“You are wanted here,” I promised my wife after frustration led to tears while we reflected on the recent acts of terror in San Bernardino. Amid the discussions of ISIS, terrorism, gun control, religion and extremism comes an issue very close to us: immigration.

My wife and I are currently going through the process for her to become a U.S. citizen. Yes, it is we, as she’s not able to do this without me. And yes, we’ve been married for over two years, and she is still not yet a citizen. Yes, this is normal. Yes, she is here legally.

There are a few ways to immigrate to America, so I can only speak somewhat intelligently on the process we are going though. My wife is currently here as a conditional permanent resident, meaning she has a green card but it will expire two years after our application was approved. Because Sera was already in the country on a different visa when we were married (and how far behind the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services offices can be — perhaps they need more funding), our timeline is a several months off from our actual two-year anniversary. This means in a few months, we will be applying for the conditional part of her green card to be removed. She’ll be one big step closer to becoming a citizen, but even once she has a green card, Sera won’t yet be able to call herself an American.

Though that previous paragraph is complicated, and you may have gotten bored and skipped over a few lines, it has been a pillar of our life for quite some time. There’s a certain fear, a lingering worry, that comes with marrying someone from outside your country. It’s so easy for papers to be filed incorrectly or lost, and suddenly your lives are altered for an unknowable amount of time. Every time we feel comfortable, something puts us on edge.

This week the edge returned in an unexpected way. When facts revealed one of the shooters in San Bernardino was not originally from America, multiple pundits began speculating that our borders should be closed entirely. Perhaps by not letting any outsiders into America, they theorized we could prevent terror from spreading here. This is of course troubling to my family personally, as it effectively stops visas from being authorized. Being just months away from needing to renew our visa, Sera would be forced to leave, separating either myself or her from our soon-to-be newborn daughter. For a brief instant, we had to imagine what that reality might be like.

Perhaps the separation of my family for your peace of mind regarding American’s safety is worth it for you. I hope it’s not though, as terror is not rooted in immigrants, refugees, or anything outside of what it means to be American. You don’t fight terrorism by making a short-term change, you fight it by identifying the underlying issues. People don’t become terrorists because they want to come to America. In fact, we’ve been terrorized by plenty of people born and raised in our 50 states.

Some suggest we focus the nation’s visa halt on people of the Islamic faith. As Christians, my wife and I are worried. The kind of religious persecution dialogue would not hold up to the court of public opinion had it been a Christian extremist doing the shooting. I can’t imagine any politician asking for Christians to no longer be let into America. To be fair, other recent mass shootings in America I’m reminded of were by American extremist Christians, so there never was a chance to stop them from entering our land. Maybe religious extremism doesn’t matter as much when it’s local and loosely tied to the same faith of 70 percent of Americans.

Also of note, the fear-mongering political speak I’m hearing isn’t what I read about the Gospel. The last few verses in Matthew, chapter five state, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”

Let’s work together to find solutions that do not limit our identity as a nation. To quote our citizenship rights and responsibilities, “We are a nation bound not by race or religion, but by the shared values of freedom, liberty and equality.” As we unite to fight terror on all fronts, I pray we do so while keeping those values intact.

 

Rochester resident Matt Knutson is the communications and events director for United Way of Olmsted County.