It's Official. My Children Are Anchor Babies.

The first new edition of the American Heritage Dictionary in 10 years contained 10,000 new words. The term “anchor baby” is included. The original definition did not include any indication that the phrase is a slur and offensive, as it does for other words. (The online edition only has just been changed to note that the phrase is offensive, but did not change the definition).

The current definition the dictionary gives for anchor baby is:

“A child born to a non-citizen mother in a country that grants automatic citizenship to children born on its soil, especially when the child's birthplace is thought to have been chosen in order to improve the mother's or other relatives' chances of securing eventual citizenship."

A more appropriate definition would be:

"Slang, a pejorative description of a child born in the United States to parents who are both without legal status", implying that the parents intend to leverage the child’s citizenship to “anchor” their own presence in the U.S.”

I have 2 issues with the current definition.

1. "Non-citizen mother" includes all non-citizen mothers, whether in the US legally or not, and ignores the citizenship of the father.

2. "in a country" means all countries use the term anchor baby. The phrase anchor baby is not used much outside the U.S.

When my children were born I was not yet eligible for US citizenship, but I was a legal immigrant with a green card. So my children were born to a non-citizen mother. Therefore, according to the definition in the dictionary, my children are anchor babies. Their father is a US citizen, but again no mention is made in this definition of the nationality of the father.

Several bills have been introduced from time to time in Congress which seek to nullify the US citizenship of “anchor babies”. Unsure whether these bills would survive legal challenges, some legislators have proposed a change to the Constitution to deny and/or retroactively strip “anchor babies” of US citizenship. It all comes down to semantics. If a definition in the dictionary uses “non-citizen” mother, instead of “parents without legal status”, it’s likely future legislation will mirror the definition in the dictionary.

As a result, my childrens' US citizenship status is now at risk.

I believe that all children born in the US, or any country, should be granted citizenship as a birthright, regardless of the immigration status of the parents. The immigration system in the US is inhumane and does not work, but this is not an effective way to fix it. Having said that, this post is about my viewpoint as a legal immigrant living in the US.

The problem I had living in the US was that the anti-immigrant hysteria in the States caused “legal immigrants” to be penalized simply because they are not US citizens.

There is no sense of security living in a country where the basic rules are subject to change. Are my children going to be stripped retroactively of their US citizenship? My US driving licence was suspended in Florida,(read more here) and I was left without a licence for 30 days, simply because the clerk didn't understand my green card was proof that I was living in the country legally.

The DMV clerk who revoked my driving licence was like most Americans who do not understand the difference between "legal" immigrant and "illegal" immigrant and believe "non-citizen" means they are in the country illegally.

Vivek Wadhwa of Duke University said that skilled immigrants are leaving the US.

If immigrants feel unsafe living in the US they will return to their home countries, and it will be America’s loss.

Should US citizens be required to carry passports within the US?

One morning we were driving around the American town where hubby was born and raised, when he realized that all the identification he was carrying on him was foreign. Our car was registered to Ontario, our driver licences were from Ontario, and he had absolutely no proof that he was an American citizen. Come on, no one thinks to carry a passport when you’re going to get coffee and donuts. I’ve traveled all over Europe, and if I was not crossing a border, I kept my passport back at the hotel for safekeeping.

As anti-immigrant hysteria sweeps the US, more and more states are passing laws similar to Arizona’s draconian SB1070. This law requires the local police force to ask for US identification and proof of legal residence if they have any reason to interact with you. In hubby’s case, in the absence of proof of lawful presence in the US would require the police to report him to Homeland Security for immediate removal to an Immigrant Detention Center. How ironic that he could be arrested and detained by immigration authorities in the town he was born and raised in.

Now obviously we can produce a US passport for him, but immigration authorities will still incarcerate him pending presentation of that document.

It is only a matter of time before all states have passed their own form of SB1070 and more and more US citizens and legal immigrants will be detained.

For the first time hubby felt like an outsider in the town where he was born and raised.

My child was assaulted so badly by a bully at school that he stopped breathing....and the school did not call me.

I think that schools routinely ignore bullying behaviour. The problem seems especially bad in Florida.

Last December a fight broke out in a 7th grade classroom in West Palm Beach, and the teacher stood by and did nothing while a student was pummelled during math class. A classmate caught the fight on a cell phone, and both the bully and victim were SUSPENDED from school.

Schools are getting more violent in Florida. Why doesn’t anyone notice that students are being bullied and assaulted?

Some schools are better than others in preventing bullying. Many schools “tolerate” bullying and even blame the victim. They don’t care about bullying and tend to ignore it.

When my middle boy was in 6th grade at Seminole Middle School in Florida another 6th grade student had been making credible death threats toward my son. He said several times that he would bring a knife into school and slit my son's throat until he bled to death. Often in the school hallways this bully would slam my son's head against the wall. 

Then one morning during PE the bully grabbed my son by the neck, kicked his legs out from under him, and body slammed him hard on to the ground. As a result, my son was unable to pull air in, and two students ran to get the teacher saying my son was “on the ground and not breathing”. He had to have his rescue inhaler as the assault had triggered an asthma attack.

The assault happened at 10:00am and no one from the school even called me. I didn’t find out about it until 5:00pm when my son came home. When I asked the school why they failed to notify me about the attack, they stated they have 70 kids in that PE class and they “can’t call every parent every time a kid needs their rescue inhaler”. Well, I should know if he used his inhaler so I don’t over-medicate him, and yes I should know if he has been assaulted at school and goes into respiratory arrest. Was the school certain my son didn’t need any further medical attention? This statement shows the school downplaying that my son was assaulted during class.

What happened next is the awful way the school handled this.

Of course this happened on a Friday, so I had all weekend to fret about it. I called the school on Monday to find out the details from the PE coach, and then made an appointment with the assistant principal (principal not available).

This is what happened next.

PE was first period. I did not feel my son was safe during PE, so I dropped him at school at the beginning of second period. I was determined not to place him in PE until I felt he would be safe at school.

Assistant Principal (AP) called and said that my son had to make a written and then oral statement to the School Resource Officer (school cop) so the police could check for discrepancies to see if my son was lying. AP told me it this was mandatory and I was not permitted to be present during his police statement, even though my son is a minor. I refused, and instead I made an appointment to see the AP who then became irritated with me.

When I arrived at the school a large Sheriff’s Forensics Unit truck was parked outside the school and a couple of police were talking into walkie talkies. I showed my driver licence to the secretary proving that I was the same person I was a few days ago when I turned up for a teacher conference. I asked her if the science class was studying forensics. She told me that a student sitting in the office had been beaten up, and the forensics unit were at the school to take photos of her injuries. I asked her why the school didn’t call an ambulance for an injured student and she said “we never do that, we always call forensics instead”.

I went into the 6th grade house and it was a zoo. An ill child, sniffling and looking pale, sat in a chair and covered his mouth and nose with his clothing. He said to me that he felt like he had pneumonia. The 6th grade house secretary got off the ‘phone and said to the sick child “your mother says you’re good to go to class”. I felt bad for the child, because he was obviously ill and would spread illness to the other students. I waited a long time and found out that the AP forgot we had an appointment.
Finally, when we saw the AP, he listened to my son’s statement. He then gave him a Police report to fill out and told me, again, that it was mandatory for my son to fill in a police statement. I told AP my son was a minor and would not fill it out.

AP refused to tell me the name of the bully due to confidentiality. My son was not sure what his name was since there were 70 kids in the class, so he had to identify the kid’s photo off a school computer screen.

All I wanted the school to do was to separate these two boys. Put my son in another class, or even if the front office, just take him out of PE. AP said he would talk to the other student and call me back.

A couple of days later the AP called me back, and this is what happened.

The AP said that he had spoken to the other student and he believed the other student when he said that he was “messin’ around” and this student thought my son was playing also. AP told me that he reminded the student that Seminole Middle School was a ”bully free” zone, and he should not play so hard with other students in case they mistake it for bullying. The other student told AP he now understood that he should not play rough with other kids. AP told me that the "bully's" story was more “credible” than my son’s, therefore no action would be taken, and if I didn’t put my son back in PE immediately, he was calling a truant officer and would have me arrested.

AP said the death threats were not to be taken seriously, since they had only my son’s word for it. The other student told the AP that he didn’t threaten to kill my son. 

Since the school was refusing to separate these boys, I told AP that I was withdrawing my son from Seminole Middle School immediately. AP told me that didn't believe that I would pull my son from school (just watch me). He said he would have the Principal call me.

The next day (Friday) I went to the local school board and filled out a withdrawal form for my son, and returned his textbooks to his school. Since the school refused to provide a safe learning environment for my son I was going to home school him. 

Pulling my son out of the school system wasn't a fun thing to do. I knew that I was effectively ending many friendships he had while he was in the school system. As the Southern US has a school busing system due to racial desegregation and most of his friends lived in different neighbourhoods which were miles apart so most of them only socialized at school.

The Principal didn't bother to call until almost a week after I withdrew my son to persuade me to send him back to Seminole Middle. I know the school wanted him back because he scores well on standardized testing which gives the school more money, so he is a valuable commodity to the school. The Principal told me that my son and this student were “more similar than you know”. I asked how and he said “I can’t tell you, that’s confidential”. No, the Principal was not Leslie Neilsen.

The Principal told me that my son still needed to fill out a written police report since it will help the school if there is another incident with this student. Why would they need that, since he was so credible? I again refused. I asked if my son were to return to school could he be separated from this student. The Principal agreed with the AP and told me that my son would have to continue PE (in a poorly supervised class of 70) with this student.

The school refused to provide a safe learning environment.

Since the bully was more credible and just playing, I guess my son was too stupid to remember he needed to breathe when he hit the ground.

The entire experience was to make my son feel like a criminal, while the bully was protected.

Oh, and the sign outside the school while all this was going on said “Bully Free School”. Of course it’s a bully free school if you ignore all the bullying.

This school was sought after by parents and not one of the "rough" schools in the County. When Hubby was a teacher he saw schools that were much worse than this.

I removed my son from school the day after the AP told me my son was "not credible" and home schooled him through 6th and 7th grade. Excellent decision!

My son was lucky that I was able to pull him from school and home school him, but many parents are unable to do this.

I think the reason we are having so much school violence in Florida (and elsewhere in the US) is because of rampant bullying which the school ignores. 

Instead of victim blaming they need to take the problem seriously.

Columbine style school massacre avoided

Seminole High School is a high school near where we used to live in Florida. Hubby used to be a substitute teacher there, and many of elder boy's closest friends still attend this school.

According to the St. Petersburg Times, Nathaniel Zeno, a 16-year-old tenth grader at Seminole High School in Pinellas County, Florida, was planning to pull off the next Columbine massacre. Zeno was making a list of firearms he would need, and attempting to recruit kids who had a history of cruelty to animals to participate in his planned massacre. He had been reading up extensively on Columbine, and had written a detailed plan on how he was going to carry this out.

Luckily, a staff member at the school noticed him walking around the school making notations on the map. Pinellas deputies believe that had Zeno been able to get his hands on a firearm, he probably would have turned up at school one day and carried this out.

Zeno made a confession on the last posting on his block on Friday March 4th stating:

"To anyone who reads this, I might be going to jail. I planned to shoot up my school and was caught marking up a map. This is not a joke. If I don't send another journal within a week I'm in jail. To my friends, goodbye and good luck."

Will my US born sons be stripped of their US citizenship?

Birthright citizenship looms as the next big immigration battle in the US. Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce, the father of the anti-immigrant bill SB 1070, has a new target in his cross hairs. "Anchor babies," the ugly epithet used to label children born of undocumented immigrants. He has even stated that an anchor baby is a baby born to a mother who is not a U.S. citizen at the time of the child’s birth. Note the word “mother”. Senator Pearce states that only non-US citizen mothers "drop anchor babies", and that fathers do not. My sons' US born father does not matter to Senator Pearce.

My children may be considered anchor babies, depending on how this legislation is written, since I was not a US citizen at the time my children were born. Does it matter that I was a “legal immigrant” the entire time I resided in the United States? It should! However, this immigrant hysteria has blurred the line between “legal” and “illegal” immigrants. Read this article "In any case, the proposal to abolish birthright citizenship also importantly applies to documented immigrants, even green card holders. So even children of fully legal immigrants should not, according to the bill, become citizens either."

Or read this article: "Birthright citizenship. Anchor babies. Both terms refer to the automatic conferring of American citizenship on any child born in the United States to an illegal immigrant or non-citizen mother which must be stopped".

The words "non-citizen mother" mean my children are considered anchor babies, and this puts them at risk of being stripped of their US citizenship.

I have followed this legislation closely. It all comes down to semantics.

The key phrase that this legislation hinges on is whether or not the mother was “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States. Sometimes the phrase “illegal immigrant” mother is used, and other times the words “non-citizen” mother is used. They are not interchangeable. If the legislation rolls as currently worded with “non-citizen” mother, then my sons are affected and may be stripped of their US citizenship and their birth certificates could be cancelled, while their mother is now a US citizen since she naturalized after they were born. This would be ironic!

Should birthright citizenship be abolished, it will create a new set of (through no fault of their own) stateless people who were born in the US. This is just heartless!

This immigrant hysteria is a big reason why I got my family out of the US.

As an immigrant I just didn't belong there.

Meanwhile, my (US citizen) immigrant husband has been living in Canada for 4 months now, and Canadians have made him very welcome.

$8,000 for a broken arm

Our youngest son fell off his bike and broke his arm. Here he is, December 2008, in All Children’s Hospital, St Petersburg, Florida, waiting for surgery to re-set a broken arm.

A few years ago in the United States we had excellent health care, even though we were self employed.

Our family so far has been healthy with no pre-existing conditions. Then our health insurance premiums started to increase so much, that health insurance was almost unaffordable. 

A couple of years ago our monthly health insurance premiums were almost as much as our mortgage, and our deductible was $10,000. This means that our insurance company would not pay for any medical treatment until we had incurred more than $10,000 in medical debt. In addition to the large deductible, we paid large co-pays ($100.00 to see a doctor), and had no prescription coverage.

A couple of years ago our youngest son fell off his bike and broke his arm. He had a procedure in the hospital to re-set the bones. This was a simple break with no complications. During the procedure I worried about how much this was going to cost. I was worried about my son, but I was worried sick about the cost. A friend of his recently broke his arm, and his parents were charged $17,000.

We were charged $8,000 for his broken arm! This did not reach our deductible of $10,000, so our health insurance company paid $0, and we were charged the full $8,000. There was nothing remarkable about the break. The arm was re-set, and put in a cast. The doctor checked him every few weeks, and then, when the arm was healed, the cast came off.

In June 2010 we received another notice of a hefty health insurance premium increase and our deductible rose to $12,000. Our health history had not changed apart from son's broken arm. We could no longer afford health insurance, so we joined the rank of uninsured in America.

Recently Blue Cross Blue Shield of California announced a 58% health insurance premium increase.

People are not uninsured in America by choice. Health insurance is unaffordable.

Health care is a fundamental human right, not a luxury item.

My 14 year old child was approached by a Military Recruiter at school during art class

Navy recruiter, at my son’s previous high school (in the U.S.), giving a recruitment presentation in class during the Great American Teach In. Personal photo collection.

This is the actual recruiter who turned up in my son’s art class wearing full naval white service dress uniform, (a white tunic, white trousers, white shoes, complete with white hat, with all his gleaming medals). Very intimidating!

Last April our eldest boy, then 14, was in grade 9.

One day, without warning, a military recruiter for the Navy, in full military uniform, took over his grade 9 art class for the entire 50 minute period. The art teacher sat at the back of the class for the recruitment session. The military recruiter handed a military recruitment form to the class, and said that all students must fill it out immediately and hand it back to him. My son refused to fill out the form, and the recruiter told him it was mandatory. Another kid sitting next to my son said “Don’t fill out that form – it’s bad, they’ll never leave you alone.” Smart kid.

Meanwhile, recruiter is telling the class how wonderful the Navy is, and you get to travel to lots of different countries. “Does anyone here like fishing? I get a lot of chance to fish in some pretty amazing rivers in different countries and I caught some really big fish.” (Huh! I’m a tad confused with military and fishing, but I guess they can catch some whoppers on those big naval ships.)

Mr. Recruiter starts handing out key fobs, blue water bottles with NAVY on them, pens marked "US Military", and other trinkets to the children, and asking questions like “does anyone here know how to put out a fire? You can become a fireman, the navy has lots of interesting jobs”. He walked around the room to collect the recruitment forms, and my son had not filled his in, and the recruiter told him he had to fill it in, but my son still refused (empower your child to say no to military recruiters) and eventually Mr. Recruiter backed down.

I was flabbergasted the day my son came home from school and said, "Mom, you'll never guess what happened to me in art class today". I'm thinking some lesson on drawing, or other artistic endeavour. Then he showed me his military recruitment form, a NAVY water bottle, and a pen marked "U.S. Military" and told me a recruiter took over the art class and he won some prizes for answering the recruiter's questions. This is why you must always talk to your child throughout the school year, because he still participated for the prizes. My son told me the questions he answered were "how do you put out a fire" and general in nature. He did remember that I had told him not to answer anything personal and not fill out the form.

I was angry with the school, and I felt violated. I had done everything to protect my son from military recruiters. The school had a Military Opt Out form and had ignored it. I had advised other parents how to avoid recruiters.

I had to find out how this could have happened.

At the beginning of the school year I located and filled out a Military Opt Out form, handed it to the school and had it date stamped “received”, delivered a copy to the principal and superintendent of the local school board.

I called the school and was told that my son's school records stated "No military opt out on file, ok to release information to military". I was told that I had not handed in a military opt out form. I told them I had and my copy was date stamped received. The school then admitted that they had a form after all, but it was in my son’s file, and had never been entered into the database.

I went to see the principal, and told her what had happened, and she said “oh, oh”. Well, I’m probably the worst person this could have happened to, since I counter-recruit as much as I can. Now I'm concerned my son's information has already been sent to JAMRS.

A child is entitled to an education without being harrassed by military recruiters. In the U.S. this is a gargantuan task compounded by the local culture of the military being a "benevolent" organization fighting for "freedom" that pervades much of American patriotism.

I e-mailed the art teacher and asked why she was “allowing 14 year olds to be exposed to military recruitment during class time, when students are unable to walk out and leave”. My e-mail was not aggressive, I only asked her this one question. The art teacher e-mailed back that since I was so sensitive to classroom presentations, she was cancelling an artist who was going to visit the class soon. She then berated my son for the rest of the year. Several times in front of the class, she told my son that he was such a disappointment to her and a loser. As a result of this experience, my son hates anything to do with art.

This year I hand delivered another military opt out, and had to make several ‘phone calls and office visits before someone was finally able to confirm to me that the military opt out was actually on file. My son only spent 1 month at school before our move, but I was taking no chances. I didn’t trust the school.

Recently we went to a parent teacher open house at my son’s new high school in Guelph. The school confirmed that, currently, there is no military recruitment in Canadian schools. There is a career day, when the universities etc., set up booths in the cafeteria and students may visit them. The military is allowed a booth there should a student have questions about recruiting into the military. Apart from that, military recruiters are not wandering the halls, lurking in the cafeteria, nor are they trying to go behind parent’s backs to recruit their children. 

How refreshing!

No Child Left Unrecruited in American Schools

Image courtesy of: Aaron Lee Fineman

http://www.aaronleefineman.com/

Photo of military recruiter just outside the lunch room of a Georgia High School

People in Canada are surprised to learn that in the United States military recruiters are given unfettered access to youngsters at high school and increasingly at some middle schools. Schools receive funding from the federal government (No Child Left Behind Act), and in return they must allow military recruiters unlimited access to the schools, and send the names and addresses of all high school students to the Pentagon database kept on youths under 18, or they will lose funding.

American parents are not aware how aggressively their children are being pursued at school by these recruiters.

I was active at my son’s high school as a counter-recruiter. I talked to as many parents as I could, and have yet to find one parent who was aware of a form called a Military Opt Out. If a parent fills that form out, the recruiters are supposed to leave that child alone. Many parents are unaware of the form which is hidden deep in the Code of Student Conduct. This information is purposely suppressed from parents, so few parents ever complete and return a military opt out to the school. Many schools routinely ignore the military opt out form.

Military Recruiters in schools have several ways to cancel parental military opt out paperwork leaving the parent unaware this has occurred.

I have personal knowledge and/or experience of the following, but my son’s school is not the exception.

· Every October high schools sends the Pentagon (for release to military recruiters) all the information they have on the child, including the child’s personal cell-phone numbers, e-mail address, grade point averages, college intentions, height and weight information, schools attended, courses of study, social security numbers, and any other personal information.

· Military recruiters from all branches of the military will use the information received from school to contact the child behind the parent’s back, without parental knowledge or consent. The child is literally bombarded with mail, telephone calls, e-mails and the like from recruiters. It is useless to ask the recruiters to stop contacting your minor child – they will continue to contact your underage child regardless of your opinion. It is, somehow, creepy that a grown man/woman is stalking your child.

· Military recruiters are in the school cafeterias every day at lunchtime. They will smile benevolently and attempt to engage your child in friendly conversation. If your child speaks to them, this will cancel the military opt out form. When I told my son not to speak to recruiters he told me they looked friendly and they would smile at him. Of course they do!

· They will entice students with key fobs, drink holders, and other trinkets. Come and do some push-ups, or fun rock-climbs , and win a t-shirt. In order to get the trinket, you have to sign a form that cancels a parent’s Military Opt Out form. Once the military opt out form has been cancelled, the military recruiters can recruit the child without the parent’s knowledge or consent.

· They will take over classrooms, during instruction time to recruit. Take note of this part of the Army School Recruitment Handbook advice to recruiters; Section 5(8) “Deliver donuts and coffee for the faculty once a month. This will help in scheduling classroom presentations and advise teachers of the many Army opportunities”. Should Military Recruiters be using classroom instruction time to recruit, when the child is unable to leave because it’s class time?

· They will often ask the child not to tell the parents they have been talking to a recruiter.

· They will become friends with guidance counselors who then suggest a career in the military.

· The school will administer a test called the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery). Parents will be told this is a career searching test that will help their child. Some schools make the ASVAB mandatory. It is a military recruitment tool only, designed to let recruiters know a child’s interests and academic strengths to help recruit that child. The ASVAB cancels a parent’s Military Opt Out form.

· Home schooled children are not exempt, the school board will still forward all personal details to the Pentagon.

Predatory military recruitment does not end once your child has graduated high school, but continues on University campuses as well. Section 10-6(b) suggests military recruiters aggressively target first year college students who may be unsure about their studies in an attempt to get the students to drop out of college and enlist in the military instead; “b. Generally, attrition during the first year of college is higher than in subsequent years, and occurs especially at the mid-term grading period, at the end of the first semester, and again at the end of the second semester. Students drop out during this time because they are homesick, have to work, are out of money, or are in academic difficulty.”
Here is a link to the Army School Recruiting Program Handbook, which is an interesting read.
http://www.grassrootspeace.org/army_recruiter_hdbk.pdf

One school board employee once told me “good luck with 3 boys, you will be fighting military recruiters for 8 years apiece, and they will just laugh at you when you try to get them to stop”. Both her sons were recruited, one from school and the other convinced to drop out of college. Both were recruited without her being aware this was going on. Each son just came home one day and had already enlisted. Both of her sons were, at the time of my conversation, in Iraq.

Most civilized countries do not recruit children, and it is a violation of the US’s pledge to the United Nations not to recruit children into the military. The U.S. claims that no one under age 17 is eligible for recruitment, but the Pentagon’s Joint Advertising Market Research & Studies Database (JAMRS) scoops up data on all High School students in the US, as young as 14. JAMRS has data on 30 million Americans between age 14 and 25 for recruitment purposes.

Now, the U.S. Military starts its recruitment campaign as soon as a student hits high school (as young as 14). If the child is too young to actually sign up, the following may happen;

(a) Military recruiters (Marines, Navy, Army, and Air Force recruiters) will gather information on that child, buddy up with them, (wow, your child will have a lot of friends), and start convincing them early that when they are older they should enlist. Enticing a child to join the military when they are older is still recruitment!

(b) Future Solders Training Program; Recruiters often sign 17 year olds into the inactive reserves under the Future Soldiers Training Program as a “trial” introduction into the military (while they earn their high school diploma). Not only to the recruiters fail to tell the youngster they can withdraw with no penalty, but they are often threatened with jail time for going “absent without leave” if they later fail to complete the enlistment procedure.
Here is what you need to know to protect your child at school
(1) Fill out a Military Opt Out form and hand deliver it to the school with a copy to the principal and the Superintendent of your local school board. If you are unsure where to find it, call your local school board and ask where it is. This “should” prevent the school from sending your child’s information to military recruiters, and “should” keep the military recruiters off his/her back at school. Note: You must do this as early in the year as possible to prevent your child’s personal information being sent to the Pentagon in (late September/early October), but even later in the year is better than not at all.

(2) Get the school to date stamp “received” or other proof of receipt when you hand it in at school. Keep a copy, with received date stamp, for your records.

(3) Don’t assume the school will honor the opt out. My son's school ignored our military opt out. Call the school and confirm that they have entered “military opt out” on your child’s school records database, and will remove your child from class should a recruiter take over class time.

(4) Find out your child’s school policy on the ASVAB and what date the test is given. Is the ASVAB test mandatory at your child's high school? If it is voluntary, what procedures are in place for students who are not taking it. Some schools give the test in the cafeteria outside of class and a student has a choice whether to take it or not. Empower your child, tell them if they ever see a test marked ASVAB or Armed Services Vocational Aptitute Test, they are to refuse to take it. If you believe the school will pressure your child to take this test, keep them home that day.

(5) The best protection is an informed child. Teach your child (a) not to talk to recruiters at school and your reasons why, (b) and not to take part in any activities for prizes, (c) never fill out any paperwork from a military recruiter, even if they pressure you to do so, and (d) refuse to take the ASVAB test.

(6) Children sometimes forget advice from a parent. I know.....it’s true! Ask your child periodically what recruitment activity they have seen at school and remind them throughout the school year not to have any contact with recruiters at school.

(7) IMPORTANT REMINDER: The home school department of the school board has your child’s records and information and may be required to send that information to JAMRS. Home school parents must send Military Opt Out to home school department of school board, with a copy to the Superintendent of Schools. Have the school board mark your copy “received” with the date and keep a copy for your records.

No driving license for Immigrants who reside legally in the U.S.

This is a very timely post, considering the success the (anti-immigrant) tea party candidates have had in the U.S. elections yesterday. I believe there will be more laws written that target immigrants. Unfortunately, the media has blurred the line between “legal” and “illegal” immigrants. Many politicians have capitalized on the anti-immigrant sentiment by frightening people with immigrant horror stories. Recently Arizona’s Governor, Jan Brewer, stated that “immigrants are beheading Americans in Arizona”.

Arizona’s SB1070 makes it a crime for any non-U.S. citizen not to carry “papers” to prove they are in the U.S. legally. How do you know by looking at someone whether or not they should be carrying papers? Are they tourists from another country? Are they U.S. citizens with “brown skin?” Are they “legal” immigrants who decided to go for a neighbourhood walk with the children, a swim at the local pool, or gardening in their front yard? No matter, if you are a non U.S. citizen and you leave your front door, you must “carry papers” or risk jail time.

In the U.S. the local police force and the driving licence bureau have been empowered to determine one’s immigration status.

The problem is, U.S. immigration law is complicated, and there are many types of documentation to prove one is in the country legally. There are Green Cards (like Permanent Resident Cards), H1B work visas, student visas, just to give a small example. The police and local authorities are not qualified to determine and apply immigration law. This often leads to mistakes. Add to this the confusion of the terms "legal" and "illegal" immigrant. They even sound the same. People who are in a country unlawfully are not immigrants.

Several years ago I attempted to renew my Florida driving licence. I had lived in Florida and had a Florida driving licence for many years and was due to be naturalized as a U.S. citizen in a few days. Because of the fear in the US of "illegal immigrants" driving, the rules for all non-US citizens renewing or obtaining driving licences had changed. I had to bring proof that I was in the U.S. legally. I brought my Green Card (which is like a Permanent Resident card) to the licence bureau.

The clerk took my driving licence and Green card and then told me that I was not eligible for a Florida Driving Licence because she didn’t know what the document was (Green Card) that I handed her. She was uncertain whether or not I was in the U.S. legally. I asked for a supervisor, who told me that, as a non-U.S. citizen, I was not eligible for a driving licence in the United States. I should return to my home country and get an international driving licence. As I was not a resident of Ontario, I was not eligible for an Ontario issued international driving licence and was fearful I would be left without any type of driving licence. I asked for my unexpired Florida licence back (it had 30 days left) and the clerk cut it up with scissors and said that non-citizens are not allowed to have unexpired licences back.

My car was parked outside, and I was left with no way of driving home, or getting my children from school. I had no alternative but to leave my car and walk home! I pleaded with the supervisor for help, and she said she would send my info to Homeland Security for a decision, and gave me a letter stating I could drive for 30 days. The letter stated that this was not to be used for identification purposes. I drove home and called the Sheriff’s department to see if this “letter” was valid and was told I would be arrested for driving without a licence. The only type of driving licence acceptable to them was the one with a photo id. Since I was still a legal immigrant for a few more days being arrested for driving without a licence would make me subject to deportation. This is another example of the criminalization of immigrants, both legal and illegal. I had no option but to take the chance, since I needed to collect my young children from school.

When I arrived at school the lady at the front desk refused to allow me inside the school because I did not have my driver licence on me (she knew me, but those are the rules). She would not take my Canadian passport or Green Card as photo id. I had to stand outside the chain linked fence and watch my children while American mothers were able to walk up to and greet their children from school.

During this 30 day period I needed to talk to someone at my bank regarding my bank account, but was told that since I did not have a valid driver licence or state issued photo id, no one would help me. They ignored my Canadian passport and Green card as sufficient photo id.

I had become a non-person.

30 days of this farce were almost up, and still no driver licence. I contacted the Governor of Florida, and someone in the driver licence bureau called me back and said that I had shown proper identification and should have received my renewed driver licence over the counter the day I went in, and they would expedite a licence to me.

I collected my new licence, and the clerk told me it was an “immigrant” driver licence. I told her I was naturalized, and she said that I would have to apply for a driver licence again, and pay an additional $50.00 just to remove “immigrant” from my licence. They still would have to prove my papers with Homeland Security. This was the last straw! I was not going to go through all that again and pay $50.00 for the privilege.

The new governor of Florida, Rick Scott, has promised to bring an even harsher version of SB1070 to Florida. What happens to an immigrant who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, who no longer has a green card, but possesses an "immigrant" driver licence? The law states that if the person is an immigrant, and has no proof of lawful presence in the U.S., they must immediately be sent to jail. A U.S. passport must suffice, but are there now two tiers of U.S. citizen? Native-born U.S. citizens don’t need passports, but naturalized U.S. citizens need to carry a U.S. passport everywhere they go?

I'm obviously not welcome in the United States.

Yesterday I obtained an Ontario Driving License. My American citizen husband is now an immigrant in Canada. He was treated courteously, and able to get the exact same driving license that I received.

I handed in my “immigrant” Florida Driver licence in to the Ontario Driving License office who will return it to Florida for cancellation.

US border nightmare

Photo courtesy of Walken Fence Co. This is not a photo of the place where we took the car for export. I did not take any photos there, nor did I intend to take any photos there.

This photo looks very similar to the entrance of the Homeland Facility facility we took our car to for export.

This is a long blog. To shorten it would not do the experience justice.

On the day we left the United States we followed directions to the Homeland Security facility to export our car. We pulled up at a place surrounded by high barbed wire fences. As we pulled up to the gate, it slid open. We drove inside, and gate slid shut behind us.

There were no directions where to go. We parked the truck and car in what we thought were parking spaces because they had faded paint markings for parking.

We told the children to remain in the car with the dog, and we would go inside and ask where we needed to go.

There were no signs on the buildings. We went to go inside, and a guard at a desk put his hand up and shouted “Halt, you cannot come in here”. We asked where we needed to go to have our car title stamped “export” and he pointed down the hallway. He told us we could not walk down the hallway to get there, but had to leave the building and enter through the next door.

We left the building and went back in at the next door. The place looked like a bank inside, except it had tall bullet proof glass to the ceiling.

We thought it wouldn’t take too long, so I went outside to call the kids to tell them to stay put in the car, we would be back in a couple of minutes. A guard followed me outside and said “no cell phone use here – hang up immediately”. I hung up on the kids. He demanded to know who I was talking to. I told him my children were in the car with the dog. He said “no one is permitted to remain in their vehicle, the children must be brought in”. I told him they were staying with the dog, because she was terrified of trucks. Could they wait outside the building with the dog? He said “bring the children in here immediately and the dog must remain in the car”.

I went back to the car, and went to put my cell phone in my pocket. I took my camera out of my pocket to put in the car (I had forgotten the camera was in my jacket pocket). Out of nowhere 2 Homeland Security guards wearing navy bullet proof vests and navy baseball style caps marked “Homeland Security” materialized demanded to know what I was taking pictures of. I said I was not taking any photos, I was putting my camera in the car and going to get my children from the car. I had to give them my camera, and they scrolled through it to make sure there were no photos of the facility, Homeland Security vehicles etc. They handed the camera back to me, satisfied that there were not any objectionable photos there.

While I was being detained by the 2 Homeland Security guards, I saw 3 Homeland Security guards wearing navy bullet proof vests and baseball style caps had surrounded my car, and were talking aggressively to the children. The side door of the car was open, and the children were being ordered to leave the car (dog to remain in car). The children looked very upset.

The 3 guards at the car said “Is this your car and truck”. I said “yes”, and they said “You must remove the car and truck immediately, this is not a parking lot”. The car had been parked there less than 5 minutes and these goons were freaking out saying we were a security threat. If there were signs telling us where to park, we would have parked in the proper place. To confuse matters where we had parked had markings like a parking lot.

I had 2 guards telling me to “remove the children” and get your husband to remove the truck, and 3 guards saying “don’t remove them until you move the car and truck”. I tried to tell them that I didn’t have keys to the truck, (and I’m not sure how I could have simultaneously moved 2 vehicles anyway). I said “what do you want me to do first, move the car, or move the children”. Both sets of guards were standing right next to each other and barking conflicting orders. I didn’t know what to do. The only point of agreement was that the dog must remain in the vehicle. Just at that moment Eric came out of the building (I assumed the car title had been stamped) and he said that they refused to stamp the car title, because the children were not present. They needed to see the children and check their passports before they could stamp the car title. The relevance of the children being physically present and checking their passports to stamping a car title is? Oh wait, forgot where I was for a moment. Makes perfect sense when you remember who you are dealing with.

We were instructed to park our car and rental truck with the large trucks, even though there was a parking lot with cars nearby. We were told we could not use the car park, although other people were allowed to use it. Our car was the only car there amongst large semi-trailers. The poor dog’s day gets even worse, because the truck engines are all idling and the noise is deafening. The only spots available are far far away from the building we need to go into. She is scared of the sound one neighborhood garbage truck makes. So many noisy trucks were really stressing her out.

We left the car, and truck, and the children and I take the dog (I don’t care, I’m not leaving my poor dog who is terrified of trucks alone in a car around 30 idling truck engines). There is nowhere for pedestrians to walk, so we are walking around moving trucks. I’m hoping we don’t get hit, as we are very low profile to these vehicles.

As we approached the building, the 1st guard came outside the building and told us to go back and return the dog to the car.

** These people are just mean. **

I've told them repeatedly that our dog is terrified of trucks. You could easily see that she was shaking and panting heavily and looked like she was about to throw up, but he was adamant that she be returned to an empty car parked in between 30 idling trucks. I pleaded with him, and asked if the kids could take turns with the dog while their brothers go inside and he said he would see what he could do, but he couldn’t promise me that 1 kid could take turns standing outside the building with the dog on the leash, since all kids had to be inside the building in order to export our car and the dog must remain in the vehicle.

The guard returned and told us that the kids could take turns standing outside with the dog, but had to come in when asked to present themselves to the officials. This guard then took all our passports away.

Next two Homeland Security guards went with Eric to the car. I thought they were going to verify the VIN number to the car title for export. Wrong, this had nothing to do with exporting the car.

The goons immediately opened up our moving truck, took my eldest son’s backpack and began rifling through it. The threw all of his things on the seat of the cab. They searched the entire cab of the truck but ignored the 24 feet of cargo stacked in the moving truck from floor to ceiling. Next they moved to the car and asked Eric to open all the doors and then move away from the vehicle. Eric saw the water bottles and asked if he could have a drink of water since he was thirsty, and they said no and he was to move away from the car. They ransacked the entire vehicle which had been neatly packed with fragile items.

One guard turned to Eric and demanded “where is it?" Eric said “where is what?” The 2nd guard said “he doesn’t know anything about it – it was his wife, she must have hidden it”. One of the goons said “we need your wife’s camera”. Eric has no idea what is going on.
Remember, I had never intended to take any photos in the first place. I merely took my camera out of my pocket to put in the car when the first set of guards questioned me, checked my camera, and were satisifed that I was not using it.

Sometime later Eric returned with the guards and we were told to go inside the building and get in line again. Eric told me that they didn’t even look at the VIN number, all they were interested in was my camera, and they searched everything inside the car, and went to the moving truck and searched through one of the kid’s backpacks to find the camera. I told Eric that someone had already looked at my camera and said he was satisfied that there were no photos on it of the facility. I was surprised the camera was still an issue. I was also very surprised that they didn’t find the camera, since it was in the front of the car in plain view. I hadn't hidden it at all. These goons aren't just mean, they're stupid as well. The previous guard who had already checked my camera said everything was ok regarding the camera, and I had no reason to hide the camera or even think it would continue to be an issue.

We were in line again, and 6 guards (yes, 6) walked in behind the counter and started talking to each other and looking at us.

We were taken from the back of the line to the front of the line (apologies to those in front of us). A Homeland Security guard asked Eric “Why are you leaving America”. Eric said he liked Canada. The guard asked again, “Why are you moving away from America? Don’t you know you can’t just move to Canada, you need to go through Canadian immigration”. Eric said he already had a visa. The guard demanded Eric’s passport so he could see the Canadian visa, and Eric told him that they already had all our passports. (I’m touched the US border guards are all concerned about Canadian immigration policies). He grilled Eric some more about his move to Canada, and I told him I was born and raised in Canada. This seemed to stop the questioning, and then told us to get back in line, since he was not authorized to stamp his car title, he just wanted to know why Eric was moving out of the US. He told us to go to the front of the line. We apologized to the people in front of us again.

Meanwhile, the 6 guards spoke to another guard behind the counter, and we were motioned over.

The guard asked me “Where is your camera?”. I said “in the car”. I was told to go to the car and bring the camera back to them. Eric was pulled out of line again. They didn’t have to search the car for the camera, no one had asked me for the camera. I wasn’t hiding anything. As I walked past all the trucks to go back to the car I was certain I was going to lose my camera to these goons together with all the photos of my family over the past few weeks.

I gave the Homeland Security official my camera, and he asked me when did I last take a photo and what did I take photos of. I said about a week ago, my niece’s birthday party. He then asked me how to scroll the photos, and looked at every photo on the camera. He commented that I was not a very good photographer (humour maybe? Hard to say, could have been sarcasm). I was told to go outside and send the children in while he continued to scroll through my photos.

The children were told their passports were not signed, and they were invalid, and they were lectured about it. They were told to sign their passports in cursive. My youngest child started to print his name, and the guard said aggressively “sign in cursive”. My children were not taught how to write cursive in the US schools, they were only taught to print (that's US education for you), so this was hard for him. He was shaking and so frightened that he forgot how to spell his name and spelled it wrong on his passport. The Homeland Security guard seized on this, and demanded the child state his brother’s names and ages. He was suspicious that this was not our child because he was so frightened. He asked the other children if this was their brother. Satisfied that he really was our son, and the passports were signed, he stamped the car title and told Eric he was free to go. The camera was returned to Eric.

Eric asked how to leave, and was told “go to the right”. Right of what????? We found a gate that looked like an exit, the sign said “To Canada”, but nothing else. All we saw were fences with barbed wire. We sat there a few minutes and nothing happened. Convinced we were at the wrong place, we drove away from there and tried to find the exit. A Homeland Security car sped towards us, with its siren on and lights flashing. The officer shouted on his megaphone “pull over”. We were only going 5 miles per hour. He stopped and asked the guard where to go. It was the same guard who had grilled him on why he was moving out of the US. The guard demanded to know why Eric was driving around the facility and didn’t believe we were unsure where the exit was and said “You have already been told where the exit is. Go over there and wait, and in about 15 or 20 minutes the fence will open and you can leave”. He was really really nasty. I was aghast and concerned we were all about to be arrested.

We drove back to the gate, and it immediately opened. So much for 20 minutes and we’ll open it when we feel like it.

It was now 1:00 and we had been there for 2 hours.

And this, folks, was our last experience as residents of the US of A. The image of the Homeland Security cop with sirens and flashing lights is burned into our memories. Also burned in my memory is our car with our children being surrounded by 3armed Homeland Security guards wearing bullet proof vests, threatening my children.

We met another couple who were also exporting a vehicle from the US to Canada. They had lived in Texas on a work visa for a couple of years. They were both Canadian. The Homeland Security guards stamped their car title and within a few minutes they were on their way.

We saw them again at the Canadian border while they were importing their vehicle into Canada, and they said they could not believe how badly the US people treated us, how they were shouting at our children, and they felt bad for us. I’m wondering if we were treated so badly because Eric is an American, the children are American born, and we were leaving the US?

I’ve never been so glad to see a Canadian flag as when we got to the other side of that bridge.