GUEST COLUMN ‘Get to know an immigrant. Or just talk or smile to them. It is easy and free!’
PHOTO PROVIDED
Myriam Raber on her naturalization day
“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
— 1883 Emma Lazarus poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty
Emma was a fifth generation American, descendant of Sephardic Jews who immigrated to the United States from Portugal and Brazil at various intervals since colonial times. Her family was fleeing discrimination and persecution. In New York City, this legacy American had great empathy for immigrants. She was involved in aiding refugees to New York who were escaping antisemitic pogroms in the early 1900’s. Had she still been alive in 1939, she would certainly have been outraged when President Roosevelt turned away 900 Jews from the MS St. Louis ocean liner back to Hitler’s Europe to “wait their turn.”
One third of these human beings perished in the Holocaust.
One of my great grandfathers was a French Jew who immigrated to Haiti in the late 1800s due to French discrimination against Jews. Jews, Italians, and Chinese faced some of the earliest injustices against immigrants both abroad and in these United States. The cancer of xenophobia knows no borders.
Immigrants leave precarious and dangerous lives behind to give their children a better future. This week, I received a note from an American Catholic priest and medical doctor friend in Haiti: “There is a resurgence of violence and shooting, massacres and kidnappings, burning and destruction.”
The United States forbids American commercial flights to land there. This is a stark contrast to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s assessment that Haiti is perfectly safe to live in. She wants to ban people from “every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.” She continues: “Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedom—not for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to AMERICANS. WE DON’T WANT THEM. NOT ONE.” Ms. Noem forgets that when her forefathers came, the land already had owners. 95% of these true Americans were wiped out by 1900. Noem is correct about one thing: there was much spilling of blood.
Immigrants start out doing the jobs Americans turn down. Many eventually learn the language, start businesses, and indoctrinate their children to achieve the highest education possible. 20% of all businesses in the United States are started by immigrants or their children. Half of all fortune 500 companies were also started by immigrants or their children. Interestingly our American First Lady is an immigrant, and our Second Lady is the daughter of immigrants. Not so shockingly, on Feb. 4, 2026, the current administration is barring green card holders from securing Small Business Association (SBA) backed loans. This is a type of loan I, and many others who started new businesses used initially. As mentioned before, people from 75 countries currently cannot naturalize. Bit by bit, the noose is tightening. One day restrictions may be added on native born Americans with undesirable ancestry and who know what else?
Immigrants are the most driven people of their respective countries aiming for success through arduous work and entrepreneurship. In 2010 after the great Haitian Earthquake, one of my nieces had joined me from Haiti to Ohio to finish high school. I received a letter and a check in the mail from a man my father helped decades prior. He asked I call him. He told me how he was a man with little education from a remote area of Haiti and had taken a sick child to the capital to see my dad for eye care. The little girl had a brain tumor. He narrated how my father, without knowing him, made all the arrangements for him and the child to obtain passports, visas, plane tickets, and contacted former colleagues abroad. The girl had lifesaving and sight saving surgery in the United States. The Americans who hosted the family realized how poor yet bright the girl was and through their networking helped the entire family move to the United States. The father worked humble yet appreciated jobs but made sure all three of his daughters earn degrees with the youngest set to graduate from law school a few months after we talked. This proud father was sending money to help my niece! My father had been deceased for 8 years but at this moment of need, this grateful man wanted to help the sister who had taken over my father’s practice. For months after the earthquake most Haitian doctors were working without any income.
As a local immigrant, entrepreneur, employer, and taxpayer who has navigated the immigration system in many ways for 40 years, I would like to take this moment to dispel some myths about immigrants in general and Haitians in particular. All Haitians place a high value on the education of their children.
My parents sacrificed to provide their 11 children with at least a college education. My father saw up to 70 patients per day at $3 to $5 a visit working long hours 6 days a week. I was the last child; born the year he turned 50. In the 1940s he and other young doctors were recruited by the United States as medical residents during World War II to fill voids left when so many American young men were sent to war. He was given a green card and a draft card. He moved back to Haiti at the end of the war because he did not want to live in a country that accepted Jim Crow laws. As we still witness, not every law is just. When he moved back, he had already lost a brother to political assassination. Later all three of his brothers-in-law and one nephew were murdered by the dictator and his remaining brother’s entire family had to go into exile to save their lives. My mother’s older sister (who was pregnant at the time) and her husband, chicken and egg farmers, were lucky to survive in political jail. Through all this both my parents did not reclaim their green cards. Haitians like so many other immigrants before them prefer to live at home if possible.
Today, many of the young Haitians facing loss of legal status in the USA by executive order and potential loss of life in Haiti by gangs would eagerly join the American armed forces in exchange for a green card.
Quite a few have untapped useful skills and degrees and most already speak two to four languages (French, Creole, Spanish, Portuguese) which would enable them to easily learn new ones. The Military Accessions Vital to National Interest (MAVNI) program allowed non-citizens with critical medical or language skills legally present in the U.S. to enlist and gain green cards and citizenship. While I personally would never choose that option, it would be a dream option for many. Unfortunately, the program was shuttered in 2017. There could be plenty of other ways to incorporate these eager migrants into the fabric of the country in exchange for public service. Back in World War II, six Haitian military officers endured Jim Crow segregation while training in the elite all-Black Tuskegee Airmen unit in Alabama between 1943 and 1944.
The biggest misconception I hear daily about immigrants (eagerly propagated by Ms. Noem) is that people are coming to the USA to get on welfare. Undocumented migrants can never receive welfare. Even legal immigrants cannot qualify for 10 years. There are a few exceptions where green card holders can receive aid after five years, but their sponsors may be liable to pay the government back. Form I-864 can provide you with all the details should you want to know more. Older immigrants must put in 40 quarters of work before they can sign up for Medicare or Social Security no matter their age. The only people who qualify immediately for government help are the few arriving with approved refugee or asylum status and that is usually for a limited time of 4 to 8 months while they get their lives organized. Legal Haitians, Cubans, and a few other groups can receive aid for that initial short term while waiting for work permits and social security numbers. These welfare amounts are extremely small, and the immigrant eagerly awaits the arrival of their work permit so they can earn real income. The application for a work permit (Form I-765) costs anywhere from $520 to $1,030, an intimidating in person biometrics visit at the nearest USCIS immigration office and currently must be renewed every 18 months for most migrants and can take 6 month or longer to be processed leaving many with periodic jobs loss. To put that into perspective, the welfare they may receive if they can navigate the paperwork typically is $230 in cash plus an equivalent food assistance per adult per month. A family of two adults and two children would receive around $611 in cash per month. Reality is, every immigrant must earn two incomes: one for themselves and one to support those they left behind in their home country. The minute they start to work, the paltry welfare stops, and they do not look back.
Another myth I hear is that people should just get in line and come here the legal way. For 75 countries on Earth, it is like telling them to drive a car to the moon. The United States had slowed and now stopped most legal pathways for 75 countries including my home country of Haiti. We are “Undesirable.”
Today, I could not attend college and dental school in the USA. I have a sister living in Florida who was about to file for her citizenship. Not possible by executive order. Haitians and others were pulled out of the courtroom from their citizenship swearing in ceremonies late last year. The path to citizenship involves a lot of money and hard work. Those with little education can easily miss renewing critical paperwork, putting them at risk of deportation. To be denied on that final day of extreme pride, which is naturalization reveals a dangerous existential crisis for this nation. The excuse used by the government is that some people from specific countries have dared to use the menial welfare support that was offered to them. As I said earlier, immigrants do not want welfare and do not stay on welfare even when it is given. It would make way more sense for government to offer an immediate and free work permit instead of the ridiculous arbitrary executive orders they are now using against 75 countries. Interestingly all but eight of those banned countries are non-white.
Dr. Myriam Raber’s father’s WWII draft card, and the only complete family photo she has. Raber is the infant.
There is a fallacy that immigrants do not pay taxes. Even illegal immigrants pay taxes. Many work with fake identification by necessity and pay social security and income taxes that they will never be able to claim. Those on temporary legal status pay a flat 30% income tax no matter what their income. The standard deduction does not apply to them. They still must pay into social security and unless they are able to become U.S. residents, they never see that money again. You can look up nonresident aliens Form 1040-NR should you wish for more information.
On the issue of immigrants voting illegally: 100% False. In fact, repeated studies have shown that even naturalized citizens are much less likely to vote than the native born. Green card holders and non-resident foreign nationals (documented or not), even criminals would not risk their freedom for any politician. Any talking head suggesting otherwise may have been basing it on inaccurate government records.
I was a citizen for 10 years before I voted. Sometimes. I still do not vote. Other times I only vote on local issues leaving out presidential choice (the voting machine seems stumped when I do that). It was not until after COVID that the Social Security Administration informed me that they had me in their system as a non-citizen. I had to make an in-person appointment and show my original naturalization certificate to have it changed. There could be thousands of unaware people in a comparable situation. If one were to compare voter rolls to social security data, it would appear to be voter fraud.
Another fallacy is that immigrants abuse the health care system. Immigrants including naturalized citizens make a lot less use of healthcare as compared to legacy Americans. They are usually younger, healthier, and too busy working! I personally have never missed a day of work due to illness. My father took his first sick day at age 71. As a group we do not get sick much past childhood, a phenomenon termed the “healthy immigrant effect.” Over decades, this advantage tends to fade as immigrants assimilate into the new culture and its poorer lifestyle habits. Employers appreciate these workers who have enormous endurance and work ethics. I hear from many Haitians that their dream job should have a lot of overtime! 20% of health care workers in the United States are foreign born. Among home health aides, 41% are foreign born. Physicians and surgeons: 26% are foreign born. Nurses and nursing assistants: 20%. Dentists: 22% are foreign born. 86 percent of agricultural workers in the United States are foreign-born, and 45 percent of all US agricultural workers are undocumented. Most of the undocumented are by large percentile of their DNA descendants of the original owners of the Americas.
Should millions really get deported, I am not sure who would pick up the slack. Food and healthcare may become in short supply and much more expensive as usually happens in scarcity.
Every state has programs that reimburse local hospitals for emergencies no matter who the patients are. If an uninsured immigrant visits the hospital in an emergency, the State and the hospital have funds set aside for such situations. Immigrants would gladly purchase emergency healthcare but for most, that is not allowed. Most Americans are also forbidden to purchase catastrophic only health insurance.
Immigrants pay more into the healthcare system (via taxes and premiums) than they consume, generating an annual surplus (estimated $11 billion to $17 billion) to the Medicare Trust Fund.
I often hear Americans saying that they do not owe Haiti anything. That is not accurate in many ways. In the 1779 Battle of Savannah, 500 free men of color from Saint Domingue (the old name for Haiti) volunteered and fought alongside American and French troops in a significant but unsuccessful attempt to retake Savannah from the British, suffering heavy casualties and protecting retreating forces. This helped secure the French acquisition of Louisiana, which led to the Louisiana Purchase by the U.S. (¼ of the current USA). After the 1804 Haitian slave rebellion that led to independence, the United States, fearing the spread of slave rebellions, imposed a strict economic embargo, culminating in the 1806 ban on trade. This policy severely isolated the new black republic for decades, stifled growth, and lasted until U.S. recognition of Haiti in 1862. 50 years later the USA would invade and occupy Haiti, justifying it under the Monroe Doctrine. Today president Trump has reclaimed this foreign policy approach and renamed it the “Donroe Doctrine.”
In 1915, the United States invaded and occupied Haiti for 19 years. American marines stole Haiti’s entire gold bullion reserves never to be seen again. My grandfather was a teenager, eating supper with his father when the marines came into their home and demanded the keys to the safe holding the gold. His father, Emmanuel Dreyfuss, worked at the Central Bank but told them he was not in charge of keys. Another Frenchman held the keys and was obliged to hand them over. The whereabouts of the confiscated Haitian gold to this day are shrouded in mystery. In 2019 I attempted an inquiry and received this email from the marines’ historical archives “Thank you for your request. The Historical Reference Branch holds no information on Haitian gold. It is possible the Archives Branch here at History Division holds records of the Marines in Haiti. It is also possible that the National Archives has the official records as well and may be your best source I am sorry we cannot help but hope this is useful.” The amounts taken may seem small to a great power, but these were valuable assets gone forever from an already struggling country. How would Americans feel if all the gold at Fort Knox was appropriated by Russia or China?
Most Haitians believe the United States are partly responsible for the violence making life impossible in Haiti. The violent gangs operate using free-flowing American made weapons and ammunition. For some reason, the United States seem unwilling to stop those illegal exports while demanding Columbia stops its cocaine exports. Without ammunition, even the biggest guns would be useless.
I hear comments that after all the aid sent to Haiti, it is still a mess and a hopeless place and should be left to rot. The reality is that less than 20 cents of every dollar earmarked for foreign aid actually makes it abroad. American bureaucracy and companies pocket the rest. With inaction as a foreign policy, the pot will keep on boiling and human beings will continue to attempt to reach other shores.
I closely follow the actions of ICE and Homeland Security. The US government claims they are only arresting dangerous criminals. I will not deny that in any group of people, some are, or become criminals. However, independent watch dogs report that half to three fourth of the people taken by ICE are NOT criminals. They are industrious human beings snatched from their families and labeled “collateral damage.” There are cases where both parents were taken while children were at school. Many of those detained and extrajudicially deported are solely accused of civil immigration violations rather than criminal charges. If one immigrant commits a crime, all immigrants from non-white countries are immediately declared guilty. In fact, immigrants—including undocumented immigrants—are less likely to commit crimes than the U.S.-born. This is true at the national, state, county, and neighborhood levels, and for both violent and non-violent crime.
Throughout history, leaders have always used the plight or success of foreigners as scapegoat for their shortcomings or as opportunities to acquire power. The Hebrew people (today’s Jews) are the unfortunate classic example of such machination. I have been a citizen of the USA for over 30 years, but I need only to open my mouth to be classified a foreigner. The United States is one of the rare countries shaped and driven forward by immigration. As my neighbor, I would invite you to think for yourself and not let politicians of any party manipulate you into thinking immigrants are the source of your problems. Repeatedly new groups of immigrants have revitalized crumbling towns and economies.
Initially there were at times hurdles but eventually it benefited the community. The people allowed to enter by previous administrations should not be weaponized even if previous governments had misguided motives. Had you been in a crisis on the other side of the border, you too, would have emigrated. The reality is that this country needs immigrants whether it be the farm worker, the night shift worker at the factory, the nurse’s aide caring for your elderly relative, or the Cleveland Clinic sub-specialist you might rely on in case of grave illness.
Politicians may have ulterior motives. Do not let that harden your heart to the point of not caring that families and human beings are trampled. Congress has been talking about reforming the system since the 1970s, yet both parties have done nothing. Violence is not the answer. Write to your representatives. You can write to our leaders even if you do not vote at all. They do listen to their constituents. Demand humane treatment of all people. Demand sensitive laws. You can even call the White House between the hours of 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday at 202-456-1111 or 202-456-1414. Get to know an immigrant. Or just talk or smile to them. It is easy and free! Ask your local school how you can help. People of a different culture do not automatically understand what you assume is common sense. Should you move to their country, you too would have plenty of challenges. As Mahatma Gandhi said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”
“First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.”
– “First They Came” by German Pastor Martin Niemoller 1946
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.”
– “First They Came” by German Pastor Martin Niemoller 1946
SUBMITTED BY
DR. MYRIAM RABER,
Dalton/Kidron resident
DR. MYRIAM RABER,
Dalton/Kidron resident
