Felipe, U.S. Marine: "Now I can earn my citizenship."

Wall St Journal ^ | 1-02-03 | DAVID ASMAN

[SJackson]

NEW YORK -- Three years ago, on the night of his 19th birthday, my wife and daughter and I took my stepson to dinner. The restaurant was one of Manhattan's best. But none of us at the dinner remember even tasting the food. This was not just a birthday celebration. Felipe had decided about a month earlier that he was going to quit college to join the Marines. The very next day he was heading off to boot camp. Dinner went down hard that night.

[philosofy123]

Mr. Asman

Is that with double s? :-)

[wideawake]

And those among us who would deny immigrants the opportunity to join in our good fortune should ask whether they have earned their citizenship with as much grit and passion as this 22-year old Marine corporal.

The Journal just had to get this dig in, even if it has to use this brave young man to do it.

The 9/11 crew of murderers were immigrants too, Mr. Asman. And many Americans, both native and foreign-born, think it makes sense to be very careful about who let into our country - that we should separate the Felipes from the Mohammed Attas, rather than let just anyone cross our borders indiscriminately.

[cpdiii]

They do not make them any better than that young marine!!!

[Bigg Red]

And many Americans, both native and foreign-born, think it makes sense to be very careful about who let into our country - that we should separate the Felipes from the Mohammed Attas, rather than let just anyone cross our borders indiscriminately.

Thank you for so eloquently stating my own thoughts.

[Perseverando]

Ur-rah! Semper Fi!

Great post!

Bump!

[Mike Darancette]

That young man has earned his citizenship. The people here illegally should be given the bum's rush.

[PhiKapMom]

Thanks for posting this article. What a neat young man that when INS screws up the paperwork, he goes out joins the Marines and earns his citizenship.

[PhiKapMom]

If your comment (#2) means what I think it does, your lack of class is showing!

[wideawake]

Just be thankful philosofy123 didn't call this young Marine a war criminal for serving in the US military.

[FITZ]

He's certainly a better type than those moochers demanding their free college while they most likely never registered with the draft as required by law and this type should be getting citizenship ahead of all those who come only for the money or welfare.

[aruanan]

Is that with double s? :-)

Probably not, considering that he said this:

But to paraphrase Felipe, we're all in it together now. Neutrality is not an option when all those who favor freedom have been targeted. I'm just glad Felipe realized freedom was something worth fighting for three years ago.

[Miss Marple]

David Asman is very proud of his stepson, and even got into it with Charlie Rangel about how only the poor are serving in the Armed Forces. Mr. Rangel had egg on his face when he finally realized that Asman was telling the truth.

I am very proud of all of our military, and I think this is an excellent article.

[livius]

A very good article about a very brave Marine. Let's not forget, guys 'n gals, that we are all descendants of immigrants. And our own immigrant relatives no doubt received vicious slurs from those whose parents had immigrated the generation before. This, unfortunately, seems to be human nature.

I think there are definitely things wrong with our immigration policies, and the INS is a hopelessly messed-up agency. But the solution does not lie in hating immigrants and unrealistically wishing for a country without immigrants. Truthfully, I'd suspect that most of our worst domestic social problems are caused by people born and bred right here in the US.

[SJackson]

The Journal just had to get this dig in, even if it has to use this brave young man to do it….The 9/11 crew of murderers were immigrants too, Mr. Asman. And many Americans, both native and foreign-born, think it makes sense to be very careful about who let into our country - that we should separate the Felipes from the Mohammed Attas, rather than let just anyone cross our borders indiscriminately.

Note the authors comments:

I had brought Felipe and his mother to the U.S. from Nicaragua in 1988. Because of enormous snafus with the INS, Felipe had turned 18 without having his papers for citizenship approved. The INS had misplaced documents that had been sent to them two years earlier by my wife.

Our first priority should be securing our borders. But the INS is a mess from top to bottom. As I understand it, 15 of the 19 hijackers shouldn’t have been given visas, but they knew they system.

Felipe, here legally and attempting to become a citizen, apparently has endured years of frustration following the rules.

[Crusader21stCentury]

"I'm willing to make the full sacrifice if I have to."

This is a young man who is worthy of citizenship, probably more so than some who were born here.
It is individuals such as this young man that I welcome into our land. Those who are allowed to sneak in, dishonor him and his sacrifice. His attiude is also superb, when INS lost his documentation, he took lemons and made lemonade.

[yendu bwam]

Would that more of our young men (and women) could be like Felipe... It's people like this who form the spine of our country.

[NormsRevenge]

From Today in History http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/jan02.html

A little USMC history tie-in with Nicaragua

Coincidentally, on January 2, 1933, the Marines left Nicaragua after an extended stay.

Semper Fi

From the Halls of Montezuma

Group of Sixty to Seventy Marines at Attention,
Nicaragua,
between 1927-1929.
Prints and Photographs Division
LC-USZ62-99697
(negative of lantern slide)

On January 2, 1933, the United States Marines Corps withdrew from Nicaragua. It trained and left behind a powerful National Guard in a country beset by struggle between liberal and conservative forces centered respectively in the cities of León and Grenada.

Founded by the Spanish in the early 1550s, the two cities became competing poles of power. Their militant rivalry often left Nicaragua subject to outside interests even after the country gained independence from Spain in the early 1800s.

British and U.S. interests in Nicaragua grew during the mid-1800s because of its strategic importance as a transit route across the Central American isthmus. With the advent of the California gold rush, Nicaragua proved a popular interoceanic shortcut. Cornelius Vanderbilt's steamship company transported supplies and prospectors from the Atlantic, along Nicaragua's San Juan River, then across Lake Nicaragua to the Pacific.

John M. Letts wrote of his 1849 travels through Nicaragua:

. . . arrived at Lake Leon. The appearance of this lake as it opened to our view was peculiarly striking. It is shut in by lofty mountains, which tower up in innumerable peaks of volcanic origin . . . the smoke curls gracefully out, commingling with the clouds . . .
We passed along down to Mat[e]ares, a small town situated on an eminence overlooking the lake, and inhabited by descendants of the African race. We breakfasted on chickens, frijoles, tortillos[sic], eggs . . . and after an hour's detention started for Managua. We passed through a delightful region of country, the soil, in many places, highly cultivated, bearing the impress of thrift and industry, I had not before seen in the country. Fruits grow in abundance, cattle had an unlimited range, and were the finest I ever saw; the country was broken, the mountains towering up to the clouds, and some covered with perpetual snow; but at their base were vales watered by mountain rivulets, and shaded by groves of orange and fig, seeming a retreat fit for the angels.

John M. Letts,
California Illustrated; Including a Description of the Panama and Nicaragua Routes,
pages 153-154.
California As I Saw It: First Person Narratives, 1849-1900

John Hill Wheeler,
United States Minister to Nicaragua,
studio of Mathew Brady, photographer,
between 1844 and 1860.
America's First Look at the Daguerreotypes, 1839-1862

In 1856, at the invitation of Nicaraguan liberals, a Tennessee filibuster named William Walker invaded Nicaragua with a small armed force and the hope of extending the southern U.S. slave culture overseas. He enjoyed initial success, however, when he presumed to establish himself as president of Nicaragua, Walker was routed by the joint efforts of Nicaragua's opposing political factions, Vanderbilt's steamship company, the British government, and other Central American republics. Walker narrowly escaped their capture only to surrender himself to the U.S. Navy the following year.

In 1897, President William McKinley appointed the Nicaragua Canal [Walker] Commission to reexamine the logistics of a canal route through the Isthmus of Nicaragua. The commission estimated the cost of construction at $118,113,790 not including interest and administration. However, when Nicaragua's President Zelaya invited both Germany and Japan to compete with the United States for construction rights, the U.S. built through Panama instead.

Beginning in 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt framed the Big Stick Policy to forward U. S. interests and to restrict European influence in the Americas. In 1909 this corollary to the Monroe Doctrine impacted Nicaragua. Responding to the execution of two of its citizens, the U.S. landed four-hundred marines on Nicaragua's shore. In a 1912 effort to retain power, conservative forces requested aid and the U.S. landed 2,700 marines. Thereafter, the U.S. maintained a presence in Nicaragua almost continually until 1933.

• Learn more about the role of Spain in the early development of Middle America, see the online exhibition 1492: An Ongoing Voyage.

• Search on the term Nicaragua in the collection California As I Saw It: First Person Narratives, 1849-1900 to find travelers' accounts of the area.

• Search on the term Nicaragua in the online Handbook of Latin American Studies to develop a bibliography on the nation. The Handbook is an annual bibliography on Latin America consisting of over five thousand works selected and annotated by scholars from around the world.

• Search on Latin America, Spain, Theodore Roosevelt, the Monroe Doctrine, steamships, Dominican Republic, or the Panama Canal in the Today in History Archive for relevant features.

• Search on the term spanish in California Gold: Folk Music from the Thirties, 1938-1940 to find some 100 songs sung in the language.

[Centurion2000]

And those among us who would deny immigrants the opportunity to join in our good fortune should ask whether they have earned their citizenship with as much grit and passion as this 22-year old Marine corporal. In the days of an all-volunteer military, not bloody likely.

Why yes I have (USMC, Desert Shield/Storm 90/91), so the author can take this little dig and shove it up its arse.

[Vic3O3]

USMC ping!