A Token Toward Immigration

Many people have stories of how they immigrated to the U.S. and found a better way of life. For one man, his story of relocation is proving to be painstaking. What would you do?

Over ten years ago, an Irish man came to the United States. He wanted a better life and his visit hinged on the permission given to him by a temporary U.S. visa. In essence, he had ninety days.

That three month period turned into a whole lot more. Maybe he was taking a chance and wanted to see if America would work out for him. Maybe after ninety days, he just wasn’t sure he was ready to stay or if he wanted to head back home.

Life changes put a magnitude of pressure on people considering the cost and time expended trying to switch a life around or to find success. My guess is that Pierce McDermott was following his intuition and he had to wait for a positive sign. That sign could have been anything from landing a great job to getting properly connected in order for him to feel most confident that the U.S. was where he wanted to stay. Once he found more of a purpose here, things started to happen for him. They happened so consecutively and swiftly that he must have put the visa issue into the back of his mind.

Now that he is married, ecstatically at that, and has officially applied for citizenship, the powers that be want to deny him permanent status because he had a minor incident or two in his youth. He openly admitted to smoking a joint, which is legal in certain areas of the U.S., and to getting into a pub brawl. That was it.

The thing is, people do that every day in the United States and don’t go to jail or get arrested for it. True, it is unbecoming to get into physical fights, but sometimes, they happen. Maybe he had to defend himself or a friend.

I suppose the real meat and potatoes of this is that these laws are meant to protect the U.S. from bad guys. And this man, Mr. McDermott, is not a bad guy. If anything, he’s honest and most people aren’t. I’m sure plenty of people have gotten into similar issues and lied on their visa applications.

Should we punish this man for being open and upfront rather than investigate those people who’ve been dodgy or lied? Who would you rather have on your team?

If you were to ask me, I’d take an honest man any day of the week over one who lies. That way I’d know that I could count on him to be forward and to do what was necessary with integrity. People who aren’t upfront cannot be counted on. And I’d rather be friends or know someone who had openly admitted to making a mistake and has taken all the steps necessary to learn from it, than someone who claims never to have made any mistakes at all.