The New American Dream

In most every American family there is a story of immigration. Mike Behnam's began 27 years ago — and finally on this July 4th, he's an American citizen reports CBS News correspondent John Blackstone.

Behnam was in Iran in 1979 as it descended into revolutionary turmoil. America was vilified by many, but to some Iranians, America beckoned. They fought for visas and crowded the last flights out of the country. Behnam was just 17 when he boarded a plane with little more than his favorite camel wool blanket. He was the only one in his family with a prized American Visa.

"I became the anchor for the rest of the family," he says.

As a teenager in a new land, his first move was to trade his given name, Manouchahr, for something more American. From that day forward he would be known as Mike.

Carrying the hopes of his family still in Iran, Mike didn't tell them everything about his early struggles to make a living in America.

"One day I called my father, and said, 'Oh I got a job at this great oil company called Exxon,'" Mike recalls.

He didn't let on that he was actually pumping gas for that big oil company — at an Exxon gas station.

His employment situation soon improved and he became an engineer in Silicon Valley. He started his own American family — he and his wife Mina had a son Yashar and a daughter Dena. And as promised, he finally brought his mother, brothers and sister to the U.S.

But through 27 years, Mike never became a citizen — something Mina teased him about when she became a citizen ten years ago.

"I remember I came home and I joked with him, I said, 'You're an alien, I'm American,'" says Mina.

The fact that he couldn't vote bothered Mike every election day.

"My vote doesn't count. I can't vote,'' he said.

So over this 4th of July holiday, Mike Behnam raised his hand for the oath of citizenship.

He still treasures that camel wool security blanket he carried from Iran all those years ago.

"Believe it or not, it's made out of camel wool."

But now he has something that gives him even more security — the right to call himself "American".