Illegal immigrant realizes the importance of legal immigration
Heavy panting, hushed whispers, and hurried footsteps are the only sounds a group of women hear as they dash across the dessert toward the United States' border. After hearing a loud noise fast approaching, a spotlight illuminates the group and allows the border patrol to send the trespassers back home.
Immigration reform is a highly debated topic but looking through the eyes of an immigrant shows the dedicate a lot of them have towards bettering their own lives. In 1982, Elvia Quinoñez and her friends try several times to cross the American border before she finally succeeded.
Speaking through a thick Guatemalan accent, Quinoñez begins her story by saying, "I just saw that
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my aunt came, and I came to visit her. I went to the American Embassy to get my visa and then I came legally. But when I got to Houston, immigration stopped me." After questioning her, the retained her for the night. The following day they sent her back to her home country, Guatemala. "The opportunities that you have to work here are not the same as in Guatemala," explained Quinoñez when asked about her reasons for wanting to try to come to the US again.
With determination, Quinoñez traveled to Mexico to try to cross the border illegally. Each time she tried to cross the dessert, border patrol stopped her and sent her back.
"I tried to cross the dessert a couple of times and the helicopters of immigration got us in the middle of the night and sent us back to Mexican. I didn't speak English very well, but I know they called someone on the ground and they got us and sent us back to Mexico," Quinoñez recounted.
Even facing failure, Quinoñez did not give up hope. After speaking with her cousin, they arranged a way to travel across the border unnoticed. Quinoñez met someone that would take her across while she hid the trunk of the car. Fortunately for her, Quinoñez survived the cramped space and made it to the United States.
After arriving, Quinoñez set out to get a job and begin her career. She started by working in a hospital with her uncle to make enough money to support
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herself. When she found a new job at a manufacturing company, she was relieved because the pay was better. Although she did not have a worker's visa, her employers did not seem to care. It was a simpler way for them to avoid paying taxes. While working at the manufacturing company, her manager, Peter Buccho, asked her to date him.
According to Buccho, he had never seen a more beautiful woman in his life. They married soon afterwards and now have several children.
"I got married and my husband was a citizen, but I didn't get my paperwork in until probably 2 years after I got married," Quinoñez said as she explained the process of becoming an American citizen.
"It wasn't hard to become citizen and the process is probably the same now. What helped me was that I was already married, and I had family here, so it wasn't that bad," continued Quinoñez.
Having lived in the United States for years now, Quinoñez says that she appreciates how people are less concerned about your personal business. This is a quite a change from her home country, but she does miss her family and friends. She tries to visit them as often as she can and talks to them on the phone frequently.
"I don't think it's fair for the people that already live here because they are already working and doing all the stuff that the law requires of them. There are a lot of people that come just to use the system. It's not fair for future immigrants or the people who are already here," said Quinoñez when asked about the current immigration
status. Quinoñez does not think illegal immigration is fair because it inhibits legal immigrates from taking advantage of the working opportunities. Others are working and evading taxes and manipulating the system. Looking back after crossing the Mexican dessert and beginning her journey in the United States, Quinoñez realizes the importance of legal immigration. Through the eyes of an immigrant, it is easy to see more clearly the desire to come to the United States. There are many work opportunities, but evading the system only make it more challenging for future immigrants.
America is a nation consisting of many immigrants: it has its gates opened to the world. These immigrants transition smoothly and slowly from settlement, to assimilation then citizenship. These immigrants are first admitted lawfully as permanent residents before they naturalize to become full citizens. In her book “Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America”, the historian Mae Ngai draws our attention to the history of immigration and citizenship in America. Her book examines an understudied period of immigration regulation between 1924 and 1965.
In both the movie, La Misma Luna, and the newspaper series, Enrique’s Journey, migrants are faced with many issues. The most deadly and scarring issues all relate back to bandits, judicial police, and la migra or Mexican immigration officers. The problems that arise are serious to the point of rape, robbing, and beating. It is not easy crossing the border illegally and secretly, but the successful ones have an interesting or even traumatic story about how it worked for them.
Many of the people trying to cross the border were not given same luck. Their efforts to leave the situations they are in only cause them a different kind of pain. The lack of safety for these people was astonishing. As Jessie was, I was impressed by Anazulda’s description of living there and the realistic depiction of how it was to live there. As Natalie put, I also loved the realistic writing that Anazulda brought to this piece. She did not try to ease the tone or make it lighter than the reality of the situations. She brought the realness of what happened there to life in her writing, which I greatly admire. The imagery that Brooke points out from Borderlands from page 2 is such a clear image of being trapped within a place you cannot escape from. While I had not thought of the curtains in such a way, I understand the reasoning behind it. Curtains are supposed to provide privacy, shelter from the outside world. Yet, these steel curtains are prisons, keeping those near them from getting away. As Jessie pointed out, the United States is governed to protect the rights of each American citizen, including each of us. Nevertheless, Anazulda and many others who try to cross the border can be subjected to the rules of those who live near the borders and not the laws of the United States that are in place to protect them. I did not think about the call for unity as Natalie described until I read her essay. While she does not make light of the situations caused in the United States, she does leave this impression of hope that we can fix this. We can make it so these borders are less of walls that divide us, and we can make the journey in our country a less terrible and horrifying
Through the view of a young girl, this story really captures what it’s like to feel like immigration is the only option for a family. In the story, set in the 1960’s, Anita lives in the Dominican Republic, a country with a dictator named el jefe. One day at school, Anita’s cousin is called out of class, and Anita is asked to go with. She finds out that her
I thought that Diane Guerrero who is an American actress speech about her family’s deportation was interesting. She recently appeared on an immigration themed of Chelsea handler’s talk show. Guerrero is the citizen daughter of immigrant parents. Guerrero mentioned how her family was taken away from her when she was just 14 years old. “Not a single person at any level of government took any note of me. No one checked to see if i had a place to live or food to eat, and at 14, i found myself basically on my own”, Guerrero added. Luckily, Guerrero had good friends to help her. She told handler how her family try to become legal but there were no sign or help. Her parents lost their money to scammers who they believed to be a lawyer. When her family’s
Enrique, someone who has hands on experience with this, went to the United States to find his mother and start a new life with her. Enrique was very sad leaving his old life behind. He had a girlfriend, Maria Isabel, whom he loved very much and later he found that Maria Isabel was pregnant with their daughter. Enrique knew that he left Honduras for a reason and he knew he had to deal with missing experiences such as his daughter’s important moments.Enrique accepted the obstacles he had to overcome by remembering that in Honduras his life was for the worse. In Honduras, money was scarce, life was sad, and his family depended on him to send money back to them by working in the United States.
Martinez, Demetria. 2002. “Solidarity”. Border Women: Writing from la Frontera.. Castillo, Debra A & María Socorro Tabuenca Córdoba. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 168- 188.
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