From Peter Gadiel
My father, Jacques Kurt Gadiel, arrived in the United States as a refugee in 1940.
He arrived here legally, with a visa issued to him because he was being hunted by the Nazi German government. The Nazis had many reasons to want to kill him: he was a German Jew by birth (his French first name was due to his mother's love of French culture); he had been very active in anti-Fascist political activities before fleeing Germany for France in 1927; he had violated Nazi race laws in 1939 by marrying my mother, a German Protestant who herself had defied the Nazis before also fleeing Germany.
Thus, for many good Nazi reasons, he was the ideal candidate for elimination. Arrested in France by the French in 1940 as an enemy alien, he escaped from his French internment camp but was separated from my mother for the duration of the War.
When he arrived in New York in 1940 his only identity document was his German passport with a big red "J", for Jew, stamped inside the front cover, and the middle name "Israel" scrawled in by a German official as was required for Jews whose names were not obviously Jewish. (For women with names not sufficiently Jewish, the name added was "Sarah".)
Yet, despite this background and his visa, when he arrived in New York harbor, before even getting off the ship, he was taken into custody by the FBI and Immigration and Naturalization Service. He was held for several days of intense questioning. Then he was released on parole he but required to remain on Manhattan Island and return for additional interrogations, including very thorough questioning by an FBI psychiatrist who was a native of Germany and thus well qualified to find inconsistencies in his story. Eventually, he was cleared of suspicion of being an enemy agent and was released into the United States of America.
He used to joke that the FBI investigation was so thorough "the FBI practically looked under my fillings."
I once asked him if, given his background, he was angry or offended that the United States government would subject him to such rigorous examination.
His answer was simple:
"No. I was happy they questioned me. I didn't want Nazi agents in the United States any more than President Roosevelt or General Eisenhower –did. I came to the United States to be safe. How could I have been safe if the Americans allowed anyone from Europe to enter the US without carefully examining them? I was proud that I had passed a test intended to keep me and all Americans safe."
Sixty-one years after my father arrived in the United States, his grandson, my 23 year-old son James, was murdered in the World Trade Center when nineteen Muslim aliens, all of whom were illegally present in this country, hijacked four passenger airliners and turned them into guided missiles.
How ironic it is that my son, Jacques' grandson, could be murdered because the same government that had been so careful about whom it allowed to cross our borders in 1940 had by 2001 voluntarily given up control of its borders.
Since 2003 the group of which I am a director and president, 9/11 Families for a Secure America, has been a small part of a movement consisting of many groups and many thousands of individuals working to persuade federal, state and local officials to enforce those border security and immigration laws already on the books, and to enact new ones.
Certainly, our movement is gaining ground, most recently with the Supreme Court's 6 to 3 decision to permit states to require photo ID in order to vote. (Next up: challenge and reversal of Plyler vs. Doe). And the era when illegal aliens, including the unknown terrorists and violent criminals among them, could get authentic American drivers licenses is also drawing to an end.
Nevertheless, given the overwhelming opposition of Americans to illegal immigration and illegal immigrants, the results are disappointing to me. We have a long way to go.
Regular readers of VDARE.COM know why this is: money, big money, is all on the side of the illegal alien/Open Borders pressure groups. Ford Foundation, Joyce Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, General Motors Foundation, UPS Foundation, Coca Cola Foundation, Pepsi Cola Foundation, American Express Foundation, Packard Foundation (of H-P computers); all these and many more support La Raza, MALDEF, LULAC and dozens, perhaps hundreds of lesser known elements of the pro Open Borders mob.
The Catholic Church, seeking to expand its membership and get more federal dollars for social services provided to illegals, supports Open Borders. The ACLU, People for the American Way, Southern Poverty Law Center; Marxists, anarchists, Code Pink, and other far left groups supported by, among others, George Soros pour in money and expertise in an effective campaign to sow discord and weaken American social cohesion.
Joining with the leftists and ethnic lobbies, but from other side of the political spectrum, are the capitalists who support Open Borders as part of their drive for more profits. Banks, lawyers, builders, the travel industry, construction industry, agribusiness and many others lobby in support of Open Borders both to enlarge their markets and obtain cheap, off-the-books illegal labor.
Recently, the Open Borders mobsters have launched a campaign intended to keep supporters of immigration law enforcement from reaching the public. Race baiters like Janet Murguia, CEO of the aptly-labeled outfit called the "National Council of The Race" (presumably their members are "Racists"), along with money-raising rackets like the Southern Poverty Law Center, are demanding that those who disagree with their rants be denied the ability to speak on CNN, Fox News, and other media outlets. They want to knock Lou Dobbs and others off the air completely.
It appears that Murguia and her allies, in addition to importing an alien disrespect for American sovereignty also bring an alien disregard for the right of free speech and debate.
9/11 Families for a Secure America, as a strong proponent of secure borders and opponent of any form of amnesty or other benefit for illegals, clearly fits into that category of what Murguia calls a "hate group".
The Murguia lie is so absurd as to be almost amusing. Membership in our group is restricted to families members of those killed in the 9/11 attacks, survivors of those attacks, and victims and relatives of victims of crimes committed by illegal aliens, including murder, vehicular homicide, rape, and other crimes of violence. Because these victims are of many races and national origins, our organization's members are Chinese, Hispanic, South Asian, White, Black. Most of us are children and grandchildren of immigrants to this country (me included, of course). Many of our members have immigrated to the USA in the last thirty years.
Among our beliefs are these: that the first obligation of the federal government to the people of the United States is to protect them from foreign invasion, whether that be a uniformed military invasion or otherwise.
We know that, to fulfill this obligation, government officials must ascertain that any person who wishes to visit or immigrate to the United States is not a threat to the people of the United States. We believe that every single visitor or immigrant to the United States, whether coming to our country for economic reasons or through fear of persecution at home, must comply with the laws of the United States pertaining to crossing our borders and must comply with all other criminal and civil laws.
We believe that non-citizens who violate any of these laws must be deported. We believe that all these laws must be applied without regard to race.
Finally, we believe that those citizens of foreign countries who come to the United States and are unwilling to subject themselves to thorough investigation of their character and history have by that refusal admitted that they come here not to contribute to the wellbeing of our society, but to exploit and destroy.
Such individuals should be automatically disqualified from entry. Only those applicants willing to be screened can possibly be considered for admission.
Until the 1970s, this was the burden imposed on all would-be immigrants and visitors. The families of September 11, and the tens of thousands who have been the victims of individual crimes committed by illegal aliens, have paid an enormous price imposed on us by unscrupulous politicians and interest groups founded on greed, racism or political extremism.
And because we dare to speak out, the likes of Janet Murguia and her Racists label us "hate groups".
Our response to her is simple: we and the many others participating in the crusade (an apt word) to make America secure from terrorists, violent felons and other threats are not going to be silenced.
To allow that to happen would be to turn our backs on our loved ones—killed because of the policies Murguia so arrogantly espouses.
Peter Gadiel (email him) is president of 9/11 Families for a Secure America. His son, 9/11 World Trade Center victim James Gadiel (North Tower, 103rd floor), was 23 at the time of his murder.
