Martha, my daughter-in-law, is taking the oath next month to become a U.S. citizen. As a surprise present, I invited her mother from Peru, la sra. Julia, to stay with us a month, our treat. I sent her a round-trip ticket. Then the embassy denied Julia a visa, basically calling her a liar for saying she merely wanted to visit her almost-American daughter.
Julia was born 75 years ago in an Andean village noted in the past for an Incan uprising against the Spaniards in 1720, and now mostly forgotten by the Peruvian government. It’s poverty in the extreme. Their adobe houses have no electricity or modern plumbing. A toothbrush is a novelty. Although la sra. Julia is bilingual in Quechua and Spanish, she can’t read and write: girls in her generation were not sent to school, but were expected at 16 to “marry” (not that there was a church within burro-riding distance) and become a mother. And that, she did.
She no longer can work, and never learned to drive (no one in the family drives, much less owns a car). A tiny widow’s pension is her only income, but she manages with help from her several children, three of whom are cops, one a secretary for the police, and one of whom worked for a U.S. contractor to guard the Baghdad American embassy. Her life is in Peru: her children and grandchildren, her brothers, her husband’s grave, the home she owns, built by her late husband and sons to replace the adobe house they had built originally. She pays her taxes and utility bills. She saves castoffs to bring to the poor people in her native village in the Andes Mountains.
They don’t think Julia’s a terrorist or scofflaw. No one sees her aiming to find work in America. Why, then, did the embassy deny her a tourist visa?
Prejudice.
Ignorance.
Very unAmerican, very arrogant. Curt Struble‘s long foreign service career apparently didn’t prepare him for the human side of being an ambassador to Peru.
They used the catchall Section 214(b) of the INA, under which the presumption is the applicant will refuse to leave the U.S. Human Rights Watch observed the applicant must prove strong enough ties to the home country to give a “strong inducement to return,” such as a permanent job there, business interests, or close family members who remain at home; AND enough funds to afford the visit.
Women have a harder time coming to the country. To get a tourist visa, you have to prove that you have ties back home. Women are less likely to have bank accounts or own property, so it is harder for them to qualify. Third World status makes it far more difficult as well–which is about race and also is about economics: so in immigration policy, you clearly see the intersection of race, gender and class at work.
In an interview of a few minutes, embassy personnel form very subjective conclusions on your intent. You’re going for a short visit, you bring documents to prove you have a home and offspring in Peru, and your American host is paying for everything. If you’re single (no spouse not to abandon), too old to work (no job not to abandon) too poor (no business or farm or substantial residence not to abandon) you are SOL. You’re an old widow from the sierras. You’re illiterate. You’re worthless. The ambassador in Lima will decide you’re a liar.
I suspect the prejudice is widespread. In Brazil, when a woman was strangled by her husband in Massachusetts, the consulate approved visas for the murderer’s family. They owned a farm. The victim’s 68-year old poor seamstress mother wanted to see her grandson and visit the grave. The consulate staff humiliated her, asking why she wanted to go if her daughter was already dead. They concluded she was lying. Then they denied her a visa. SOL.
In signing the Border Security Act, President Bush spoke reassuringly.
America is not a fortress; no, we never want to be a fortress. We’re a free country; we’re an open society. And we must always protect the rights of our law — of law-abiding citizens from around the world who come here to conduct business or to study or to spend time with their family. That’s what we’re known for. We’re known for respect.
Liar.
Liar.
We know who’s the real liar.