A Backpack Full Of Dreams… Of Illusions That Sometimes We Do Not Understand. That Dream Is The Light That Guides You.
THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT
OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Section 1.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States,
and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,
are citizens of the United States and of
the state wherein they reside.
No state shall make or enforce any law
which shall abridge the privileges or immunities
of citizens of the United States;
nor shall any state deprive any person of life,
liberty, or property, without due process of law;
nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction
the equal protection of the laws.
He went down to Nazareth with them
and was obedient to them…
He grew in wisdom, stature
and in favor before God and His people.
Luke 2:52
“A man who is good enough to shed his blood
for the country is good enough
to be given a square deal afterwards."
President Theodore Roosevelt
Despite how much we would like to get directly to the punchline, let’s take a quick detour to Factlandia. (We can hear some folks saying “What’s with them and facts?”)
Approximately 4.5 percent of U.S. military veterans are/were foreign born.
At the request of General George Washington, German/Prussian-born Friedrich Wilheim Ludolf Gerhard Augustin von Steuben, who spoke no English and communicated through a French- and English-speaker to communicate his orders, reformed the ragtag (often shoeless) Continental Army into a disciplined, professional fighting force; he is considered one of the founders of the United States Army and his famous “Blue Book” – “Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States” – remains a critical guide for today’s Army.
With only a grade school education, a history of six different jobs and two failed businesses, English-born Thomas Paine was teetering on the verge of personal bankruptcy and debtors’ prison when he accepted Benjamin Franklin’s 1774 suggestion that he emigrate to the Colonies. Published in 1776, his Common Sense established the intellectual basis for colonists’ demands for independence and The American Crisis provoked a revolutionary consciousness with the immortal lines
“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
“Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we attain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.”
General von Steuben
Thomas Paine
Since it was established in December 1861, the Medal of Honor – the nation’s highest military honor for valor above and beyond the call of duty – has been awarded approximately 3,552 times to approximately 3,530 recipients. (Properly titled the Medal of Honor, it is presented with the approval of Congress. Thus, the confusion in names.) The Congressional Medal of Honor Society reports:
There have been at least 757 foreign-born recipients and not all of them chose to become citizens. Ireland and Germany are the most common non-U.S. birth locations.
There have been only 19 dual-recipients. Among them:
Croatia-born Marine Louis Cukela (Vjekosla Lujo Cukela) received both the Army and Navy Medals of Honor for bravery in the Battle of Belleau Woods (France) during World War I. Throughout his life, Cukela’s nationality – Austrian, Slav, Yugoslav, Serb, Croat - was challenged. His typical response was that he was an “American Marine.”
Marine Sergeant Matej Kocak was born in Slovakia (the Austro-Hungarian Empire) on December 3, 1882, emigrated to the United States in 1906 and enlisted in the Marine Corps the following year. He was awarded the Navy and Army Medals of Honor for his service in France during World War I. (Over time, the Medals of the services were redesigned. Today there are three Medals: the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard use the original (1861) design; the present Army Medal was designed in 1904; the Air Force design was established in 1965.)
Marine Sergeant Matej Kocak
Marine Louis Cukela
In November 6, 2024, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reported:
“Since 2002, we have naturalized more than 187,000 members of the U.S. military, both at home and abroad. Naturalization ceremonies have taken place in more than 30 countries from Albania to the United Arab Emirates. In the last five years (fiscal years 2020 – 2024), we have naturalized more than 52,000 service members. In FY 2024, we naturalized more than 16,290 service members, a 34% increase from the previous year.”
Congress.Gov (“Foreign Nations in the U.S. Armed Forces: Immigration Issues,” August 19, 2024) reported:
“As of February 2024, more than 40,000 foreign nationals were serving in active and reserve components of the Armed Forces. An estimated additional 115,000 foreign nationals residing in the United States are veterans who have previously served on active duty.
In the era of an “all-volunteer” military, it might be good to ask, “Where would we be without those immigrant, not-yet-citizen soldiers, sailors, Marines, and members of the Coast Guard and Air Force?”
Of course, asking that question and honoring their service – genuinely honoring, no “thoughts and prayers” hokum – would require a courage too many politicians lack.
Documented and undocumented (at the time of their arrival) immigrants enrich America.
Consider:
Adrian Escarate came to the United States when he was three years old, captained the St. Thomas University (Miami) tennis team and spent ten years coaching tennis. One of the highlights of his sports career was helping Roger Federer warm up for his 2017 Miami Open championship match against Rafael Nadal. Federer won.
Miguel Aguilarwas selected by DC United in the 2015 Major League Soccer draft. After his teenage sister escaped a kidnapping attempt in violence-torn Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, eleven-year-old Miguel and his brother escaped to Sacramento in August 2004. Remezcl Sports (“Miguel Aguilar’s Inspiring Journey From Undocumented Teenager to Major League Soccer Player,” August 6, 2015. Jessica Lopez) reported:
“Ever since I was little, I made my mom a promise. I told her if by the time I was 18, soccer hadn’t paid off, I would stop playing and find a job. She never said, ‘You can’t play anymore because we are struggling.’ She always supported me. One of the happiest days of my life was when I showed her the papers with the [four-year] scholarship offer.”
Aguilar graduated early from the University of San Francisco with a finance degree, a three-time second-team West Coast Conference selection and first team all-conference pick as a senior.
Nicolle Uriawas honored with a leadership MVP award at a volleyball tournament. She was one year old when her parents brought her to the U.S. from Bolivia.
Born in Egypt in 1938, Farouk El-Daz earned a degree in geology and began his career as an instructor at Assiut University, before securing a scholarship in 1964 to pursue a Ph.D. in economic geology in the U.S. Unable to make a significant impact in his homeland, he returned to the States with an invitation to contribute to NASA’s Apollo program. He played a significant essential role in guiding the mission teams of Apollo 11 to Apollo 17 in selecting landing sites and ensuring that astronauts gathered valuable scientific data. Naturalized in 1970, his patriotism was not tied tied to the government but to the people and the land. Proud to be both Egyptian and American, he embraced both cultures; he accompanied American astronauts to Egypt and fostered cross-cultural understanding and collaboration.
Rome-born physicist Enrico Fermi was the creator of Chicago Pile-1, the world’s first artificial nuclear reactor. The recipient of the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his demonstrations of the existence of new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation, and for his related discovery of nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons," he has been called the “architect of the nuclear age” and the “architect of the atomic bomb.” Fermi became a naturalized U.S. citizen July 11, 1944 – six years after receiving the Nobel Prize and one year and five days before witnessing the Trinity Test - the first detonation of a nuclear weapon at Los Alamos, New Mexico. This immigrant from Italy was critical in the development of the bombs used at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and ending World War II.
Every year98,000 undocumented students graduate from high school and, despite their aspirations, very few can afford college. (10 Year Impact Report: From Dreams to Destinations. TheDream.US. February 2025)
“TheDream.US has enrolled 11,000 students in close to 80 Partner Colleges. 76% of those who chose four-year colleges have graduated. Most Dreamers chose careers in health care, business and education - just where America needs them. 93% of those with work permits have full time jobs (or, in a few cases, are in graduate school) six months after graduation. By the way: those students came to the U.S. at an average age of 4. But they have no path to a green card – ever - no matter how much they accomplish.”
Strange, isn’t it?
So many self-identifying “christian nationalist” expect infants, toddlers, children, teens, and (maybe) young adults to throw four-year-old-like temper tantrums and refuse to accompany their parents as they flee a dictator determined to kill them. Or the gang member rapists who ravage their villages. Or the cartel agents who, enabled by corrupt police, move cocaine with impunity and murder without fear.
On May 8, 2025, people – not just Roman Catholics – around the world celebrated the election of dual-citizen – United States and Peru - Robert Francis Prevost as Bishop of Rome, Primate of Italy and Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church.
On May 1, 2026, Pope Leo XIV gifted the United States with a unique reminder that it is a nation of documented and undocumented, “legal” and “illegal” immigrants when he named Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, an auxiliary bishop of Washington, D.C., to head the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston – the entire Roman Catholic Church of West Virginia.
Born in Chalatenango, El Salvador, Bishop Menjvar-Ayala and his family fled the violence of the El Salvador civil war, narrowly surviving soldiers’ rifle fire. Despite a brief imprisonment in Mexico and after two failed attempts to reach the US, twenty-year-old Evelio and his brother were smuggled across the border in the trunk of a car. He has described his journey as bringing “a backpack with only one change of clothes, but it was full of dreams, of illusions that sometimes we do not understand. That dream is a light that guides you and, although you don’t understand the plan, you launch yourself with confidence in God.”
The new bishop of West Virginia worked janitorial and construction jobs while learning English and earning a GED. He began studies for the priesthood at St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami, before completing graduate degrees in two of Romes most prestigious theological institutions. Ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Washington in 2004, he became a U.S. citizen in 2006.
Appropriately, the episcopal motto of the new bishop of the Mountain State is “Ibat cum illis” – “He walked with them” – from the Gospel of Luke 24:25. The Lucan Gospel tells us that on Easter Jesus joined two disciples as they journeyed – fled – from Jerusalem to Emmaus and “As they talked and discussed these things [the reports of the Resurrection] Jesus himself came up and walked with them.”
Perhaps the White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and other members of the current administration might learn something from the courage, tenacity, hope and patriotism of West Virginia’s new bishop and those who walk with and among us. Because…
Because the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States says “born or naturalized in the United States….”