaign, they’ve been granted a stay. Chahal is a pre-med student at the University of California, Davis.

On Tuesday, America’s Voice Education Fund held a news conference in Washington, D.C. saying Chahal’s case highlights the need for immigration reform for people, like her, who had not control over their entry into the United States and have ended up becoming productive citizens.
The readers’ comments after the Sacramento Bee article about Chahal shows the deep division among Americans on this issue. A sampling: “She came here when she was six! Do you think after going through 14+ years of American schooling she is any different from the average twenty year old girl? She is as much an American as your kid or mine. “

Yet another, which is among the majority of readers’ sentiments: ’It is unfortunate that sometimes parents make bad choices and their children may suffer for it. Go back to India, stand in line with the rest of the people from around the world and wait your turn.”