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AI: Well, also, I was struck by something that happened while you were in the midst of this health crisis with your newborn son, that you were informed that you were in danger of losing your U.S. permanent resident status if you did not immediately return to the United States while your son was struggling for life.

PJ: Yeah, that was unbelievable. I've had all kinds of issues with immigration over the years, and I think it forms the basis of why I get so angry about the immigration system now, and the work I do. But that's right; I was, I had a green card from the United States, and so I had to -- and I had been eligible for citizenship for a long time, but had never chosen to take it. And, but under a green card, you have to come back and visit once a year, and so I was due, my year was gonna be up. And that's why we were coming back to the States, actually, we had timed it perfectly, but the best laid plans... and so then my son was born, and he was literally hanging on. We had no idea whether he would make it minute to minute, much less day to day. And the U.S. embassy told me that, that I would have to fly back to the United States, and I just had to touch down in U.S., on U.S. soil, and then I could fly back. But I had to touch down long enough to get a visa, and then leave. And I said, "I can't. I have my airline tickets, here they are, I have documentation from my doctor, I can show you, I can get a letter from my previous landlord, landlady that says I was leaving because I had to go back to the States. Everything about intention is there," and I've lived in the United States for, at that time, I guess fourteen years or something. Eighteen years. And, "I'm not intending to break to law, but my child is about to die, and I'm not gonna leave." And they said, "Fine, then if you do, then you lose your green card." And I said, "But then we have to bring, as soon as he's able to fly, we need to take him back to the States and his father is American and he has a U.S. passport, but are you saying that I wouldn't be able to go back with my son?" And they said, "Yes. You would, you could wait in India while we re-process your application, and you could be sponsored again as a spouse to come in." And I said, "But that sometimes takes five or ten years, because there's all kinds of quotas." And they said, "Yeah, we know." And I said, "So while my son is sick, I would have to be here in India," and they said, "Yes." And we actually had pictures, we had to take pictures of, of him on tubes and he was literally this big, to take to show to the U.S. embassy and they all said, "No." And then we had to, we basically had to go through contacts in the United States, through the institute that had contacts with the State Department, and they finally agreed to give me a visa to re-enter the country, but I would have to go back to zero in terms of my qualification for citizenship. So I would have to wait another three years before I was eligible to apply. So it basically took away all the time that I had been here, but at least it got me back into the country.

AI: What a horrendous experience.

PJ: It was.

AI: On top of everything that you had already gone through with your son.

PJ: Right. We also didn't have a place to live, and so we were renting out a room in this -- [laughs] -- apartment of a, kind of mad guy, his wife was terminally ill and he was her sole caretaker, and there were rats in the kitchen, and just, it was quite a, quite a time.

AI: Well, then it was shortly after that, not too much longer, about mid-1997 that your son was well enough to travel, and the three of you returned to the U.S.

PJ: Yeah. It was, he actually, we should have waited a little bit longer. The doctors wanted us to wait a little bit longer, but he had developed a form of hydroencephalitis, so he had water in his brain. And we just, after thinking through all of the risks and positives, we just decided we were gonna come back to the States. And so we traveled with him, he was less than four pounds, he was tiny, and it was very nerve-wracking, 'cause they didn't really know what, going up, what that kind of air pressure would do to young babies, and the airline didn't want to take him.

So anyway, we got to the United States, and I had to stand in this line. It was like I was coming back for the first time, 'cause I didn't have a green card now, I had this thing that allowed me to get in. But everybody else went through, and then there we were in this line, a bunch of foreigners, and my husband at the time was, had stood in line with us, with this sick baby, standing there for hours, until finally this guy from immigration -- there was nobody serving our counter, so it was just this static line, and this guy from INS walked by and said, "Somebody take care of the aliens." And I realized, "Oh yes, that's what they call us in this country. Lovely, lovely phrase, 'the aliens.'" So yeah, that was reentry. And then reentry was also just so different from life in villages in India where there were people all the time. So it really felt like I was coming through all over again, but from a, this time from a not so much of the wide-eyed amazement of, "Oh my gosh, this is America," but with a sick child and just feeling so isolated and alone in this culture. And being able to contrast very clearly what I had experienced there and what I experienced here, both the good and the bad of both.

AI: What a vivid contrast.

PJ: Yeah. I think our first visit back was to Children's Hospital, after we got back, our first visit -- you know, we got in late one night, and the very next morning we had an appointment with a neurosurgeon at Children's. And I just remember walking into Children's -- and I went there the other day with my son and was reminded of this -- it's just beautiful. Like the fish, the whale section and the giraffe section, and all these murals everywhere, and just, I mean, it just reminded me of the excess, and we were in the best hospital probably available in India. And when I went back and visited last September, I just remembered how it's the best hospital and it is so minimal -- [laughs] -- compared to what we have here.

<End Segment 36> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.