The most important room in the nation: E-160

Where what remains of the American Dream is realized

We joined many quiet, nervous people in a large room on the first floor of the John F. Kennedy federal office building in downtown Boston, known as E-160. All of us were there for the same reason, or to help someone achieve the same goal:

Citizenship. Become a legal entitled human being in the United States of America.

I have sat in that room three times. People from all over the world occupy plastic chairs bolted to the floor. I have seen every skin shade, European white to African black, South American brown to Asian brown to Middle Eastern brown. I have heard many languages spoken in hushed whispers, every style of dress from jeans and untucked t-shirts to burkas and hijabs to three-piece suits. I have seen babies and old men, families and couples, gaunt and heavy.

All clutch precious pieces of paper that confirm appointments, define status, hopefully prove a right to exist in this country. All are waiting to be called.

My overwhelming wish is that I could talk candidly and intimately with each of these applicants, learn their stories. I’m certain every single one has come to E-160 after amazing experiences, some unimaginable, tragic and beautiful. None of that is revealed in the faces or manner of those sitting on the plastic chairs.

How did they make it here? What did they have to overcome? Where were they born and why are they no longer there? What choices have they made, or been forced to make? How do they see this opportunity? What are their dreams?

We sit in close proximity but worlds apart. We know nothing of each other but we are bound by one goal. We all also know something else:

Millions of people around the world want to be in this room but never will sit here, never reach the doorstep to United States citizenship, never get the chance to prove worthiness and right. Some combination of fate, karma, attitude, stamina, luck, hard work, connections, legality, tragedy, family have funneled these people here, while at the same time making it impossible for many more to find E-160.

Being a Cape Codder, I imagine this room to be a pond. The people in it are the human herring who have made it up every step of the most challenging run, fought upstream against hard currents, avoided predators, defied all odds and made it into that place where it becomes possible to spawn, creating opportunity for the next generation.

Forgive me for repeating myself, but I would so love to hear from each of them how that happened.

Federal examiners work in cubbyholes behind closed doors off E-160. Each emerges periodically and calls out a name. Often the sound of that name bears little resemblance to how it is actually pronounced, the difference so great that even though everyone is focused on nothing other than answering that call, people don’t recognize their moment. The examiners know this and walk around the room, announcing phonetic variations until someone jumps up, realizing they have been summoned.

Applicants move alone (sometimes with a lawyer or translator), following the examiner into a sequestered place where tests are conducted, questions answered, decisions made.

Fair reader, do you know what you need to know to become a United States citizen if you were not born with that privilege? What questions must you answer, what do you need to prove, what do you need to swear?

I know, because our two godchildren, born in Haiti, passed those tests last week. I’ll share that with you in my next column.

Our experience in E-160, nerve-wracking as it was, felt far different than moving through immigration at an airport, or battling through other opaque bureaucracies. We felt no animosity, no sense that the default position was rejection. There were frustrations for sure, delays and confusing paperwork, and we realize that many of our fellow human herrings are denied access to the American pond even at this last step.

But we were greeted with compassion, understanding, and competence. This isn’t historic Ellis Island, though the Statue of Liberty’s image is everywhere. This is a less dramatic portal, replicated in similar rooms all over the country, that accomplishes the same thing.

Many of us could use some national optimism and a little hope right about now. If that includes you, remember E-160.

NEXT, BRINGING IT HOME: HOW TWO OF THE CAPE’S NEWEST CITIZENS MADE IT.

With profound thanks to Project Citizenship, a Boston-based non-profit that provides free, high-quality services helping people become “naturalized”; legal advice, crafting applications, bureaucratic direction, emotional reinforcement. Check out this remarkable effort, patriotic in the best sense — they welcome new Cape Cod clients: https://projectcitizenship.org/

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