By DEXTER DUGGAN
PHOENIX — A German-born scientist who has tried for 18 years to become a permanent resident of the U.S. would like to use her expertise in biotechnology here, including perhaps opening a think tank, but she says she has been frustrated by legal-immigration procedures.
Edith Breburda, DVM, Ph.D., told The Wanderer, “I would love to open a think tank of biotechnologies. . . . Catholics need to engage in a discussion on stem-cell research, cloning, genetic manipulation, all the modern reproductive technologies.”
Breburda has written both scientific and children’s books. A sample medical article of hers was posted online at the Culture of Life Foundation’s website (cultureoflife.org) in 2012, “Can Embryonic Stem Cells Cure Neurological Disorders?”
“I’m waiting 18 years for a green card,” Breburda said as she showed The Wanderer some binders thick with paperwork related to her situation during a July 26 interview in the vestibule of a Phoenix Catholic church after daily morning Mass.
Illegal immigrants “get everything, pro bono lawyer, health insurance, work authorization,” she said, adding later that “the rules are not very much in favor of merit-based legal immigration….
“Yes, yes, yes” the Munich-born researcher replied regarding hearing that her application was pushed back because of illegal immigration.
Breburda said she was interviewed for a biotechnology job in suburban Tempe, but couldn’t be hired because she lacks a green card.
Asked to sum up why she thought the process has taken her so long, she said, “It’s very difficult for legal immigrants to immigrate into this country” because everyone is busy with illegal immigration.
Her books can be called up by web-searching for “Edith Breburda Amazon.com.” Some published in the original German, they include Reproductive Freedom: Free for What?, Promises of New Biotechnologies, Global Chemicide: Are We Destroying Ourselves?, as well as children’s books Felix the Shrine Cat and Felix the Pilgrimage Cat: In Paris, Chartres and Rome.
Breburda told The Wanderer that her H-1B visa, which allows U.S. companies to employ non-U.S. specialty workers, expired in 2008, but not before she applied for a green card, which allows permanent residency status. If she received the green card, she said, she would have to wait five years to become a U.S. citizen.
She believes she can better put her talents to work in the U.S. than Germany, Breburda said, but she’s finding it very difficult to comply with U.S. immigration laws.
Her brother, a cardiologist in Phoenix, became a U.S. citizen in 2010 and is sponsoring her for the green card, she said, adding that he’s supporting her financially because she has no authorization to work here.
“As long as there is no decision (on the green card), no one can toss you out” of the U.S., she said.
Pope Benedict
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI had her uncle as a classmate, a fellow German priest, who supplies Benedict with her books, Breburda said, adding that the former head of the Church on Earth appreciates what she writes about biotechnology.
In an article about her immigration problems published in Oremus Press in July 2019, Breburda wrote that “skilled immigrants who have studied or worked in the U.S. and are the backbone of many high-technology institutions become more and more victims of bureaucracy as the processing of applications for residential and work permits is taking decades. . . .
“My methods on the treatment of juvenile bone fractures were utilized in humans in 2008 and are now the state of the art,” she wrote. “The technique resulted in ongoing bone growth, whereas before such fractures left the child with a shorter limb.”
She wrote that as she has struggled with “this time-consuming, extremely difficult immigration project,” she has received comments like these:
“Just trust in God. He will take care of you. And, by the way, don’t bother me”;
“You are privileged. You have a Ph.D. and you are legal in the country. We have to help the poor illegal migrants. Just get a lawyer. He is really cheap. $300 first appointment and tell him I sent you”;
“Be happy that you don’t have to wait in a refugee camp”;
“You are not supposed to be here. You really need to go back to Germany.”
The Amazon website offering her books says: “In February 2001 Dr. Breburda came to the United States to work as a scientist with a premier and internationally recognized expert in biochemistry at one of the top ten U.S. universities. During her research, she discovered a new cell line responsible for immune tolerance, resulting in new insights into developmental biology, vaccine development, HIV treatment, organ transplantation and cancer research.
“Dr. Breburda is internationally recognized as an outstanding scientist with exceptional research contributions in the area of biomedical research,” Amazon.com adds.
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