My deportation story

Donald Trump’s intention to send illegal immigrants back to their home country and let them reenter America after going through proper procedures sends a chill up my spine.  Why?  Because it happened to me.

One morning in 1973 I was summoned to the downtown Milan Police Headquarters--police in Italy are a national government agency--and was told, “Mr. Raser, you have 24 hours to leave the country.”  Unless that has happened to you, you have no idea what goes through your mind as well as your body in a moment like that.   I felt like I was going to get sick and faint.

Years before, when I entered Italy I was a journalist for American publications and my government-issued press credentials were essentially my green card.  I was legal.  I then left journalism and became the Creative Director for a wholly owned American marketing company in Milan.  Legally, however, it was an Italian company so I paid Italian taxes and was subject to all Italian labor laws. 

I worked there for several years without any problem, however in the early 70’s the Communist Party (which was, and still is, a legitimate political party in Italy) began campaigning against foreigners who were taking Italian jobs.  Does that sound familiar?

The law requiring “undocumented foreigners” to leave the country and return with the proper authorizations had been on the books for years but was rarely enforced.  In fact, when enforced, you could drive to Switzerland, go to the Italian Consulate, get the permit and drive home.  But now, under intense political pressure from the Communists, the Christian Democrat government began enforcing it to the letter, which meant unauthorized foreign workers must return “to their country of origin” to get the permit.  Does that also sound familiar?

“But I’ve been here for several years,” I pleaded to the official, “I am married to an Italian citizen and have two small children who were born here?  I just can’t drop everything and leave.”

“Fine, we will give you 72 hours but you are illegal and must leave or you will be arrested.”

In effect, I was deported.  Fortunately, the company I worked for managed incentive travel, so with our travel agency partners I quickly obtained an airline ticket for a reasonable price.  Also, my parents lived just outside New York City so I had a place to stay and, of course, New York has a very large Italian Consulate.

You cannot imagine the anxiety you endure in a situation like that.  Would I get the proper permit?  How long would it take?  Would I get back into Italy even if I got the permit?

I went to the Italian Consulate and it took well over an hour, with visits to several different offices, but I managed to get a permit visa to return to Italy and stay.  Still, I wasn’t absolutely sure it was going to be enough to get me back in since, at the Consulate, they told me this was a new enforcement of the existing Italian immigration laws and I was the first case they had to handle. 

I did return and lived a total of 12 years in Italy, but the horrible memory of that event has never left me. Fortunately, my extremely emotional and frightening ordeal worked out well,  but there were stories at the time of people who had lived many years in Italy and had to return to New Zealand or South Africa to get a return permit stamp in their passports and were refused reentry.

I know just how devastating it will be for Mexican immigrants who have lived here for years, never broken the law, paid taxes, had and raised children, when they are summoned by Trump’s Deportation Task Force and told they must leave and returned legally.  I have been through it.

Trumps’ immigration plan, in addition to being unwieldy, probably unworkable and extremely expensive, lacks any kind of humanity.   For undocumented immigrants who have lived here many years, not broken any laws, paid taxes and either brought in young children or had them here, ICE could easily set up review boards, and work in conjunction with local Mexican Consulates to establish legal residency status, not citizenship.  This could be done without individuals and families living with the threat of instant deportation. 

I never asked for nor wanted Italian citizenship, only to be able to peacefully live there, work and raise my children.  I believe that’s all the undocumented aliens living here are asking as well.