Reflection 5: Illegal vs. Undocumented

Illegal Alien

Illegal Immigrant

Undocumented Worker

Three terms that describe a certain type of people. People who have entered a country through a process in which they have broken laws to do so. People who may not have had a choice when it came to leaving their country. Did the Europeans not come to the America's as Illegal Immigrants? Some, such as the English, were fleeing oppression within their countries. Others wished to make a profit. The result...tribes, cultures, lives were taken for the benefit of these immigrants. But that was 200 years ago, when a sense of equity was more vague. It was nonexistent even. 

Throughout the years, many people have debated the connotation of the words, and the context in which we use them. Many online resources debate this subject quite intensely. For they argue that one may be seen as degrading, another a scientific and politically correct term, the third doesn't seem to correspond with the other two whatsoever. Yet upon looking up their definitions, I find that the definitions are very similar.

•     •     •

Illegal Alien

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Illegal Immigrant

As seen above, the definitions are quite similar. They are similar enough that people use these words interchangeably, as synonyms.  As a human race, we almost forfeit the right to have our own ideas become great ideas. At least on their own. So as we stand together, we mold these ideas into great circumstances as we strive to survive. We determine the meaning of a word, we give it meaning based on contempt, or euphoria, or some other emotion. For a word is just syllables combined, strange scribbles conjoined to form something greater. People, all of us, in some form or another strive for excellence.

"We won't tell anyone we're illegals, and we'll get good grades. We promise." (Reyna Grande, 166)

At some point in our lives, we have all made a promise similar to this. Few can claim a similar situation to Reyna Grande's however, at least I haven't met many. As we see in the book, even Reyna's older sister knows the severity of letting people know where she is from. Many suspect, but the preponderance of people refuse to do anything about it.

It is dangerous how many people enter the US each year, the children that are left at warehouses with no families. Police will come and do something about it, the reporters will swarm, and the rest of the country sees the truth. For awhile at least. Then the excitement fades, being replaced with politics. The poverty and border crossing continues, children don't get a chance at life. Only a chance at poverty. And how does this affect others? Such as our troops away at war?

Do we really want our soldiers in the middle east coming back to a broken country? One where people are unsure of what they're doing, others who probably don't belong? That is not why they went to war, they go to protect us, to fulfill a duty to our country. Yet those who stay behind forget this duty, we are blinded by the media. A veil covers our eyes and we stuff our ears so as not to hear the truth. When will we realize that this problem is evident and needs a solution?

So we come back once again to the topic of what we should do, what we can do. For sending troops down to the border and building walls are not solutions. We must take a step forward, collaborate with other governments, put aside petty biases, and find solutions. To help these people, not to oppress them.

Reflection 4: Broken Beauty

Home of the Free

Is not the United States of America a symbol of immigration all by itself? Our country, created and built by so many ethnicities, is the quintessential of symbols. The US was created for those who are leaving former homelands where they were oppressed. Where their religion, lifestyle, skin color, was not accepted. Where they could not work, could not make a name for themselves; these people chose to come to the United States, a place of hope and beauty.

Throughout the years, the United States has entered the fourth stage of demographic transition, some even believe that the United States (along with some other countries) may even be entering a fifth stage. The multiple ethnicities and different religious groups that make up this country, and their willingness to put aside differences, to cooperate with one another, is the reason as to why the United States is so great. 

Even at a young age, Reyna Grande understood this, stating in her book on page 65, "I continued to think that there was beauty everywhere around us." And that is all we can think, that we must perceive and believe. For life as an immigrant can be much more challenging than that of a citizen. And as we grow older, we realize that everything is not as it seems. That people are bias and discriminate, and we can't change that. As Reyna Grande later goes on to state on page 65, "it was a place of broken beauty." For we later see, that the beauty we perceived was not as it appeared. Not everything is perfect, we can not persuade others to accept people who are different, yet we still strive to. Maybe someday, it shall no longer be a place of broken beauty, but merely a place of sheer and utter splendor.

Reflection 3: Education Equity

"I froze when she picked up my book. Here it is. Here is my big chance! She opened it, flipped through the pages in the blink of an eye, then she closed the book shut and put it in the big pile. My eyes began to burn with tears. My book had been rejected." (Reyna Grande, 217)

Is this what immigrants, even undocumented, face? Prior to reading The Distance Between Us, and Affirmative Action Proposal for California Universities Runs into Asian-American Opposition, an article about universities and how they permit students to enter based on race; I had believed differently. Throughout the years, many schools have taken into account peoples ethnicities rather than the students' credentials. As stated in the article, many students are angered by this, and threatened California universities with lawsuit. This continues, becoming a much more heavily debated subject. Should it not be the students who try the hardest that are permitted into college? Why should a fifth generation Hispanic, sixth in their class, get into say Stanford instead of a third generation Caucasian who was second? It should be those who are driven, should it not? 

I feel that The Distance Between Us demonstrates this quite well in the quote above. Reyna Grande put all of her effort into writing her story for class, proud of what she had written. However, her teacher skipped over the story. Not even bothering to read her story. The reason behind this, Reyna is Hispanic and the teacher doesn't understand her language. So the teacher refuses to read the story, not even giving Reyna a chance to win the story competition.
 
So despite where people come from, undocumented or not, they should be given a chance to excel based on how driven they are. Every child should be given a chance, but those who strive, and push themselves, should they not have the opportunity to attend the schools they wish to attend?

Reflection 2: Immigration Symbolism

Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty, a symbol to all immigrants that their strenuous journey is at last over. Finally, they have arrived to the United States of America, country of the free.

This statue, erected in 1886, was a gift from France to America. The Statue of Liberty is the roman goddess, Libertas, and a sign of the independence of America; a welcoming figure to all immigrants. However, she does not symbolize the illegal immigration of criminals, drug dealers, and murders into the US. She symbolizes hope and freedom for the oppressed and poverty stricken from other countries. We are to open open arms, and our borders to those who are persecuted. Not those who profit from illegal and harmful conduct.

Why do we continuously allow people into our country, who have no qualms with breaking laws to get here? We stand by idly, on occasion turning a blind eye to those who enter. The reason behind this is the fact that we are unwilling to participate in the tertiary job sectors that must be fulfilled to keep this country running. So many of us are intent with keeping the jobs we have already,  ensuring a better living style for ourselves, that we no longer care about the poverty that graces others homes. Therefore allowing uncivil conduct to persist.

So we continue to allow illegal aliens into our country, so long as they keep a low profile and continue working the jobs we care naught for. A good example of this would be the maquiladoras, factories for cheap labor, we have positioned so close to our border,  for the convenience of cheap labor and cheap transportation.

Yet do we really want these people entering our country? Gang rates seem to increase, through no fault of the US citizens. We get caught in the crossfire, and in turn get blamed on occasion for the gang violence that plagues towns.

There are a few examples of this in The Distance Between Us, the memoir by Reyna Grande. The first that we see is within her own family, her father. On page eighty-six, we experience this conflict. Feeling for ourselves the danger and fear that Reyna's mother must have felt when confronted with Reyna's father. "The bystander and my father got into a fistfight when he tried to break up my parents' argument. The gun accidentally went off, and the man was shot.
Luckily for my father, the man did not die. Luckily for my father, he was allowed voluntary deportation, instead of getting thrown in prison. Within a week, he had managed to sneak across the border and resumed his life in the United States as if nothing had ever happened." Many circumstances continue to take place, so do we really want these people entering our country? When they seem to have no qualms with such violence?

Reflection 1: Our Country & Our Solutions

The 21st Century. A prosperous century that focuses on equality and innovation. So how do we incorporate this into the rising flow of immigrants from South America? The U.S Government has many ideas, none of which are the a solution. As opposed to taking action, the different parties and politicians idle and argue over the subject of immigration that is currently taking place at the southern U.S border.

One of the first to make a move was Rick Perry, Governor of Texas. He deployed 1,000 troops to the border to work alongside law enforcement. He states in a BBC News Article that "he had to act because the federal government had failed to secure the border". With the increasing number of troops, the deportations increase as well. However, it is not the deportation of those who have already crossed, but those that have just managed to cross, or personnel that are considered dangerous. Yet as we attempt to "secure" the border, the more we seem to meet with failure. For the problem is not in securing the border, but ensuing a better living environment for the residents that continuously attempt to secure an abode in the US.

The people who cross, children especially, are leaving cities filled with gangs, overpopulation, and poverty. Many hope to find a better life in the United States. We do nothing to discourage them from entering. Gangs begin to cross as well, and we must than deal with the fear that sweeps throughout towns as shootings take place throughout neighborhoods.

In the book, The Distance Between Us, Reyna Grande describes her crossing from Mexico to the U.S. and she discusses how her family's new life in the U.S. is a better life. However, her crossing is fraught with perils, and is burdened with the prospect of getting caught, and than deported. Too get deported means to return to a life stricken with poverty, of not always knowing when you will get a meal.

For Reyna Grande and her family it meant to live in conditions riddled with epidemics of many natures. And to contract an illness meant to attempt to cure it with home remedies, many of which weren't sufficient enough. For Reyna's family and for many families coming from Latin America and Mexico to the U.S., money was, and still is, very hard to come by. The reason for this, Reyna Grande states on page six of her book, "The year before, the peso was devalued 45 percent to the US dollar." In that one sentence, the reason for the rising flow of immigrants becomes more obvious. Throughout the timeline in the book, the peso devalued even more, driving Reyna and her family from her homeland, where she came from. Yet she never forgot where she came from.

With the peso's value devaluing at such a rapid rate, and jobs becoming scarce, the source of much of the problem, seems to start with the foreign governments. As one article states, we in the U.S. are going about this in the wrong way, "Our foreign policy priorities must shift, and we must invest more talent and resources in collaborating with Latin American governments to fix their broken countries, economies, and societies." Yet the U.S. instead continues to send troops to the border, who in turn can not keep up with the flow of immigrants pouring into the United States. This in turn allows more gangs, weapons, and drugs to enter the US undetected and unhindered.  The solution to the problem lies within the cooperation of the Americas.