Our Muslim Boy Wonder
Who's really being removed by ICE tonight? The child who would've discovered the cure for cancer in 2046? The 9th grade nerd who would’ve stopped that Astroid that’s gonna hit us in 2032? Do we care?
Friends,
70 years ago today in San Francisco, California, a son was born to Abdulfattah Jandali, a Syrian Muslim who had entered the United States and enrolled at the University of Wisconsin. I don’t have the evidence of his citizenship, or how or why he was allowed to enter our country. The records do show that he impregnated a young woman from Green Bay and, apparently, this baby (anchor baby?) is the result of that union. On the birth certificate, apparently, is the baby’s name, or his father’s, written in Arabic: عبدالفتاح جندلي. So one more unintended, unannounced, unapproved Arab-Muslim made his way into this great country and became a US citizen simply because on this day in 1955 he left his mother’s womb head first and landed in a birthing room at some random hospital in San Francisco — and, naturally, because of a reckless mistake our Founding Fathers made in granting automatic free-to-be-you-and-me unvetted but highly-valued American citizenship for doing… what? Just showing up after a few contractions and “Presto! Yes, you, too, are now an American — just like me!” Except my name on my birth certificate is written in American-English, not Arabic. You can see why Donald Trump and MAGA-nation are so rightfully upset at how randomly any baby can just become an American — even before they’ve had their first meal!
How many millions upon millions over the years have snuck into this nation without permission, without invitation, just wham-bam-thank-you-Uncle-Sam-you’re-an-American-man now — in this case because of the perhaps questionable morals of a Wisconsin farmer’s daughter. Unbelievable. And disgusting. People, please, let’s get the order correct. Write this down: “First comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes ستيف جوبز in the baby carriage — complete with immigration papers, references, a current passport and a landlord’s signed approval, including first and last month’s rent and security deposit.”
So here we are now, in 2025, with at least 11 million “illegal” migrants roaming about this hallowed land, driving on our roads, getting God-knows how much free welfare, free blankets, free Federal surplus cheese, free use of 9-1-1 and our public libraries while the rest of us have to work and pay taxes for all of this. And what, pray tell, can you tell me we have received in return for Abdulfattah’s “little mistake” that was deposited in that hellhole we call San Francisco, once a great place to leave your heart in that “city by the bay”? Nothing. We get nothing from that Syrian Muslim who sired a Jr. Abdulfattah. A nothing-migrant with a nothing-out-of-wedlock-baby.
Except… that “nothing-baby” was soon adopted and given an American name — Steve Jobs. Yes, that Steve Jobs. Who, along with Steve Wozniak, is responsible for this laptop I’m writing on, the phone that’s in my pocket, the iPod shuffle that I’ve had for a decade and holds 1,000 of my favorite songs on a device that isn’t even an inch wide, my AppleTV+ on my tv across the room is easily one of our top two streamers when it comes to exceptional content. I also just started wearing an Apple Watch that counts my steps, the beats of my heart, the number of teeth I have left and informs me that today my blood pressure is 106/60 (it is also predicting that INCIDENT will win the Oscar this Sunday for Best Documentary Short). I am grateful for that Muslim migrant baby being born here 70 years ago today. Because if he hadn’t, it’s possible we would have none of his inventions. We would also have no TED LASSO.
This little story, I hope, will give pause to any bigot who constantly rails against the danger we are all in because of these “filthy, lowlife aliens.” Those of us who count ourselves as part of the “non-hater” demographic of Americans cannot even begin to add up or ascertain the innumerable ways our lives have been made better by our beloved immigrant neighbors. Or how many lives have been saved because of their discoveries, or simply, their care for us in an emergency situation. If all of those strangers who have had some impact on our lives could suddenly appear on this screen, it would be an overwhelming cacophony of human love. For every time I have heard a negative word or blatant hatred spewed toward those who came from afar, I have felt that I should pause, get down on one knee, and thank all of those who gave up their lives elsewhere to come here and be with us.
If you have amongst your family and friends a few uninformed Trumpsters who still scream about building a wall or deporting anyone who can’t prove they belong here, maybe you could show them the following list of immigrants who somehow got here, and then contributed amazing things for the rest of us to benefit from. Perhaps they will see that the reason this is a great country is because these great people made it what it is today.
Check this out:
Mona Hanna uncovered the Flint Water Crisis and led the fight to protect the children of Flint. She was born in England. Her scientist parents fled Iraq during the Ba’ath years in the 1970s. They then moved to Michigan. Without her, it is possible we never would have known the full truth of how Flint’s children were poisoned by the State.
Harry Belafonte, one of the greatest singers, political activists and humanitarians in American history. He was born in Manhattan to a Jamaican immigrant mother working as a housekeeper. She sent him back to Jamaica to live with grandparents from age 5 to 13.
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib represents the cities of Detroit and Dearborn. Her parents were Palestinian immigrants. She is serving her fourth term in Congress as the first Palestinian-American woman to be elected to the House of Representatives.
Albert Einstein, born in Germany, in addition to developing the theory of relativity among other things, he also called for the creation of the IRC — the International Rescue Committee — that today helps refugees and displaced people around the world.
Pierre Omidyar, founder of Ebay. His parents left Iran to go to school in France, and when he was 6 they moved to the US where his dad got a residency at Johns Hopkins.
Joan Baez’s grandfather moved to the US from Mexico when her father was 2. Her father was instrumental in the development of X-Ray microscopes and related technologies, and Joan, well, is Joan.
Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google. His parents left the USSR when Sergey was a toddler.
Irving Berlin, the most famous composer of the Great American Songbook. He wrote “White Christmas.” His parents left Russia when he was 5, escaping the pogroms and the poverty. He brought joy into millions of American homes with such songs as “Cheek to Cheek,” “Count Your Blessings,” “Easter Parade,” “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” and “God Bless America.”
Gene Simmons, rock legend from the band KISS. His mother was a Holocaust survivor, spending seven months in the Mauthausen camp. After liberation, she made her way to Haifa, where Gene was born in 1949. At age 8, his parents divorced and his mom took Gene and moved to Queens.
Billy Wilder. He made SOME LIKE IT HOT, THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH, SUNSET BOULEVARD, STALAG 17, THE APARTMENT and SABRINA. He was born in Austria-Hungary.
Linda Sarsour, born in Brooklyn, daughter of Palestinian immigrants, and co-chair of the Women’s March.
Two of the three founders of YouTube are immigrants. Steve Chen was born in Taiwan. His parents moved the family to Illinois when he was 7. Jawed Karim was born in East Germany to a Bangladeshi father and a German mother, and then moved to Minnesota when Jawed was 13.
Jan Koum, creator of WhatsApp. He was born in Ukraine in the mid 1970s. His mother moved him when he was 16 to a tiny apartment in Mountain View, CA.
Cesar Chavez, American labor leader and civil rights activist, was born in Arizona to Mexican immigrant parents.
Katalin Karikó, the famed biochemist, was born in Hungary before moving to the United States where she went on to lead development of mRNA vaccine science — key to the Covid 19 Vaccine — for which she won a Nobel prize and saved millions of lives.
This list of immigrants who made America great can literally go on for miles. And I’m going to guess that every single one of you works with, lives next door to, or has your groceries bagged by a kind young man from Honduras, or has been told the stories of those in your family who came to these shores many decades ago, and due to their perseverance, or perhaps even a hole in a fence, led you to be here today, reading these words.
We have to stop this current madness of rounding up people of color for committing the crime of not being born here — or as Trump would now like to change the Constitution, whether you were born here or not, if you aren’t white, you are suspect. Like, if you’re not white, there’s no way you got that job as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as a Black man. There’s no way you got that job as the Chief of the US Coast Guard on your own merit because, after all, you’re a “lady.” Tonight, ICE agents all across America are banging down doors to remove the dangerous “illegals.” But one of them might’ve been the guy who tomorrow was going to help rebuild a children’s playground across town — but he is now in shackles on a military cargo plane on its way to Guatemala.
Then there’s the young woman in Boston from earlier today. If you hadn’t smashed her guitar and thrown her in the back of your government van, she was the one who might’ve gone on to write the sequel to the beautiful and haunting song, “Hallelujah.” Now our souls will never hear it.
Or there goes the little girl who would’ve one day grown up to be the scientist who discovered the cure for cancer, snatched from her mother’s arms, taking her to a military base in Oklahoma, now forever “lost in the system” and never to be seen by her mother again.
When I go to bed tonight, as I lay my head down to fall asleep, I will try not to think about the potential millions suffering from cancer some 30 years from now who might’ve lived had this little girl not been seen as a threat to our national security.
God help us.
And God bless America — and Steve Jobs.
Photos at top:
On the left: Steve Jobs (1977) by Tom Munnecke/Getty Images
On the right: Migrant child in El Paso detention center 2019 by Sergio Flores for The Washington Post via Getty Images
** In order to have a troll-free, hate-free comments section — and because if there’s one thing I know about my crazy haters, they would rather spend an eternity in hell with Marjorie Taylor Greene than send me $5 if forced to become a paid subscriber — my Comments section here on my Substack is limited to paid subscribers. But, not to worry — anyone can send me their comments, opinions and thoughts by writing to me at mike@michaelmoore.com. I read every one of them, though obviously I can’t respond to all. The solution here is not optimal but it has worked and my Comments section has become a great meeting place for people wanting to discuss the ideas and issues I raise here. There is debate and disagreement, but it is refreshing to have it done with respect and civility, unfettered by the stench of bigotry and Q-anon insanity.
And then there is my sister Salameia Katz. Her father tried to immigrate to the USA with her in 1938-1941 but they were Polish Jews and the racists in Congress had made laws making their legal entry impossible. Well, the Nazis shot Salameia point blank when she was 8 years old in 1941. Her father (who was also my father) survived because he was drafted into the Red Army with which he fought all the way to Berlin. After the war he still wanted out of Poland and through a very lengthy complex process that took several years got to the USA in 1948 on a temporary visa. He couldn't get a permanent visa-- the racists were still in charge!
So, he finagled! He went to Haiti, became a Haitian citizen the next day, and as a Haitian citizen came back to the USA a few days later on a permanent visa. (This was possible because in those days very few Haitian people were interested in coming to the USA-- not surprising given the insane level of anti-black racism here.) He became a citizen and had me (my mom helped a lot with that bit!).
And here I am, son of a Haitian immigrant. I'm nearing retirement but I've had a productive life, co-invented something called CodeLab that helped hundreds of thousands of students learn programming. But that is no reason for letting me stay or letting my father stay. Who knows what Salameia would have been or contributed? But that doesn't matter.
What matters is that we are people. That's all. Steve Jobs' father, Joan Baez's father, my father, my murdedred sister: they were human beings.
Human beings, just like the Haitian migrants who have had their TPS taken away and will be expelled by August. (Maybe the fascists would like to expel me too? I bet they would!)
Human beings, just like the children, women, and men being imprisoned in Guantanamo. (Once you had to help blowing up buildings to get a "room" there-- now you just have to be born in the wrong place. Like Salameia Katz.)
Human beings, just like some of my students, who take my CS course under who knows what duress in the hope that this madness will pass.
Michael, you wrote a beautiful column. I thank you. I look forward to the day when the capitalist system is destroyed EVERYWHERE, where there are no borders, where workers are truly free, and nationalism and racism are dead.
My heart aches. Michael has given voice to it. Thank you.