As a six-year-old girl leaving my hometown for the first time in my life – my body was filled with excitement and fear. I didn’t know what to expect but I had hoped for the best. At the brink of death – I had no other option but hope. Though at the time, death was not on my mind. I was six. All I wanted to do was get on a plane, along with my brother, and be in the air.
The year is 2017 and I am currently 19 years old. It has been 12 years since my entry into America. I was cured of my malaria and I’ve been stripped of my dialect for the fact that it was not “good” English. I have met such wonderful human beings. I have been taught the history of America and the Europeans by force but never the history of my land. We are all taught the history of America, its allies, and its enemies, including World War II. Therefore, it surprises me when others do not recognize the clear similarities between Hitler and Trump.
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I have lived 12 peaceful years in this country. Most times I am happy to be in America because I know I would not have survived back home. I do not agree with its history but I love the values of freedom and basic human rights that are declared in documents which stand the test of time. I have lived through the times of President George W. Bush (which meant nothing to me at the time) and President Barack Obama. Now I get to live through a time where the incumbent president does not see the value of immigration.
Let us pretend for a second that Columbus actually discovered America. Well, since that happened, there has been a non-stop flood of immigrants into the United States. So, forgive me, but I cannot seem to understand why a president would want to close the doors to one of the freest countries in the world. I cannot seem to grasp the idea of closing the boarders to intelligent, innocent, and victimized people. You may call me a dirty liberal but I believe in the ideals of which I thought this country was built on.
According to the Department of Homeland security, as of 2013, the population of legal permanent residences in America was 13.1 million. The top country with the most immigrants was Mexico which accounted for 3.3 million legal immigrants (25 percent). After Mexico, China (with 0.7 million), Philippines (with 0.6 million), India (with 0.5 million), and then the Dominican Republic (with 0.5 million). But these five countries only account for 42 percent of all immigrants coming into America by 2013. Those numbers only account for the lawful permanent residence. So what about all the other immigrants? Refugees especially?
Well, within 2015, there was a total amount of 69,920 refugees admitted into the United States. From 2013 to 2015, about 70,000 refugees are admitted each year. As per federal law, refugees are required to apply for lawful permanent resident status and after five years can finally apply for citizenship. Now, I know you might say that is simply just too many people taking up living area and jobs. But let us be honest, compared to America’s population of 326 million and counting, the amount of immigrants entering the country is a small percentage.
With all that being said, I still do not understand the constant cries of unemployment due to immigrants, nor cries of immigrants taking up living space. With the amount of trees being cut down each day, I am sure that we can find adequate living space for everyone in America. Oh, but wait – there’s more. I know! The crime, right?
Americans have been tricked into believing immigrants create more crime than American-born citizens. That is a false statement formed by conservatives trying to get their personal immigration agendas passed into laws. The New York Times recently did a story where they concluded that studies have been conducted confirming that undocumented immigrants are not the cause of disproportional amounts of crime.
So, how does it really feel to be an immigrant in America, documented or not? How it feels to be in a country wrongfully incriminating your race and culture for the most amount of crime? What really baffles me is how at any given moment the race at the focus of immigration laws can change depending on who Trump feels like terrorizing at that time. I know I shouldn’t worry because I am documented and I cannot legally be deported with no reason, but the fact that all immigrants are being grouped together and that one race of immigrants could be at fault saddens me.
I am a normal human being with normal emotions which leads me to feel great empathy towards oppressed groups of people. As a documented immigrant, I fear that some drastic law made without critically thinking of all the effects might harm my position in the United States. I fear every day, every time I hear of some new immigrant plan proposed, my anxiety level increases. I think of all the “what ifs” that could become real consequences.
I think of the possibility of being taken from my home, my family, and my friends. Not being able to get the degree I am working so hard on makes me shiver like an icy cold winter morning. I perk up at every deportation mentioned in the news because I can feel their pain. The terror of being sent back somewhere you ran from, somewhere you risked your live to get away from – can you imagine that terror? I cry day in and day out because my fellow immigrants are being shoved to the curb as if they aren’t humans. As if their basic human rights declared by the United Nations aren't valid in America.
As a documented immigrant with no criminal background who is going to school and trying her hardest to do something great with the opportunity that she has been given – I feel unsafe.
