(ethnicity here)-American

What: The most commonly, and in my opinion, most incorrectly used word to describe undocumented immigrants is the term “illegal”. Other words such as criminal and unlawful may also be associated with the author and other undocumented immigrants. These words all have negative connotations which leads people to believe that undocumented immigrants are in fact criminals of the United States. “… there is a troubling incongruity in applying the same appellation, criminal, to a rapist and to a poor, honest gardener that is grotesque nonsense to designate with the same epithet a parricide or a serial killer and a decent, truehearted worker” (p. xi). In some senses, yes, an undocumented immigrant is a criminal, because they are breaking the law by being here without permission, but they are not criminals in the way people generally view criminals. We see criminals as menaces to society, as people who disrupt and terrorize our daily lives. Most undocumented immigrants are hard-working people that contribute to American society the way we American citizens do, but there is so much fear in them that it stops them from seizing opportunities that could be financially and socially beneficial to them. José Ángel N. is no stranger to this fear. A main contributor to his fear was the Real ID Act which required people to provide a valid Social Security number. The Real ID Act prevented José from renewing his license which prevented him from doing even some of the simplest of tasks. He couldn’t drive, so he sold his car, he couldn’t get into any bars, so he dismissed any invitations from his coworkers to go out. This contributed to his feeling of isolation. His environment got darker, tighter, because this Congressional act pushed him deeper into the shadows (p.13). By the time this law was passed José had experienced some amount of success by receiving his GED, but then this took him two steps backwards.

So what? One of José’s main focuses was to learn English. One thing he did not expect to happen was that he would lose touch with his mother tongue. His hope was to be fully functional in both the English and Spanish speaking communities (p.66). José describes his loss of his native language as this, “Like sad autumn leaves, I had been slowly shedding fragments of my mother tongue over the cycles of my life away from home” (67). He found it hard to communicate with his mother and she would have to ask him to repeat what he was saying, because she couldn’t understand him. José always seemed to be hiding some part of himself whenever he interacted with other people. When he talks to his family and friends he must hide his newly found American side, and when he is at work he must try to hide his imperfect English as best as he can. He also mentioned his friend making fun of him while he spoke English, saying that he sounded nasally speaking the foreign language. “Without the firm footing in either of these two languages, the most essential of human ties was severed, and [he] was an orphan” (68). He felt like he had no place in either community that he identified with. There are a lot of heartbreaking moments that José describes, but this is one of the most disheartening. He already feels unwelcome in the U.S., but now he doesn’t even feel like he has a place with the people he grew up to be comfortable with. I think the fear of not belonging is one of the biggest fears that immigrants to any country hold. It is human nature to want to feel accepted, and we as nation are reluctant to grant immigrants the satisfaction of acceptance.

José always carries with him his interaction with Officer Grand. Officer Grand had pulled José over and during their interaction Officer Grand made a point to make out that José was an immigrant. At first, this had felt like a setback to José, because he felt like he had made some progress in his English. Later, José sees Officer Grand’s judgement as an eye opener. “His intention was to intimidate me, but his challenge made me self-conscious of my spoken deficiencies, of the long strides I’d have to take, the long distance I’d have to travel” (74). This is a prime example of Jose’s resilience. Many people probably would have taken offense to Office Grand, but José turned it into a learning experience and into a form of motivation. Officer Grand’s cynicism made José aware of how much farther he had to go to feel success.

Now what? This book holds so much relevance to the political issues we are facing today. Last Friday, President Trump signed an executive order which banned people from seven countries, all in the middle east, from entering the United States. It even bans those with green cards from entering the U.S. This book is important to the immigration debate, because it is a unique insight into the life of an actual undocumented immigrant. Since the United States is one big melting pot, it would make sense to believe that “… immigrants represent the most energetic, enterprising, dynamic, and freedom-loving segment of the population of their countries of origin, which they felt compelled to leave” (p. ix). America is, or perhaps was, so attractive to immigrants, because it has been a symbol of hope and freedom from oppression. Immigrants came looking for their version of the “American Dream.” The events of the past couple of weeks and reading this book have most definitely influenced my opinion on immigration. I do not think that every single person should be granted access to permanent residence to the U.S. without formal documentation, but I also believe that every undocumented immigrant has the right to try for citizenship in the U.S. They came here for a reason, a reason that proved so terrible that these people sought out asylum in our country. If we are compassionate human beings then we must not send immigrants, documented or undocumented, back to the country they so desperately felt the need to escape. The United States made the mistake once in isolating itself and putting itself first during WWII. How many refugee lives will be lost before the U.S. jumps in to save them? Do we need another Pearl Harbor to wake up the Trump Administration? I hope not, and the only way to find a solution to immigration problems is to let people speak, not to shut them up or out.