Let me share a little personal immigration history with you. From 1960 to 1962, I believe, I was the only foreign student at Steubenville High School. In June of 1962, at 19, I was drafted into the Austrian military, but my mother in Austria, was able to push out my induction date until after my graduation from Big Red. I returned to Austria for my induction in September 1962. After completing my military service obligation, in 1964, I was working in Vienna, Austria, as a front desk manager at the newly opened Intercontinental Hotel. Tourism was booming.

I was also a member of the Austro-American Society, a club for American students who attended the University of Vienna and Austrian students who, either had been educated in the U.S. or Austrian students who wanted to go to the U.S. to study. It was a fun group who loved the U.S.

One of my friends at the AAS, Richard Reamer, introduced me to his parents (his dad was an executive at Miles Laboratory) and their friends, Wesley J. Delbridge and wife, who was the owner of the Hotel Elkhart.

After a few days of vacation in Vienna, Wesley Delbridge told me about this new U.S. hospitality concept — a “motel” which he was building on U.S. Route 90, the turnpike. He was impressed with my background, language capability (thank you Big Red Mmes. Coleman, Daugherty and Downer.) He was opening a Holiday Inn and needed a manager. After he returned to the U.S. he sent me a job offer letter.

The U.S. job offer letter in hand, I made an appointment at the U.S. Embassy in Vienna to apply for an immigration visa, necessary to work legally and reside in the U.S. In addition to proving no criminal record, impeccable health and proven fluency in English, one also had to prove to the U.S. Immigration Service that you would not be a burden to the U.S. taxpayer. Meeting all these conditions, I received my coveted immigration visa. In January 1965 I arrived in Elkhart, Ind., and started my career as a hotel manager in the U.S.

Furthermore, every January I had to go to a U.S. Post Office and drop off a completed Alien Registration Card. It was an IBM stock card. At all times the U.S. government knew where I resided, my employment status and social security number, which they cross referenced to the annual tax filings. Under the Democrats, all that was eliminated and now witness the illegal immigration mess we’re in.

Then four months later I received this very polite letter from Uncle Sam starting with the word “Greetings,” promptly inducting me into the U.S. military.

Yes, anyone with an immigration visa had the same obligations as a U.S. citizen, including military service. Thus, in June of 1965, I was standing in a phalanx of young men in Fort Hayes, Ohio, getting inoculations in both arms for yellow fever, and various other diseases prevalent in Vietnam. But that’s a story for another article.

The bottom line is that we all, especially those who came here legally and came up the hard way, are dismayed, angry and chagrined by the disastrous policies of the incompetent, detrimental and foolish Biden administration. Thus, I am supportive of the Trump administration’s policy of kicking out all illegals. Alternatively, let’s draft them and after four years of serving honorably, offer them the privilege of a U.S. citizenship.

Thank you, to the United States of America, for allowing me to become a citizen of this wonderful country in 1971.

(Sontag, a resident of Steubenville, describes himself as a grateful, proud and happy American)