An Immigrant’s Story
Editor’s Note: This article has been published anonymously — out of an abundance of caution — to protect the identity and safety of both the author of this piece and their family.
“I want you to understand this. Immigrants that come into the United States come for a better life, not for them, but for the generation to come. They come into this country, not knowing an ounce of the language, or where they are going to stay the first night, or when their next meal is going to be, or if they will shower, but one thing is for sure: they already made the hardest decision they ever had to make. That was leaving their family behind.”
I want you to take a moment and imagine you’re living in a country, and not any ordinary country, but a country filled with corruption, violence, and poverty. Ever since you were young, your parents had to wake up at the crack of dawn to work the fields, or stand in a factory, or serve as a waiter, or even clean houses. Your parents worked 6 days a week and for an average of 10 to 12 hours a day, in poor working conditions because they couldn’t afford to lose their jobs knowing they had a family to provide for.
By the age of 8, you have to work, too. And so you do. You work with your parents selling clothes, anything to get income for the family. Not only that but you also have to go to school to “pursue an education.” You wake up with your parents in the morning dark to get changed, get ready for school, and then right after school, you go to your parents to help them sell clothes, till all of you get back at 8 or 9 at night, fatigued, sore. All you can think about is sleeping in a bed after the exhausting day you just had. And having to do the same thing all over again tomorrow.
At the age of 16, you are no longer able to get an education and ultimately have to drop out because your family needs you to get a job and provide for you and your siblings as well. You wake up early, and travel about 40 minutes to get to your job. Coming home is sometimes the hardest part of your whole day. After being fatigued and sore from the day, you have to be cautious walking through dangerous neighborhoods. Paranoid of getting robbed, walking at a fast pace, and constantly checking over your shoulders on who and what is around and hoping you don’t have to give away your check that you’ve worked so hard for. Sometimes you’ll have the benefit of the doubt and get to go home with everything, but there are other days you are dealt the wrong end of the stick, and people come up to you and ask for everything you have – money, watch, shoes, jewelry – all for the cost of sparing your life.
Getting sick of what you have to go through, you finally decide to go to the United States of America, leaving your family behind in order to strive and end the cycle of poverty for your future kids and family. You are determined to change your family's cycle, whether that means traversing hundreds of miles by foot or navigating open water. You come to America not knowing an ounce of English, and you live here for over 15 years without doing any harm to others, having a clean record, paying taxes, even knowing that you aren’t a citizen and won’t get benefits from it. But this is your new home. You meet countless wonderful people coming from all types of backgrounds. In those 15 years here, you make a family – three kids – and give them everything you never had. You still have to work from the darkness of morning to the darkness of night, because it is hard getting a good paying job with the lack of education you have and due to you being an immigrant in this country. But you still provide for the family you have because they count on you. That is the whole reason you came to this country: for them to have a better life.
And then 2016 comes around. Trump has won the presidential election and one of his main campaign points is immigration. This affects you, your family, and so many others. He, Trump, wants everyone out that isn’t American. You live in fear of being separated from your family due to your immigration status, and it is such a difficult and long process to become a citizen. You don’t have time. You have three kids, one being 11, another being 7, and another only 3 years old. You can’t tell them what is going on in the world; they are way too young to even understand. Thankfully, after four years, you end up with no harm done to you or your family, and that’s the end of what is a deeply scary moment for you.
But then 2024 comes around. Trump has won the presidential election once again and yet again he talks about getting rid of all the “dangerous aliens” that still remain in this country, referring to you. He plans to enforce harsher policies since you’re not wanted here, you’re dangerous, and you just take jobs from the good American people that live in this country. He claims that if “aliens” left, job opportunities would open up for the good American people, and that everyone would be safer. This time seems worse than the last. Now your children are 18, 13, and 10. We live in an era of mass-information, so ultimately your children are well aware of the situation ahead of them. They are scared for you, their mom, and countless other family members they have in the states that are undocumented immigrants. You’re all worried about what's to come because nobody wants to be separated from their families, no matter who you are. You’ve been away from home for so long that you have come to call the United States your home, and that’s not even home now as you once thought.
This is the reality of life that 11 million immigrants have to go through. This is not some made up story I came up with in the back of my head. No. This is the story and background of many immigrants that came to this country for a better life and now have to experience what it’s like to not be wanted anymore in the place they called home.
The United States of America isn't all sunshine and rainbows. Let’s not forget that its land was stolen from the natives that were here before us. At first, colonists in the United States operated under a system called mercantilism, where they produced goods that they then sent back to Britain. Eventually, these colonists felt unsupported, overregulated, and tired of British rule, and they sought independence from the crown. This led to the American Revolution. One would think that people who once knew what it was like to be subjugated would then not, in turn, subjugate others. But that's what happened. Under the doctrine of Manifest Destiny, Americans took land from indigenous people, wiping out many tribes. They also took land from Mexico, and promised citizenship in return. Now, nearly two hundred years later, Mexicans and Mexican-Americans still face marginalization.
In reality, this country was made of immigrants, and originally we were all immigrants at one point, since we migrated here to the Americas. So why do the American people think it’s right to discriminate against others, not knowing the situation they have to go through? As I mentioned before, many people come to America to escape a negative cycle for their family. On the other hand, some families are kicked out of their own country because of war. As a reminder, it takes ages to become a citizen in this country. But until you are a citizen, you’re going to be referred to as a “dangerous alien”? Take a moment and let that sink in. Nobody should be referenced in such a way, regardless of their legal status. But Trump wants to put the country against immigrants. I had the opportunity to talk to some of these so-called “dangerous aliens” and here's what they had to say.
One person told me: “It’s hurtful because we’re not all the same, and of course with every good person that comes in, there’s always the few bad people that come in, but the majority of people that come in are hard working people and obey the law by paying taxes and doing things right. That’s what the people don’t see, they only see the 1% that does wrong and use that to criticize everyone.”
Another said: “It’s not fair that people think of us that way, because a majority of the people here, immigrants, are people with decency; they are responsible. We come to work and contribute to this economy and make this country stronger.”
Countless other people that I had the opportunity to talk to called it “gross” and “disgusting.” One said, “It’s crazy for someone to even think that way for someone….I know people, immigrants, that aren’t even capable of even stealing a bag of chips and those same people are considered dangerous aliens, the same ones that haven’t done no wrong in the 30 plus years of living here.”
It’s ironic how immigrants are so-called dangerous but the protesters that attended the violent attack on the Capital, a national symbol of the United States of America, are deemed pardoned and forgiven? If immigrants would have done that, they would’ve all been sent back to where they came from. For example, an act called Laken Riley was signed into law after a 22-year-old nursing student from Georgia was tragically murdered by undocumented immigrants. The law “mandates the detention of undocumented immigrants who are accused of serious crimes, such as theft, violent offenses, and other felonies. It requires that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) take custody of these individuals instead of allowing them to be released while awaiting trial.”
If a U.S. citizen would’ve done the same thing, they would not have created a new law for such an action. Nayna Gupta, a policy director at the American Immigration Council, had to say this about the bill, “This bill does nothing to improve safety or fix our broken immigration system. Under the guise of preventing violence, the bill forces immigration officers to indefinitely detain and deport non-citizens who pose no public safety risk, without access to basic due process. The bill also gives state attorneys general unprecedented power over immigration policy. The bill strips people of their basic rights and upends how the U.S. government enforces immigration law.”
This goes into my next point: imagine how an immigrant might feel? Having to leave their home and family to come to a new place to try to strive and better their lives? The “American Dream” is quickly turning into an actual dream for many and not a reality.
I know many mixed families out there who are terrified. They’re even afraid to send their kids to school and churches, places that are supposed to keep people safe and make them feel protected. Many people, immigrants, aren’t going to work because they are afraid of getting deported by I.C.E. Think about that – these people who work the hardest jobs in the country, afraid that, even there, while providing for their family, they might get deported.
Our president wants to lower the prices of groceries while those same people who make sure you get your food aren’t going to work because they’re afraid. Immigrants have a major role to play in this economy and threatening to deport all of them does nothing but make things more expensive. “No American is going to go to the field and work for the same low prices and long hours as we, immigrants, do,” one person told me. This is the same person who has been labeled as someone who is stealing “American jobs.”
I don’t know if you’re aware but day after day our “dangerous aliens” are having to have that talk with their children of “si me llegan a agarrar, te encargo a tus hermanos y hermanas.” To translate: if they come to get me, I'm leaving you in charge of your siblings. This is not a conversation you could easily just forget about, no. This conversion strikes fear into the hearts of children of immigrant parents all around the United States to the point where people are speaking up and protesting to say that this isn’t right.
While at one of the protests that took place earlier this year at City Hall. I couldn’t help but notice this one little kid. The only little kid in the crowd held up a poster and it said, “Niños hispanos no tengan miedo en escuelas, no estan solos. Dios está contigo. Soy Ciudadano Americano pero mis papas son hispanos.” This translates to “Hispanic children don’t be afraid in schools, you’re not alone. God is with you. I’m an American citizen but my parents are Hispanic.”
A 6 year old named Diego said that. He knew what was going on. You could just imagine how much larger this problem really is. Kids are spreading awareness, no matter the age, because I.C.E. poses a real problem. What I saw in that protest was the children of immigrants fighting for their parents who came into this country. Those parents came here to help provide a life for their children, and those parents are now being protected by those same kids. The lovely thing about it all is that it wasn’t just children of immigrants that were present in that protest; it was people from all backgrounds and skin color, because this problem affects every community.
I want you to understand this. Immigrants that come into the United States come for a better life, not for them, but for the generation to come. They come into this country, not knowing an ounce of the language, or where they are going to stay the first night, or when their next meal is going to be, or if they will shower, but one thing is for sure: they already made the hardest decision they ever had to make. That was leaving their family behind.
Those same “dangerous aliens” had to live with the fact they can’t go home and hug their own parents, siblings, or relatives. The only thing they could do is hear their voice or see their face in a video call. The sad thing is they’ve been so far away from home, and as life goes on their own parents and family pass away. Not even being able to attend their funeral, all they can do is stare at that screen or hear that phone call. Imagine not being with family in times of need, not because you don’t want to, but you’re bound to a place, and if you leave, you can’t come back. I don’t know if you’ve seen an immigrant reunion with family, but they are one of the most heartwarming things. Being able to feel the parents' love while they hold their child. In those videos, you can see them crying because what else can you do after not seeing your mom for more than 20 plus years?
They cry because they are human just like everyone else. They are no different than me or you. They came here with nothing and still were able to give their children everything. We were all once immigrants who migrated here. So it’s not right to discriminate just because of the status you have in this country. I’ve talked to school officials who’ve stated, “When comparing a person that has papers to one that doesn’t, there isn’t a difference at all, they both come to learn and strive for success.” So there's no reason at all to create division between communities.
If there’s one thing to take away from all of this – be proud of where you come from, proud of the color of your skin, eyes, hair, and smile, because you inherited characteristics of your ancestors that have been through so much to get you to the place you are today in the country of opportunity.
When I walk across that graduation stage in five months and receive my diploma, I know I’ve made my parents proud by breaking that family cycle. I’ll remember all the hard work they’ve been through just to get to make it to this moment in life – and how it’s not only me, as year after year more families will break these cycles of poverty and more.