Outlaw My Life As An Undocumented Immigrant Summary

Immigrants have many hardships in their lives because often they are not accepted by their new communities. The 3 literature works, “The Trip”, a short story, “Exile”, a poem, and “Outlaw: My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant”, an article, each emphasizes the lives of immigrant outcasts by showing the difficulties of not having the proper documentation. Immigrants in these writings have to accept that they are not wanted and have to make a living while the journey tends to be troublesome. “The Trip”, by Laila Lalami is a good representation of an immigrant’s journey, due to the encounters being very realistic. For instance, Lalami also includes what the character, Murad is feeling in the midst of his journey, “Other days he could think only about the coast guard's…”(pg. 47). Furthermore, this quote shows how immigrants must be cautious when leaving their countries since the law is constantly breathing down their necks. Immigrants are

Jose talks about how he has dealt with things in the past which includes treatment such as the time when he went to the DMV to get his license, “I handed the clerk my green card as a proof of US residency, she flipped it around examining it. ‘This is fake she whispered. Don’t come back here again.’” (Vargas 3). Jose’s encounter with the clerk shows some of society’s hate towards immigrants which is shown by the clerk’s hostile language. Jose may have bypassed this in the future, but had lost many opportunities when he did not have a license. Jose’s calling was to be a reporter, but when he was offered internships, his undocumentation always held him back, “... She called back with the answer I feared: I couldn't do the internship.” (Vargas 30) Jose did however persevere in doing what he wanted but is among those few who beat the “system” unlike most