The new Secretary of Commerce, Gary Locke of Seattle, is a former Eagle Scout, prosecutor, and popular two-term governor whose idea of a good time is to crawl under the kitchen sink with plumber’s tape and a gob of grease. Just one week into the new job, he flew home to mow his lawn.
The Associated Press After reading the background file that the F.B.I. put together on Locke, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison characterized the latest member of President Obama’s cabinet with one word — “boring.”
But Gary Locke does have a family secret that is anything but eye-glazing.
Yes, he is widely known as the nation’s first Chinese-American governor, with a stirring family saga, as President Obama said in introducing Locke.
“Sometimes the American story can be told in the span of a single mile,” Obama said, referring to the distance between the place where Gary’s immigrant grandfather worked as a house servant nearly a hundred years ago and the Capitol where Locke was sworn in as Washington state governor in 1997.
Yet there would be no Lockes in America, no great story of the kid raised in public housing who went on to Yale and high office, no presidential kudos, if that same grandfather had not lied to get into the country.
“Some members of my family are still very nervous about acknowledging what happened back then,” Locke told me nine years ago, when I spent time with him for a profile.
And when I asked him last week about that same family secret, he repeated the story, with some hesitation.
“I’m not really sure, but I think my grandfather claimed he was born here but the birth records were destroyed,” Locke said.
For more than half a century, in an act of overt institutional racism, the Chinese were barred from legally entering the United States, with only a few exceptions. The Chinese Exclusion Act lasted until 1943. Those who managed to get in were often called “paper sons,” using elaborate ruses about lost documentation to enter the country.
Locke’s grandfather — today — would likely be hiding in the shadows, fearing federal officials and the lash of those who don’t like the changing character of America.
All of which gives Locke an unusual perspective for his new job. As Commerce Secretary, he will oversee one of the oldest undertakings of the federal government: the decennial census, which takes place a year from now. As defined by the Constitution, the census is supposed to be a count of all residents of the United States — “actual enumeration,” not just citizens.
In attempting to translate that task for purposes of electoral representation, the first census counted black slaves as three-fifths of a human being. That 1790 head count put the population of the young republic at 3.9 million.
Locke was born in the United States, so you wing nuts can rest easy. His father served in the American Army, a staff sergeant who landed at Normandy Beach and fought the Nazis in Europe.
The Locke family narrative is the American story, even with that twist about how they first came to these shores. The fact that they felt some shame over this episode is not usual; they skirted the law, egregious as it was, to get in.
Some Americans don’t see the common heritage: the hushed story of entry paired with the later success borne of hard work. When Locke gave the Democratic response to the 2003 State of the Union address, he was besieged by hate e-mails and death threats, many telling him to go back to China. The reaction stunned him: Here was a deep hatred he had never been exposed to.
Few of us can trace our ancestry to the Mayflower. But it’s worth noting that, from a Native American perspective, those Massachusetts Bay pilgrims were illegals.
As Locke oversees the census, he says he will put extra effort in making sure everyone gets counted. Some Republicans fear he will use statistical sampling — an educated guess, based on partial numbers. But the Supreme Court has ruled against this, and Locke vows the census will steer clear of such projections.
“What we want is an accurate count of America,” he said. “A true portrait.”
At stake is more than $300 billion in state and federal funds, congressional seat allocations, and the balance of the Electoral College. Those slaves of 1790, though counted as less than human, gave southern states additional power in congress and the general election.
Today, the illegal immigrants — mostly Latino, but many Asians as well — will tip the balance another way. They include those who may one day have grandchildren in the president’s cabinet, a cycle as old as the republic.
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For more information about Gary Locke the 2010 Census, be sure to check out http://www.MyTwoCensus.com, the watchdog blog of the 2010 Census!
— Stephen Robert MorseMr. Egan,
Why is it you and your editorial page NYT colleagues insist on dismissing those of us who want an end to mass immigration as “wing nuts”? I cast my first presidential vote for George McGovern, and my most recent for Obama. I’ve been pro-choice since I was aware of unintended pregnancies, and I always try to treat others with respect and decency, whether they agree with me or not.
You need to read your colleague, Nicholas Kristof’s column, Compassion that Hurts, here http://select.nytimes.com/2006/04/09/opinion/09kristof.html?_r=1
The only thing I think Mr. Kristof had wrong was that he advocated a “path to citizenship” for those illegal immigrants already here. He probably didn’t realize that that, and current laws favoring mass immigration, most notably “family reunification” aka chain migration, will boost the US population from the current 305 million to 438 million by 2050, and 82% of that growth will be due to mass immigration according to the Pew Research Center. Indeed, that 2008 study hadn’t come out yet when Mr. Kristof wrote that column. When that happens, your beloved Seattle will probably sprawl like Los Angeles. Have you thought about that? Do you want that? And did you read “The Future is Drying Up” in the Oct 21 2007 NYT Magazine? Do you have any idea where the water is going to come from? What about mitigating global climate disruption when the population of the major industrialized nation with the biggest per capita greenhouse emissions and resource use generally soars towards half a billion? The average immigrant to the US multiplies GHG emissions four-fold, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.
I’m getting on your case because someone with a platform like yours should be more careful about dismissing people who don’t agree with you as wing nuts. Your disrespect blinds you to the issues, which is a terrible thing for someone who gets to sound off regularly on the op ed page of the New York Times.
— David Holzman, Lexington MAGee, another NYT article implying that any desire to control and limit immigration is racist.
Perhaps in your next blog, you can describe what the US will be like in 2150, when our population is 1 billion plus, up from today’s 300 million, all because of uncontrolled immigration. It won’t be pretty.
Our population can’t keep growing forever. If our prosperity depends on constant growth, then we’re a giant Ponzi scheme that would make Madoff proud.
The US of 2010 is far different from that of 1910, which open-borders advocates don’t seem to understand. And no, we’re not a nation of immigrants, we’re a nation of waves of immigrants, and by many measures, this current wave is the biggest we’ve ever had. It’s time for it to come to an end…
— Wing nutThis story is fascinating and so far it sounds like he is a man who remembers where he came from. The European pretensions (my first hand experience is from the East Coast) of some in America are both amazing and amusing because these same people are, in a different time, no more than the descendants of those who got in like Locke’s grandfather. And now they sit in judgment over Hispanics and other immigrants. How history has a habit of repeating itself!
— Shefaly YogendraI will add my story to that of Commerce Secretary Locke. My father was an illegal from England…after delaying applying for citizenship for too many years he feared deportation and hid his status, which limited his job opportunities.He had four sons who served in the US Army and went on to leading responsible lives. We made our contribution to the United States of America, thanks to Dad’s courage in leaving his roots to start a new life far from home. I will never forget his fear when once a year posters went up in post offices warning illegals to register or the law would hunt them down. Amnesty would have made a difference for him and for his frightened family.
Don Crotoo
— Don CrotonWeren’t the pilgrims also illegal immigrants from a British colonial perspective?
And, of course, everyone who went along with independence were illegals. They just eventually won and rewrote the law to make themselves legal.
— AlanThank you for writing this article on Sec. Locke, Mr. Egan. I can’t find much written on him - I guess he can seem “boring”. Being a 3rd generation Chinese American with roots from Toisan myself, I appreciate you bringing up his story which is so relevant to the development of our country’s west and as you point out, will continue to be. When you’re in the SF bay area, please pay a visit to Angel Island’s newly restored immigration station.
— L. LiuYes many Americans have ancestors that were illegal aliens when they came to America. America was a country filled with plenty of jobs, opportunities, and natural resources. The streets were paved with gold.
Today America is a nation without jobs.
Tens of millions of Americans are without jobs now and shortly there will be millions more Americans without jobs.
Tens of millions of Americans are on food stamps and have no health coverage.
Tens of millions of American children are hungry.
I have worked as a construction laborer, and I have worked cleaning toilets. These are not great jobs, but when you do not have a job, any job is better than no job.
Legislation is needed to impose and enforce criminal penalties and financial penalties on employers who hire illegal aliens. It is the American employers, who exploit cheap labor, that are the problem and not the illegal aliens. Legislation is the only way to stop the exploitation of cheap labor and provide jobs to Americans.
The new administration may have plans to save the banks but there are no plans to create the tens of millions of jobs that will be needed for Americans.
As an author of a book on the Dust Bowl is it really that difficult for Mr. Egan to understand that Americans would be better off with jobs instead of handouts and that in America, jobs should go to Americans instead of illegal aliens.
These jobs may be beneath Mr. Egan, but they are not to millions of Americans.
— bob sallamackYes… The Locke family story shows courage, talent, intelligence, and fervent love of America.
Everything today’s Republican party stands against.
No wonder they want to keep similar people out. They’re deathly afraid America might be overrun by… overrun by… *Americans*, or something.
— Laszlo Toth, JrLet’s hope Locke will spend more time working & less time mowing lawn & fixing pipes. We’re in a serious economic crisis.
— xuanieThank you — brilliant.
Don Miller
— donmphktCanadian at home in Thailand
Well written! Well stated! Worth remembering.
— HarveyMy family came over on the Mayflower and they are all tax cheats, rednecks, draft dodgers and felons.
It is an honor to have a Commerce Secretary that comes from such a patriotic family.
I appreciate your service, sir.
— Sgt. Bob Smith (Ret.)One is not a “former Eagle scout.” An Eagle Scout is explicitly not “former.” Eagle Scouts take a vow to uphold the scout oath and law throughout their lives.
— Matt RMy grandfather arrived here with his oldest daughters in the last moments of the old immigration laws, before nativist restrictions on such as East European Jews went into effect. My mother and grandmother immigrated later, as family members, in 1927. Antisemitism had become official in Poland by then, with much worse to come.
Partly in consequence, I have deep sympathy for Mr. Locke’s grandfather, and for all illegal immigrants, and no respect for the exclusionist mindset and discriminatory immigration laws. I welcome all efforts to give legal status to current illegal immigrants. I welcome illegal immigrants, illegal immigration.
— Barry BlitsteinMr. Locke was governor when I lived in Seattle in the late 1990’s. He had the reputation for credibility and hard work then, and he still has it. I look forward to the ‘true portait’ he describes, and the statistical and imaging resources we all can use to get a true policy understanding of the ever-changing U.S. population. The Census has been a political football for too long.
Best wishes to Mr. Locke and his staff.
— Ana FolpeNice, regarding Gary Locke’s grandfather, who lied to get into the country. My grandfather, from Norway, did the same thing. After that, he lied his way into the US Coast Guard. The family story long has been that he escaped a fishing boat that sank in a storm off North Carolina during World War I. That was a fib, too. A friend in Oslo checked the records, and the ship returned. So, we all can appreciate our resourceful ancestors.
Bruce E. Johansen
— Bruce E. JohansenOmaha NE
Thanks again Timothy. I’m from Olympia so this really hits home. Locke did a fine job although he did have more than a few detractors.
— Stephen LawSpeaking of the Mayflower, those Puritans set up much of the systemic neuroses our society is still struggling with.
— Carlton ColquittMr. Locke’s story, like Mr. Obama’s story, may as well be my family’s story…or your family’s story. These stories bind us to each other as Americans…or they can drive us apart. It’s our choice. And I choose to embrace the common heritage.
Mayflower, Schmayflower!
— Skenya“And now they sit in judgment over Hispanics and other immigrants. How history has a habit of repeating itself!
— Shefaly Yogendra”
No, we sit in judgment over ILLEGAL ALIENS of whatever race or ethnicity. Just where do you get the strange idea that because someone’s grandfather broke the law a few centuries back, it should make it OK for someone else to break it NOW? If my grandfather were an embezzler or a bank robber or a con man, would that make it OK for me to be, much less someone else? No wonder some countries have such a problem with corruption and tolerance of it–it’s precisely attitudes such as yours that perpetuate it.
— AliHe flew all the way home just to mow his lawn? What a waste of time and fuel!!!
— Matt SaferSome of the ruses were tolerably amusing. in a time when single women attempting to immigrate were subject to particular scrutiny, my great-grandfather (on the non-Mayflower side) came in with his sister masquerading as his wife.
— Mayflower descendantGood column from someone who knows Gary Locke and Washington state (my home state) politics.
Those who take umbrage at Egan’s use of the term “wing nut” need only look to the wackos who are still, after all this time, “proving” that Obama wasn’t born in the United States, except that he was. I read Egan’s post as making the same comparison. It’s subtle. I guess subtlety doesn’t work on the tubes.
Re: mowing his lawn. I love how we want public servants to be regular guys that fly coach, and superheroes that work 24/7 to fix all our problems (without spending tax dollars, of course). Call me crazy, but I assume that Sec. Locke has a staff? That he wasn’t out of touch from the Dept of Commerce that long? That even the far-off state of Washington has phones and the intertubes? Of course, insisting that the Sec. of Commerce is always at the helm is silly, considering that the state of the economy is Treasury’s and the Fed’s job, mostly. And we know how well that’s going. Bottom line: find out what the Commerce Dept. actually does.
— Tom in RaleighTim, I usually agree with your pov but this is a major hog wash. So because of a handful of successful immigrants we should just open the door wide and allow everyone in? Well, isn’t this the same argument for ditching school and playing basketball to get into the NBA? After all it happened to Labron James so it must be happening to everyone.
As a journalist you should not take 1 example and superimpose it on the entire population. This is basically populous stereo-typing.
— A Hamila