I know they'd be listening tonight!! ‪#‎Immigration‬ #OMABAImmigrationSpeech 8 pm

I know they'd be listening tonight!! ‪#‎Immigration‬

‪#‎ImAnAmericanYetBornAnImmigrant‬

Just had a flashback to the plane ride here.. Pan Am... you know they used to give out those little wings... had a big doll with me that sang "London Bridge is Falling Down" .. I was 3 ..

British born yet traveling on a Jamaican passport as such was the birthplace of my Mother.

The next flight years later .. headed to Jamaica...

I remember returning a few years later....my traveling companion was whisked through.. she was American born .. I was being pulled aside and hearing my name over the loudspeaker...

Immigration Officers had called my Mother in.. seems since I was the holder of a Green Card.... Alien Registration card I was to be in the country every 364 days.. the excuse of me being in school was unwarranted..

The next morning instead of chilling... off to INS we go....

Fast forward High school the little box under the signature line wasnt checked... though the authorities knew at that time I was a citizen of the USA ... I filled out financial aid forms checking Alien...

Fastforward 1996 ... Immigration and Welfare Reform Act... in there was the grandfather clause I had been looking for.

I had told my father I wouldnt be a citizen until I knew the laws and the rules.. this was necessary because I saw someone who was the child of immigrants like myself who had filed and the day to swear in was taken aside.. handed her naturalization certificate and given a hand shake.

You see at this point the topic of "Derivative Citizen" was more than clarified.

Here was proof in my face...

I downloaded, printed and read that long ass document... there it was..
I could proceed..

At this point it comes down to filing the correct paperwork.. it's all in the fine print. Even more so if I had been male and needed for Selective Service.. I would have been informed that I was a citizen..

Yet, another way is to apply for a US passport..

You see parents who seek naturalization and have children under the age of 18 no matter where they are in the world; who fail to check the box under the signature line leave their children in a strange limbo.

I did not raise my hand to swear in when I claimed my naturalization certificate.. you see some 20 years before... my Father had already raised his..

The INS gives you a handshake.. and if you're lucky .. you get your old passport / visa / green card pics back as well.  1  ‪#‎RespectPOTUS‬

My father delayed leaving the country just so he could ‪#‎VOTEFOROBAMA‬ .. I need to listen tonight before the Old Man shows up in my dreams.