Letter: Make America Kind Again

Dear Editor,

My wife and I had dinner recently with a former student of mine who was visiting our university to attend a conference. When he was a graduate student, he was very popular among both students and faculty. He helped organize student events and developed his teaching skills by teaching undergraduate courses for the department during the summer. He also taught the second half of a graduate course for me when I became very ill and was unable to continue teaching for a semester. Reviews written by his students in these courses were extremely positive and showed that he was a truly excellent teacher.

He has now moved on to a faculty position at another U.S. university where he continues to demonstrate his dedication to teaching and is highly regarded by his students and his faculty colleagues.  

At dinner, he told us about why he chose to emigrate. America has a reputation for providing the best college education on the planet, and admission to our universities is a goal of countless students around the globe. When he obtained his bachelor’s degree (from a highly regarded school in Iran) he wanted to apply to an American school for graduate studies. He had to travel out of Iran to a U.S. embassy to pursue proper documents since there were none in Iran.   

He found himself pursued by Iranian authorities who wanted to question him. They told him that because his English was so excellent, they suspected that he was a spy. Spies (and suspected spies) are not treated well in Iran. He told me:

”I was barred from leaving the country while they were investigating. That took roughly two and a half months (from around June 8 to Aug. 20, 2010). It was an uncertain time because if they fabricated a reason to find me guilty, I would be in deep trouble. Even when they let me go, I couldn’t believe it. Landing in a foreign country after all of that drama was surreal. As a result, I didn’t have a goodbye party. In fact, only two of my friends, my parents, and my brother knew when I was leaving – in the dark of the night with the first available flight. The rest of my family and friends heard later, either through my parents or an email from me. My father, being traditional, didn’t want me to leave initially. It was only due to these events that he knew it wasn’t safe for me to stay any longer. So, the day I was told I was free to leave, he took me to a travel agency immediately to get my one-way ticket.”

Fortunately, he was admitted to a university in the United States and obtained a proper student visa along with funding to cover the cost of his studies. He completed an MS degree there and subsequently entered our PhD program.  

He left his family in Iran 15 years ago, and because Iranian authorities are still after him (again, because of his fluent English), he hasn’t been able to return to see his family or travel outside the U.S.  

When he was visiting our campus to attend the conference, I noticed that he seemed a bit insistent on carrying his satchel with him everywhere he went. I suggested he could leave it in my office, which is what visitors typically do while they visit our department. I thought this was a little odd, but whatever.

I learned later, while we ate dinner, that he carries his satchel close to his side at all times because it contains his essential documentation, proving that for many years he has been a legal, documented resident of the U.S. He now lives in terror that if he should be suspected of the slightest infraction, he will be arrested and deported. He could then end up in a foreign prison indefinitely, or perhaps worse, sent back to Iran with terrible consequences.  

He recently told me, “Looking back, I don’t regret choosing to come to the U.S. I had a big dream, and I paid for it. The opportunities I have had here, the best of them being your student and learning from you, are the values I wouldn’t have earned otherwise.”

Sadly, there are huge numbers of similar stories where good people are living in terror in the U.S. Nearly all of us are either immigrants or descendants of immigrants who came here looking for opportunities. In my experience, immigrants are often the most motivated and productive members of our communities. There seems to be an extra force that drives them; they have risked so much and have given up everything familiar to launch a new life in a foreign world.  

Please, we need to make America kind again.

Sincerely,

Ron Miles 

Distinguished Professor 

Department of Mechanical Engineering 

Binghamton University