On my mom's side, my actual grandparents, who were Swiss, came to
this country--my grandma as a 3-year-old, to Wisconsin, with her
parents. My grandpa, when he was about 18 years old, came over. He found out
that there was a limit on Swiss immigrants. He somehow got through
Canada and then got through to Wisconsin. He met my grandma and had my
mom and her brother, my Uncle Dick, and, at some point, decided that he
would try to change his status from ``alien'' to ``legal immigrant.''
That was when the Congress had just passed the Alien Registration Act. Because World War II was before us, he had to register. That went
smoothly, so he decided to apply for citizenship. That was when they
discovered that he had entered the country twice--once when he had said
that he was going to Canada, on Ellis Island--but he went to Canada
only for a week--and the second time when he had gotten through to
Wisconsin. I don't know what would have happened to my grandpa now. Back then,
he went through the immigration hearing; he got his status. There is a
picture of him in his bow tie--in an old black and white--and he is
smiling. He was much older than when he had come to our country and
become a citizen.
Keywords matched
immigration immigrant immigrants