Montana Governor says his Irish grandmother was an illegal immigrant

[Ediacara]

Governor says his Irish grandmother was an illegal immigrant

By GAIL SCHONTZLER

Chronicle Staff Writer

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer was asked Monday in Bozeman about his stand on immigration, and told the story of his Irish grandmother.

The question came at the end of an open meeting at Montana State University about higher education. A bearded man in the back of the room posed the question.

It's a federal issue, the governor replied, "but I'll speak from my heart."

"I believe people who want to work ought to be offered a path to citizenship," Schweitzer said.

His grandmother came to the United States in 1909, he said. At the time, Americans felt that there were too many Catholic and Irish immigrants, and they were changing the character of the country.

More at the Bozeman Daily Chronicle

[muntrv]

1. The anit-immigrant crowd today

sounds like Bill The Butcher in the movie "Gangs of New York." The Anglo-Saxon Protestants were bashing Irish Catholics like xenophobes are bashing Mexicans.

[DisgustedTX]

2. Gaelic is not an option on the menu.

I would imagine she learned ENGLISH and BECAME A CITIZEN THROUGH MARRIAGE?

Conveniently omitted facts from the article.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

5. DisgustedTX, I seriously doubt that Brian Schweitzer's

grandmother spoke Gaelic. I'm pretty sure she spoke English as did most of the Irish during that time.

His point was that his grandmother used her sister's visa to immigrate which was probably illegal at that time. But since I'm sure she had a copy of her sister's birth certificate given to her by her family or baptismal certificate by the village priest, no one at Ellis Island ever questioned it. So under the laws of the US in 1909 his grandmother was technically an illegal alien...

[Fenris]

3. "people who want to work ought to be offered a path to citizenship."

That's a great statement.

I am unsure of my family's illustrious immigrant past, but I am aware of one ancestor, a French fur trapper, retroactively becoming a citizen of the United States after the Louisiana Purchase. He was still trapping in the wilds of the Northwest when the land suddenly became part of the United States. Later on he settled in Louisiana, never having to take a citizenship examination or having to prove his loyalty to the government in Washington. He just wanted to work, regardless of the regime.

[Igel]

4. With about a billion or two people in the set of

people that fit the bill.

Shall we go for an unbiased sample of the population that would like to do so? Or simply admit them all?

After all, currently there's a structural racial bias built into the illegal immigrant community, as well as a temporal racial bias. Presumably both are immoral.

[treestar]

6. I don't think the laws were that strict in 1909

Maybe you could be excluded as likely to become a pauper or for having a communicable disease. Even with the disease you were released when it cleared up.

People just came, then. The powers that be could hardly do much about it.

The natives had the same exact reactions. If you read 19th century nativist rhetoric, it is remarkable how identical the nativist speeches are today.