Jason’s Illegal Immigration Case
In 1991 I received a mission call to the Budapest Hungary mission but with special instructions to labor in Romania. Three months prior to my call, the Romanian people had begun a revolution that resulted in the assassination of their Romanian dictator. Following a two-month training period at the Provo MTC, I flew with eight other elders to Budapest ,Hungary, to meet with our Mission President.
Directly after we arrived, the Mission President interviewed each of us. During my interview he said, “Currently there are three elders in the capital city of Bucaresti, Romania. Tomorrow when you fly to Romania, I want you to meet with those three, board the train, and travel to the city of Ploiesti with a population of 250,000. I want you to officially open that city for missionary work. I have three instructions-- first, find a place to live; second, find some food; and third, find and baptize a branch president. I’ll wait to hear of your progress via telephone in 30 days.”
Those were my instructions, so off we went. Within three days of our arrival to the city of Ploiesti, we received a telephone referral from the mission office. (*Note: the mission office was located in Budapest, Hungary, the next country over).
The next day we went to the address on the referral sheet; and as we approached the door, we heard someone yelling in Romanian. I took one look at my companion and said that we should probably come back another time, but my companion boldly knocked on the door. The door flung open and the entire doorway was filled with a very large man in a Speedo talking on the telephone who looked at us with an expression of surprise mixed with anger.
I thought to myself—Great! This man is now going to kill us. To my relief he handed the telephone to my companion. On the other end of the telephone was his oldest son who had recently escaped from Romania to Germany, had found the missionaries, and converted to the gospel. He was calling to tell his father about his “new” religion and to inform him that if the Church was ever allowed to enter the country of Romania, two young men in suits would knock at his door.
The man clothed himself and we began the first discussion. Within three weeks this man, Mihail Blegeanu, and his family of four became the first members of the city of Ploiesti. We held sacrament meetings in our apartment for the first three months until the little branch grew. After six months the branch had 30 members, and I was called to serve as the Branch President with special instructions to train Mihail to become the next Branch President.
I served in this capacity for one year; thus, Mihail and I grew to become the best of friends. Mihail was tenacious with the gospel and personally responsible for bringing hundreds of new converts. One month after the completion of my mission service, Mihail, his wife, and 30 other members were flown to Utah to receive their ordinances in the Temple. I was asked to help Mihail and his wife through the ceremony by acting as a translator. Following the ceremonies and the sealings, we then translated the ceremony into the Romanian language for the other members. This was a small miracle as the country of Romania was still governed by an underground network of residual communists, and leaving the country as a Romanian was nearly impossible.The Church provided substantial collateral to ensure that each Romanian member would return to the country after the completion of the temple work. Following the temple experience we parted ways and, because this occurred in the days prior to e-mail and cell phones, our communication was limited to handwritten letters.
About eight years later, my telephone rang at 2 a.m. Mihail Blegeanu called me to explain that he had secured passage to America but needed $800. He said that his life was in danger and that the American embassy had ignored his petitions, so he had gone through “other” avenues. He reminded me of his life before his baptism.
During the revolution Mihail and five friends stormed the communications tower in the city of Ploiesti, fending off security guards (remember, the man was very large) and overtaking the communications tower. They then broadcast throughout the entire country that the revolution had begun.
After the revolution and the assassination of the dictator and after the missionaries had entered the country, the Romanian people held their first democratic vote. Ironically, the dictator that was next in line was voted as the new president. This resulted in a fully functional communistic government under the mask of democracy.
Mihail explained that recently the network had discovered the identity of those who had stormed the embassy and that four of his five friends had been found dead throughout the city of Poliesti in dumpsters. He needed the money for him and his family to leave the country.
My mind quickly flashed to my mission experiences. I remembered being fed by this family when we were half starved because of the lack of food and the lack of knowhow to prepare food. Romania was a third-world country, and finding and preparing food became a daily challenge for us. The Blegeanu family gave when they didn’t have to give. I remembered his tenacity in bringing hundreds of Romanians to the gospel and his endless service as Branch President.
The question -- should I wire him the money?
The Church has recently issued the following statement with regard to its policy on illegal immigration: Around the world debate on the immigration question has become intense. That is especially so in the United States. Most Americans agree that the federal government of the United States should secure its borders and sharply reduce or eliminate the flow of undocumented immigrants. Unchecked and unregulated, such a flow may destabilize society and ultimately become unsustainable.
As a matter of policy, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints discourages its members from entering any country without legal documentation and from deliberately overstaying legal travel visas. What to do with the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants now residing in various states within the United States is the biggest challenge in the immigration debate.
The bedrock moral issue for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is how we treat each other as children of God. The history of mass expulsion or mistreatment of individuals or families is cause for concern especially where race, culture, or religion are involved. This should give pause to any policy that contemplates targeting any one group, particularly if that group comes mostly from one heritage.
As those on all sides of the immigration debate in the United States have noted, this issue is one that must ultimately be resolved by the federal government. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is concerned that any state legislation that only contains enforcement provisions is likely to fall short of the high moral standard of treating each other as children of God. The Church supports an approach where undocumented immigrants are allowed to square themselves with the law and continue to work without this necessarily leading to citizenship.
In furtherance of needed immigration reform in the United States, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints supports a balanced and civil approach to a challenging problem, fully consistent with its tradition of compassion, its reverence for family, and its commitment to law.
The question remains -- should I wire him the money?
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