In the United States, we live a privileged life. Our government takes our best interest into account when developing policies and we have the freedom to speak out against actions the government takes that we do not believe in.
Ever since Donald Trumpclaimed that the immigrants crossing the border were, criminals, drug dealers and rapists, when he announced his candidacy for president. I have seen a lot of articles shared on Facebook about the need to protect our borders. After spending almost a month in Mexico, last January, I tend to find these types of articles and statements are made in ignorance of the complexities surrounding undocumented immigration to the United States.
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Deportation is NOT the answer to our immigrant crisis.
Every day I hear people say that we need to protect our borders. I hear people like you say that we need to deport the 11 million people who are living in the United States working in the shadow economy.
My question is whether they understand who these 11 million people living in the shadows and working in the United States are.
Trump claims they are murderers and rapists, but many of them pick our food on wages equivalent to around $2-$4 per hour for 12 hours per day. Think about that the next time you think you are spending too much on fresh food at the grocery story.
They are mothers who left their families, risked their lives in order to be able to feed their children and send them school.
They are young boys who risked mutilation and death to ride on top of freight trains just to escape the drug wars.
They are children born in Mexico and Central America, but have lived their entire lives in the United States.
They are refugees from an unstable region of the world and they deserve asylum. The five countries with the highest homicide rates in the world are located in Central America.
People are not coming here because they want to leave their homes, their families and everything they have ever know because they think it will be easy.
Today we live in a country where parents and children are sitting in jail because they tried to go through the process of receiving asylum.
This morning as I scrolled through the New York Times, I saw stories applauding Germany and condemning countries in Europe for not taking in the Syrian refugees. Every news outlet in the U.S. is talking about the need for change in the Syrian refugee crisis.
We have our own refugee crisis in the United States, and how we respond will determine how the rest of the world views us.
The slogan of Trump’s campaign is “Make America Great Again.” I have a news flash for Trump and anyone who agrees the ‘protecting our borders’ is the only way to achieve the greatness of the past.
The United States is not the only country in America.
America runs from the tip of Alaska down through the end of Argentina. Everyone in Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Venezuela and Ecuador has just as much right to call themselves an American as you or I.
I could sit here and tell you that immigration reform is a necessity, and that we have a human rights crisis on our hands as well, but none of those words will matter if we don't start talking about undocumented immigrants like they are people.
If that action the United States takes on undocumented immigration is deportation of over 11 million human beings, that is not a the America that I want to be a part of.
