Imagine yourself back when you were a ten-year-old, watching Lizzie McGuire after coming back from school one afternoon. You hear a conversation that your mom is having on the phone from the kitchen about a deportation. Three of your family members have been detained by the migra. What was known to you as the migra then, was what you now know of as ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement). You can YouTube how a deportation takes place. You can google how many people and what type of people get deported every day. You cannot google how a deportation feels. You cannot google how deportation affects other family members. Now imagine yourself holding hands with your family members around a living room table praying and crying in hopes that the migra would not track down the rest of your family. Imagine being told that you cannot tell anyone about how you are feeling because we must not trust anyone. Otherwise, they too could call to deport your family and you would be left to Social Services.

This is our government friends. This is what 11 million people fear every day.

Do you know how much it hurts to hear that our next president wants to deport millions of people? Do you even know that he wants to split families apart? That he wants to sadden the immigrant community and break the hearts of their children who were born here? What keeps the undocumented community and its supporters sane is hope. They have always had hope. Hope that things will get better. Hope that there is a better life out there. That is why they are here. That is why they are still here. I am not an immigrant but I’ve been surrounded by many my entire life. They work hard and simply want a better life for their families and themselves. That is all that it is.

You know who you should deport? Deport those who shoot black lives unjustly. Deport those who molest and murder innocent children. Deport those who shoot irrationally. Deport those who have raped. Deport those who have taken lives. They took the rights of their victims. They took their right to live. Their right to live. It’s time to take their right to live in this country. Maybe living abroad will change their way of thinking.

When you speak the way you do about undocumented people, Mr. Trump, you are speaking to me even though I have a social security number. You are speaking to me even though I speak English. You are speaking to me because I grew up in an undocumented community and that is my community. There is an unjust system that makes my blood boil. As a child, I had dreams that my family would be taken away from me. No child should suffer the implications of a broken system. No child should feel fear for their community. Don’t have pity for the undocumented people- listen to their stories and understand. Simply, understand. Take it a step further, visit their countries of origin. Visit the communities they came from- you will definitely understand afterwards. Be informed. Be engaged.