April is Scottish American Heritage Month and we are sharing these images of Scottish immigrants naturalizing in the U.S. between 1939 and 1943. Meet Alison McKinley Campbell, age 57, a practical nurse from Cowdenbeath; Catherine Archer Smith, age 62, a nurse from Dundee; William Wilson, age 46, a plumber from Glasgow; Clementina Sinclair Heddle Smith, age 55, a housewife from St. Andrews; Charles Leslie Brown, age 39, an actor from Aberdeen; and Alexander Thomson, age 37, a blacksmith from Thurso.
Did your ancestors immigrate to the U.S. and become naturalized citizens? If they naturalized in southern California, Arizona, or Clark County, Nevada, we may have their documents here. We have over 1 million naturalization documents in our holdings!
On Thursday, September 29 at 7pm, celebrate the 150th anniversary of the passage of the 14th Amendment with a look at how it defines U.S. citizenship, its connection to America’s “Second Founding” (the passage of the Reconstruction amendments), and the interpretation of these topics at National Park Service sites.
This free public program features Rep. James Clyburn (SC) as the keynote speaker. Elizabeth Wydra will moderate a discussion with Michael Allen, National Park Service Southeast Region Community Planning Specialist; Turkiya L. Lowe, National Park Service Southeast Region Chief Historian; and Northwestern University Professor Kate Masur.
Carlos Parada was born in Santa Cruz, Bolivia on February 7, 1986. When Carlos was only six years old, he and his mother left Bolivia for a fresh new start in the United States. They came directly to Cranston, Rhode Island and stayed with Carlos’s uncle until they were able to get an apartment.
Even at such a young age, Carlos remembers life in America as a struggle at first. He found difficulty adapting to the English based school system since he only knew Spanish at the time. Not only that, his mother placed him into first grade despite the fact that he was only six. He had cousins that were already in that elementary school and no one could baby sit for him if he attended half-day kindergarten.
Despite the obstacles, Carlos learned English quickly and was able to adapt well to the American culture. Carlos also had a lot of help from his cousin’s aunt who was the English as a Second Language teacher at the time and refused to even acknowledge Carlos if he tried to speak Spanish to her.
“She forced me to talk in English…She would say, ‘No try to communicate to me in other ways besides using Spanish.’”
In high school Carlos played soccer, volleyball, and tennis and stayed involved in the community. After graduation he found a strong passion for immigration related issues when he began volunteering at the Diocese of Providence as an assistant to the immigration caseworkers. While staying involved with the Diocese he attended Bryant University where he received a degree in finance. After graduation he returned to work for the Diocese full time. Currently he is an Immigration case manager Carlos also takes part in a Bolivian festival here in Providence, Urkupina, by dancing to folk music.
Carlos broadened his horizons while at Bryant as he took part in classes that had him get involved with the community even more so than before. He took part in a management class where Carlos and his group worked with the Diocese of Providence where they ran a citizenship class and assisted twelve adults who were preparing for the U.S. citizenship test. Carlos and his team would help the adults with interviewing skills, grammar, and the history of the United States.
Through teaching the citizenship classes Carlos developed his skills as a leader while also preparing himself to become a U.S. citizen, which he will undergo next year. Carlos and his mother both received their residency four years ago, one of his biggest accomplishments.
“I think getting my residency to be here legally in the United States is important because if not I would have had to go back home and wait for my residency and that can take a long time… To go back home, to live somewhere where I didn’t grow up, would be out of my comfort zone.”
Having lived in Rhode Island almost his whole life Carlos considers himself American and wouldn’t want to permanently move back to Bolivia.
“Rhode Island is awesome; everything is so close by. I’m a big foodie; I love restaurants. I eat out a lot and I love coffee. I love coffee shops; Rhode Island has some of the best coffee shops. I like supporting local business and mom and pop shops. I like little hole in the wall places in Providence, and there’s a ton. There’s the Coffee Exchange, which has coffees from all over the world from South, Central America. “
His favorite restaurant is India, on Hope Street and a Bolivian and Peruvian restaurant, Los Andes, on Chalkstone Avenue. Carlos has an optimistic view on diversity and community, believing that society is becoming more progressive and that acceptance is more relevant each day.
“I think we are all immigrants ourselves. We come on a boat, plane… We come here to better our lives and better our families back home.”
Written and compiled by Trey Tremblay and Lauren Waag
When people band together and use their citizenship, the citizen is the most powerful institution there is. Most people don’t really realize that, and there is an interest in maintaining that ignorance. No other institution has a greater interest in maintaining that interest than Political Parties.
Political parties are dedicated to themselves. The party, whichever one it is, is the top of…
May 11, 2022 / Disabled, neurodivergent, interracial American family in crisis overseas!
TLDR; Our daughter can’t travel out of the Philippines with us until they fix the paperwork snafu that made her stateless. We need to cover immigration fees for visa overstay, related transportation, and covid-related health costs for our at risk family. We didn’t meet our earlier goal, so now we need an additional $8,000 USD (at least) by July 2022.
Hi everyone, our 14 month old Eleanor won’t be able to travel out of the country with us by the time our visa extensions expire, so we have to stay here until her paperwork is fixed, and then we have to go through the American embassy processes of registering her and getting her passport. Until then, Rob and I need to keep paying exorbitant fees for overstaying our 36 month visa allotment. For Rob it’s been 50 months so far and for me it’s been 43 months.
You may have seen our fundraising posts between October 2021 and January/February2022. Our goal then was 12,000 USD for an SRRV that would have allowed Rob and the baby to stay in the Philippines permanently (I would still have had to fly out and back to reset, but at least El would have had one of us here with her in case there was trouble with reentry), but because we didn’t meet that goal in time, and because we’ve had COVID complications, we have to do this additional fund raising.
In March 2022 Rob and I were granted additional (very expensive) immigration extensions valid until July 2022. We probably won’t be able to get Eleanor’s papers sorted until after August 2022 and we won’t be leaving the country to reset our visas without her, so we’re hoping to raise at least enough to file for another extension in July 2022 and cover subsequent accommodations, travel, immigration fees, and incidentals to finally put this mess behind us.
After July we’ll still need whatever we can get towards 8,000 for travel to Manila to get American paperwork sorted (because they will only do it in person), then to fly out of the country together to reset our visas so it no longer costs us a small fortune every few months for overstaying. And of course to handle all the surprise medical expenses from how badly long covid is affecting Rob.
Speaking of which… Rob is still having complications from long covid, especially because of his pre-existing disabilities. His eyesight took a covid-related nosedive back in the beginning of February (inflamation in the retina area from micro-clots), and we’re just now getting treatment for that. He also needs a lot of dental work done because of low quality dental work in the past and a tooth that keeps breaking, plus we’re trying to find him some quality cuff crutches to alleviate the pressure on his joints. We’re looking for specialists local to us to get him the care that he needs (including hopefully letting him keep his toe–oh yeah, forgot to mention that). A couple months ago he needed an expensive MRI to check out his brain after a neurological event, and recently spent an entire month bedridden and on an oxygen machine.
Rob is physically disabled, with spinal injuries, a traumatic brain injury, nerve damage, and joint problems. He’s also autistic with ADHD, bipolar disorder, and PTSD. I also have ADHD. I’m the main caretaker for the baby and for Rob, so I don’t have time for much else outside of them, and I can’t legally work in the Philippines without sponsorship anyway.
You all have been so incredibly kind and helpful and amazing and wonderful, and we are so grateful for each and every one of you for sharing and donating to help keep our little family together. My sweet daughter, disabled partner, and my exhausted self thank you so so much.
Our preferred method of receiving donations is Rob’s paypal, so here’s the link for that as well as alternate methods of donations we are capable of receiving,
Thank you all again so much, more than words can even say.
As of May 14th we’ve got about 350 of the additional 8K needed. Thanks to everyone who has kicked in or reblogged. All my energy is going towards recovery, parenting, and medical stuff, so I’m not very interactive right now, but I appreciate all of you. ❤❤❤❤
As of May 25 we’ve received about 570 of the additional 8,000 we need. But so this is more than a strep, have some serotonin!
We finally have her corrected birth certificate! Now begins the process of getting her citizenship affirmed and getting her a passport so she can leave the Philippines with us–which is probably going to take until like, August or so. Meaning thousands more in extension fees and travel, especially considering we have to pay not just our own overstay fees, but also all of El’s visa and extension fees from her birth onward all at once, hire a private driver from here to Manila and back bc she can’t ride the bus, rent an airbnb in Manila for about a month to deal with embassy appointments, etcetera.
All this because of a few seconds confusion during @thesurestthing ’s C-section to give birth to our daughter during a pandemic while the entire country was locked down.
Amd now we go to immigration again to beg for another overstay extension, because last time they only approved us for about half the time we told them we needed. While I stumble around with my screwed up joints and one functioning eye because long covid is still screwing with my already-disabled body.
According to a new World Bank report, about 8 million Bangladeshi were lifted from poverty between 2000 and 2016. “Bangladesh has an inspiring story of reducing poverty and advancing development. Since 2000, the country has reduced poverty by half,” the report says. Read more at this link. (: Scott Wallace/World Bank)
President Trump has announced that he plans an executive order that would remove the right to citizenship for babies of noncitizens and unauthorized immigrants born on U.S. soil.
Released earlier this year, President Trump’s immigration position paper, however, famously endorsed an end to birthright citizenship. Michael Anton, a former national security official in the Trump administration as well as a lecturer and researcher at Hillsdale College, has argued that President Trump should use his pen and his phone to exclude the children born here to noncitizens, with little thought of what would happen were such a policy enacted.
