I am an immigrant. I arrived in the United States 25 years ago on an H-1B visa when it was considered prestigious and desirable. I came as a Software Engineer with dreams of becoming a filmmaker (which I finally became). It took me ten years to get my Green Card and another eight to become a citizen. When I raised my hand and took the oath to protect and serve the US constitution, I meant every word. My commitment to the bridging work I do is keeping true to the promise I made.
The topic of Immigration is hugely close to my heart, it is a part of my very essence. I have participated in discussions, workshops and most recently, in the very first Braver Angels Constituent Conversation. I consider myself to be entirely “Purple” on this issue – for an immigrant there is no other way to be. Our visceral understanding of the cultures we left behind and the hopes & dreams for our adopted homeland don’t permit us to veer off too far from the center on this specific issue.
The night before Braver Angels “Common Ground Workshop” that took place on June 22nd on Long Island, I had a nightmare in which I saw masked ICE agents break down the door of my home and dragged me away while my (also immigrant) husband watched helplessly. As I wrote above, I am a naturalized citizen who followed every step of the slow and arduous legal process over 18 years. I arrived at the workshop feeling sore and uneasy from the nightmare, and with the visceral knowledge that even though I might be safe (for now?), many decent people around the country are living with that same ball of fear in their guts and some will actually come to experience that nightmare. I also arrived doubtful of what seemed to me a “lofty objective” for the workshop; to find multiple points of agreement, not compromise but consensus between “Red” and “Blues”. Thankfully as an experienced moderator, I have learnt to doubt my doubts!
At the beginning of the workshop, we were asked to share our personal connection to the topic. I shared my nightmare. As a moderator and leader, I have earned some genuine respect in the group that was present, and I felt that I was heard deeply by everyone present including the most conservative members of the group.
An hour or so later, I found myself locked in a swift but deep discussion with a fellow “Red”. I consider this person to be one of the more extreme “Red” members in our Long Island alliance. He said that illegal people should learn from my example – having paid my dues and done everything legally to become a citizen. I reminded him of my own 18-year long wait to become a citizen and how broken “the back of the queue” was, with some people waiting 50 years to gain citizenship; this offers little incentive for others to follow the right path. I asked that ICE be scaled back, he countered that illegals deserved the treatment they were getting. I reminded him of my own nightmare, how upset and anxious ICE’s tactics were making legal immigrants like me – recently another immigrant friend & a naturalized citizen told me “In my 50 years of being here, I have never felt so afraid in the US. When I go out I wonder if ICE will pull my BMW over and accuse me of stealing it because I am brown.” This friend lives in an upscale neighborhood, flies Business class, has adult children who went to “elite schools”, and is a conservative who voted for Trump in 2016.
Back in the workshop, I asked my “Red” friend, “What does it say about America’s moral leadership & decency when immigrants like me who have lived here for decades and given our best & brightest, are feeling anxious, threatened, unwanted?” He fell silent. And then he said “I don’t want YOU to feel this way”.
I suddenly felt compelled to ask him if he would be okay with a cut-off date for deportations. His “YES” came back in a flash. So I asked him “What would be your cut off date?” He responded “Everyone who came under the Biden administration needs to get out, they were letting God knows who without any vetting. Everyone who has been here before can stay.”
And it was like a light bulb went off for me. I thought, “Really? All this national heartache comes down to that?” I suddenly understood not only how deeply pained some “Reds” are about the open-esque border we all saw under the Biden administration, but also that it may not be so hard to stem our collective bleeding, if only we can come up with a sane, logical and compassionate cut-off date for who to deport and who to allow once and for all.
Since then I have been asking all my friends the question about their compromise cut-off date. To those with more extreme positions on this issue on either left or right, I have to remind them that “politics is the art of compromise”. But that is rare, the vast majority of people I have asked have answered somewhere between Jan 21, 2021 and 7 years (only one said 10 years). Everyone who arrived after the date get a path to legal status, everyone before is deported which may mean them having to wait in another country and allowed back in only after proper vetting. No one has ever told me it is ok to deport someone who has been living here for more than 10 years with family connections and communal ties. No one has ever told me it is okay to allow anyone in without proper vetting.
We finished the Common Ground Workshop in June with 23 points of unanimous agreements. We had similar results in a subsequent workshop that we hosted in October. And then we held the very first Constituent Conversation in the country, with Rep. Tom Suozzi eloquently summarizing what we had all been feeling, I am paraphrasing somewhat: “America is no longer represented by cable news or social media. This group here, where someone who describes himself as very “Blue” says he is also for stronger borders and the person who claims to be very “Red” says he sees the way immigrants are being treated by ICE as being against American decency, this is the real America politicians ought to represent.” As co-chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus, Re. Souzzi seems to represent us; We The People.
It is said that “Extraordinary people are just ordinary people who do extraordinary things.” The bridging work I do has taught me something somewhat different, which is “Extraordinary people are just ordinary people who do ordinary things.” Because there is nothing extraordinary about a group of people coming together to solve a problem, this is how human beings have evolved and is at the very foundation of America. We don’t work extra hard at our events to arrive at some painful compromise, we just come together to reveal the consensus that already exists. So it’s not that the participants, moderators and leaders in Braver Angels do extraordinary things, it is just that we DO something that is actually quite ordinary, we don’t just sit on the sidelines waiting for someone else to DO it.
And the DOING is what has brought back my faith – in what is possible in America, when ordinary people rise above doubt and act together.
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My other essays on related topics: Drip, Not a Flood, Why I Chose America, April Fool’s Day, Stories For a New World, The Jazz Club
Swati Srivastava is an immigrant and a multi award-winning writer, director, and voiceover artist. A filmmaker & storyteller, Swati turns ideas into experience. She is also a trained facilitator for Crossing Party Lines and leader of Braver Angels Long Island Alliance moderating conversations that bring people together across political divides. Swati is also an environmentalist and lives in a Net Zero Energy home with her husband. She can be reached via Linkedin and swati@TiredAndBeatup.com