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Illegal Immigration: On Both Sides Of The Question

Read it as a poem, but take it as a reality.

Katherine J. Martínez

Dec 13, 2016

Notre Dame of Maryland University

Illegal Immigration: On Both Sides Of The Question

Flickr

I pay him to cut my lawn.

He pays me to do art.

There’s no way

I’m touching the grass.

His hands don’t know

How to make it shine.

Illegal and uneducated...

Legal, yet ignorant!

I watch him struggle,

Chopping down a tree,

Chopping down his life!

I work this land;

In mine I was scared.

In mine, I would be dead!

Every day, I grab my badge...

Every day, I grab the shovel...

Ready to hunt!

I have to work!

I stare at my neighborhood

Hoping they’ll all be gone!

I look at my barrio

Praying to come back

Until...

Outside

In the parking lot

Is where it all started.

I didn’t see the stop sign,

I saw fresh meat

But I saw his grin.

STOP!

STOP!

One more where they're supposed to be.

One less day with that anxiety.

"In utramque partem" refers to the ability to take either side of an issue.

In 2015, ICE removed 96,045 non-criminal individuals according to the official website of the U.S. Department of Homeland and Security. If presented with a question about illegal immigration, what would you do?

This poem depicts the contrast between a regular day in the life of an unfairly biased ICE official and that of an undocumented immigrant.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.

Student Life

The 12 Stages Of Course Registration, As Told By "Friends"

No one best represents the struggle like our favorite 90s squad.

The State University of New York at Stony Brook

1714

YouTube

As college students, we are all familiar with the horror show that is course registration week. Whether you are an incoming freshman or selecting classes for your last semester, I am certain that you can relate to how traumatic this can be.

1. When course schedules are released and you have a conflict between two required classes.

Bonus points if it is more than two.

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registration

Featured

Economic Benefits of Higher Wages

Nobody deserves to be living in poverty.

Florida International University

300849

Illistrated image of people crowded with banners to support a cause

StableDiffusion

Raising the minimum wage to a livable wage would not only benefit workers and their families, it would also have positive impacts on the economy and society. Studies have shown that by increasing the minimum wage, poverty and inequality can be reduced by enabling workers to meet their basic needs and reducing income disparities.

I come from a low-income family. A family, like many others in the United States, which has lived paycheck to paycheck. My family and other families in my community have been trying to make ends meet by living on the minimum wage. We are proof that it doesn't work.

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Entertainment

13 Times April Ludgate Perfectly Explained College

Because who understands your bitterness better than April?

Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis

1012

Every college student knows and understands the struggle of forcing themselves to continue to care about school. Between the piles of homework, the hours of studying and the painfully long lectures, the desire to dropout is something that is constantly weighing on each and every one of us, but the glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel helps to keep us motivated. While we are somehow managing to stay enrolled and (semi) alert, that does not mean that our inner-demons aren't telling us otherwise, and who is better to explain inner-demons than the beloved April Ludgate herself? Because of her dark-spirit and lack of filter, April has successfully been able to describe the emotional roller-coaster that is college on at least 13 different occasions and here they are.

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april ludgate

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Illegal Immigration: On Both Sides Of The Question

Read it as a poem, but take it as a reality.

Subscribe to our Newsletter

No one best represents the struggle like our favorite 90s squad.

1. When course schedules are released and you have a conflict between two required classes.

2. When there is only one section of a popular course.

3. Receiving the 18,000 emails reminding you to register ASAP.

4. When you need to see an advisor, but they are too busy/unresponsive.

5. Trying not to dress like a bum for your appointments with your advisors/department heads.

6. When you have a perfectly planned out schedule, and one class ruins it.

7. Carefully moving things around to accommodate a different class/section.

8. Waking up at 6:00 a.m. for your enrollment time.

9. Concocting a new schedule at your enrollment time after your original plan gets changed.

10. Getting into a class and filling the last available seat.

11. When all of your classes finally go through.

12. Realizing that you forgot a class that was a pre-requisite for everything else.

When your capability of "adulting" is put to the test

Nobody deserves to be living in poverty.

"Nobody living in one of the most influential nations in the world should be worried about making ends meet."

What is the current minimum wage at the federal level?

What are the benefits of raising the minimum wage?

What are the states that have set a $15/hour minimum wage?

Told through Parks & Recreation GIFs

Because who understands your bitterness better than April?

1. When you have to provide an "interesting fact" for your first day ice-breaker.

2. When your professor is babbling on and on in his lecture.

3. When you edit your friend's paper and they get an A.

4. When it's 2 AM and you remember you have a test tomorrow.

5. When you finish taking the test and you're pretty sure you failed...

6. ...but then you get the test back and somehow passed.

7. When you've been up for 12 hours straight writing a paper.

8. And then you manage to stay awake in class the next day.

9. When you have to butter up your professor for an extra credit opportunity.

10. When you're assigned a group project.

11. And your group-mates are trying to chat about life instead of the assignment.

12. When it's your last class of the day and you're about to go home.

13. But then you remember rent is due tonight and the anger comes back.

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