Coming to America Saved My Life: A People Editor's Immigration Story

This story was originally published on January 31, 2017.

Mom and Dad — with an assist from Congress — saved my life.

I was hardly the adorable infant most adoptive parents get to take home. Instead of going to my new home in Mason City, Iowa, I was immediately admitted for emergency care. Doctors told my parents I would not have survived for two more weeks without hospitalization. I was, to say the least, lucky.

Courtesy Mary Green

Mary Green’s mother, Georgene Green, sweeping her off the plane at O’hare airport on Oct. 8, 1969

In 1965, the United States was entering into yet another war, this time in Vietnam. It was the country’s third extended military conflict in Asia in 30 years. Americans were not feeling particularly warm toward Asians, yet that year Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act, to end discriminatory immigration practices based on national origin. It was not even possible to adopt an infant from the region until 1955, when both houses of Congress passed the Holt Bill legalizing it. In 1969, with the United States embroiled in Vietnam, had President Richard Nixon issued an executive order trying to supersede those Congressional acts, I would not have survived.

Instead, I was welcomed into a loving home, growing up with four older siblings (Jude, Joe, Tom and Chris) and one younger one (Therese, who is also adopted), where I was nurtured and given a chance to thrive. Like almost all minorities I’ve faced racism — been punched, kicked, denied service — but those times taught me to fight for equality.

My parents were devout Catholics who heard via their parish that many Korean orphans were in need of homes. They were staunchly conservative Republicans who believed in racial and religious equality above all else. They felt it was the duty of all human beings, not just Americans, to open their hearts, their borders, and their communities to those in need.

In one of the final lucid conversations my dad and I ever had before he died from dementia, he said he knew it wasn’t always easy for me to grow up being one of the few Asian-Americans in town. “But we did the best we could for you,” he said. “And look at you now.” Thank you, America.

source: people.com