Critical Reflection #1: Illegal: Reflections of an Undocumented Immigrant
The book begins with a quote from General George S. Patton: “When we land, we will meet German and Italian soldiers whom it is our honor and privilege to attack and destroy…remember that these ancestors of yours so loved freedom that they gave up home and country to cross the ocean in search of liberty. The ancestors of the people we shall kill lacked the courage to make such a sacrifice and continued as slaves” (ix). I believe Patton’s message has two incredibly different messages behind it. On a positive note, the idea romanticizes leaving your native country to seek liberty in the United States and become an American. He asks his soldiers to keep in mind that they are here because their ancestors left countries like Germany and Italy to seek a better life for themselves and their future generations. In this sense, immigration is a good thing. The second underlying message is, unfortunately, probably the more realistic dispatch: it’s always better to be an American. The author, Jose Angel N, was not born an American, but because he left Mexico, his native country, to search for that liberty lacking back home, it would make sense for others to see him for the courage he’s taking to sacrifice his entire life for freedom. Sadly, the glory Patton finds in attacking and destroying these foreign soldiers goes farther than war. The author attempts to convey that Americans are not as understanding of the immigration laws as they could be. The general idea: we’re okay with immigrants, as long as they come to the US legally. However, “whoever has seen the plight of those unfortunates at close range will find this comment naive at best and hypocritical at worst” (xi) is the response given in the foreword. The author not only feels misunderstood as an undocumented immigrant throughout the novel but feels generalized into a negative stereotype. The two words “illegal” and “immigrant” sadly go hand in hand in the minds of many American citizens that aren’t aware of the process of immigration.
The author uses a dark tone in his words to connect the laws and his interactions with other people. For instance, the passage of the Real ID Act affected his everyday life in a drastic way. He says, “My environment has…gotten darker. Tighter. This action by Congress pushed me deeper into the shadows. So much so that I’ve been gradually disappearing. I was no longer able to renew my driver’s license, so I sold my car and disappeared from the roads. I used to go in and out of bars without any worries, and now I disappeared from those cheerful places as well” (12–13). In fact, to get his new driver’s license, he has to acquire a fake one from a man named Mario, and this action solidifies the author as the “illegal” that stigmatizes those trying for a better life in the United States. He uses the motif of disappearing often in his writing. Because he is undocumented, the author honestly feels like he doesn’t belong in America. The land of opportunity is there, but it’s not kind to him. He gradually grows dissonance between himself and his work colleagues, friends, and family back home. No one in his family wants to leave Mexico because they have established lives already. Thus he feels alone in America. He also fears the people in his new American life will never give him the chance to be himself because of his undocumented status. An example is while he attends his first baseball game in America, he describes handing his card to the friendly beer vendor with eloquent detail. The vendor starts off as cheerful and friendly until he sees the card. His tone changes with the author because the author confronts him with something that is against the law, which the author feels he is challenging the innocent man’s morality. Interestingly enough, the author calls his card “my little green star of David” (16). The allusion to the Star of David strikes me as interesting. He uses the comparison of himself and people of Jewish descent, which is another group commonly discriminated against throughout history. He naturally puts himself at a disadvantage and, ironically, uses that to his benefit throughout the novel.
“It occurs to me that I was not meant to be here, reflecting on my past, writing this confrontation, recording this coming to terms with myself…I should have been born a Brit…I should’ve been born a late Greek, a Roman, an Indian…But instead, I was born a Mexican. Being born poor and Mexican — that is the ridiculous sum of my personal tragedy” (29). This statement made by the author sums up the book is relevant to the immigration debate today. The book isn’t exactly necessary for someone to understand why the status of immigration is terribly discriminatory today, but what the book provides is a perspective that many will not find in any mainstream media. If there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s that it takes a lot of courage and sacrifice to speak on behalf of undocumented immigrants. The immigration process is profoundly flawed, but its flaws arise from myths about undocumented immigrants (apparently, our current president believes that 1) all immigrants are Mexican and 2) they’re all criminals and rapists). I believe that there are illegal immigrants out there, but they don’t make up the majority of all immigrants in the United States. The path to citizenship should be easier for those who deserve it (i.e., if they don’t have a criminal record).
I found it intriguing that the author wishes he wasn’t born a Mexican, but instead a British man — probably because at least he would be born a white man. As much as a racist statement as that sounds, the biggest problem with our acceptance of immigrants is that we are picky about who we choose to accept, mostly based on our skin color. This kind of mentality shouldn’t be prevalent when discussing issues about immigration. Diversity is what makes the United States great, and with the current mantra of “Make America Great Again,” we’re going to have to change that tone associated with the catchphrase. Diversity is a benefit to everyone. We all come from immigrants from many different nations, so for this issue, why is one nationality better than the other?
