One day, one of my Jewish friends who lives in America made an
interesting comment: “Nobody comes back from America, just like from
the underworld.” This is not a rude immigrant joke, but rather, a
reality. We can compare this country to a water-mill that grinds
everything until you get a homogeneous and faceless group whose name is
American. In order for one to become an average, middle educated,
average worker American, there is not much to do. All you need to do is
get used to eating hamburgers, know a little about baseball, talk about
sex periodically and spend your Saturday-Sunday out of town, talk about
the weather, cars, rise in prices of real estate, follow up on
commercials and shows, and of course, always believe that America is
the world’s most democratic country. After all, this country is built
on the principle of Ancient Rome-eating as much as you can and
diversions. There is everything in this country and that’s why it
allures so many immigrants who try to go there with plans on getting
the right to live in America. Many people are mistaken if they think
that staying in America is only temporary. Ask any Armenian living in
the U.S. and that person will immediately tell you straight off that he
or she has no plans on living in the U.S. and that the only reason for
coming was to work, get a green card and return to Armenia. That’s what
everyone is saying for the past 10 years. Despite this, however,
everyone realizes the fact that there is no road leading back home.
Today, many of our compatriots have a dream of starting a new life in
the U.S. This can be seen by the long lines of people waiting in front
of the U.S. embassy. However, very few of them know the difficulties
that await them in the “land of miracles” before receiving the much
anticipated green card, American citizenship or some other status. To
be honest, in comparison with European laws,U.S. laws are more liberal.
This country provides many opportunities for getting some kind of
status. Perhaps there will be the the day when Armenians will be more
in number immigrants than the rest of the communities of America.
This type of insight is not meaningless. The proof of this is the cases
of Armenians appealed in the Los Angeles court for immigrants. The
cases that receive the most attention are the ones presented by
immigrants requesting refuge because of political problems. I tried
looking at our country through the eyes of the judge who looks at these
cases every day. Judging from the cases, we can say that nearly one
half of the country’s population is prosecuted by political
authorities. I got a chance to look over some cases. Of course, the
“victim of political refuge” is not the one who writes a written
statement asking for refuge, but rather the paid lawyer who in turn
makes up a story about the individual’s “dissident” life. The
individual then just signs the paper and waits patiently with the
court’s decision.
The next group of Armenians passes through with cases having to do with
religion. In that group, there are Krishnas, Jehovah’s witnesses,
Adventists and other sect representatives. We must add that the people
appealing the case have no clue of the religious group that they belong
to. The lawyers are the ones who know about those movements. The
clients are forced to read much literature about the religious groups
so that later they can prove their belonging to the group.
There is also another group that passes through under the name of
sexual minorities, even though they are few in number in Armenia.
Recently, there are many Armenians making it to the States with fake
documents or with someone else’s passport. Some achieve success and
others find themselves in the immigration jailhouses. In the end, it
turns out that most of our compatriots living in the U.S. live without
having nearly any rights. It can be understood that the Armenian with
no status and who has entered the country half-illegally confronts
serious difficulties. One of the main difficulties is finding work.
That is why the individual is forced to do the hardest work for a low
salary which is not enough to pay for the apartment rent.
The immigration jail is located in Downtown, Los Angeles. Here the
illegal immigrants wait for the court’s decision. Conditions in this
jailhouse are much better than the criminal jailhouses. An interesting
fact is that here, anyone can be freed from jail if he or she agrees to
return to his or her homeland. If the person doesn’t have money for
travel, the state provides the money. But in that case, freeing him or
her might take months. However, few agree to go back. They prefer
paying a lawyer and start a legal process so that they can get some
kind of status in the country.
I had the opportunity to be with a lawyer just like the one mentioned
above when I was in the immigration jail in Los Angeles. They took us
to a small room. After a couple of minutes, the defendant, who had been
in the U.S. more than 6 months, entered the room (he was about 20 years
old). He has appealed to the case for a political refuge.
“Why don’t you return to Armenia,” I ask him, “isn’t that better than staying in jail?
“They will take me to the army there. Besides, what can I do there?”
“Why don’t you want to get out of jail through secure ways?”
“That costs a lot. Besides, they feed me wellhere, I am involved in
sports, there is a library. Recently they treated my tooth for free. It
is better for me to wait for judgement day.
“How many Armenians are there?”
“Maybe 100.”
“How did you get here?”
“I had flirted with a prostitute and it turned out she was a police officer”.
“But that was not the reason that they caught you, was it?”
“No. I did not have the right documents. So I paid the fee…..”
Of course, the U.S. immigration services know very well the number of
illegal immigrants-there are officially 8,000,000 of them. No matter
how strange it may seem, all of them are working and do have the least
fear of being deported. In addition, during one of his speeches made
just recently, he proposed a law allowing all illegal immigrants to
enter the country. The U.S. simply favors having people who will do the
work that even the average American can not come close to for a low
salary-a dishwasher, custodian, a nanny, etc.