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Secret keeps man on margins of the economy
A decision on routes during a road trip forced Jose Arreola to reveal his secret to a friend.
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Kai Ryssdal: We've been airing a commentary series the past month or so. It's called My Life Is True -- from people living on the edges of the economy.
Today, Jose Arreola and a secret he's decided not to keep.
Jose Arreola: We had to decide whether we were going north or south to get into California. My friend decided it would be best to go south to avoid the big snow storm up north. But south would take us through Arizona. I really really didn't want to go through Arizona. I got more and more nervous. I felt paralyzed. My friend kept asking me what my problem was. Finally I told him: I'm undocumented.
I came to the United States when I was three with my family. And Arizona had just passed a law that gave police officers the authority to check people's immigration status. If we got stopped in Arizona, I could be detained and deported.
My friend is white. He comes from a really privileged, upper-class background. He attended a private high school, the Santa Clara University with me -- I went on scholarship. Politically he sees things a little differently than I do. We've had our disagreements.
He was quiet for a while. Then he barraged me with questions; I answered the best I could. Silence again. Then he told me about his grandfather. How he hadn't been able to find work in Ireland, so he decided to hop on a fishing boat and get off in New York. He worked as a janitor without citizenship. Now his son, my friend's father, is a high-ranking bank executive.
The whole time through Arizona my friend drove like 50 miles an hour. He didn't even want to change lanes. He told me he wasn't going to lose his best friend. He wasn't going to let that happen.
The immigration debate became real to my friend in the car that day. We had a very different conversation than the one politicians are having right now. The minute actual undocumented immigrants are included, the conversation always changes.
Now I'm completely open about my status. I'm still afraid. Conversations don't always go well. And it's always a risk. But as long I remain in the shadows, I will never really get to know you, and you'll never really know me.
Ryssdal: Jose's story comes to us from My Life Is True, a project of the New America Foundation. Let us know what you think -- write to us.
This commentary first aired on KQED in San Francisco.
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The problem is not U.S. immigration laws. Our laws are THE MOST GENEROUS IN THE WORLD (we permit more LEGAL immigration than all other countries combined). The problem is that someone selfishly decided to violate U.S. law and now seeks to be rewarded for such lawbreaking by having legal status granted to oneself and to one's offspring. I am a liberal, life-long Democrat, and the media has it wrong--- Americans across the political spectrum are demanding that our government enforce its own immigration laws.
While this story is certainly sympathy-engendernig, the correct answer is not to grant rewards simply because someone decided to help themselves to the front of the immigration line in an effort to circumvent U.S. law. There are, after all, LEGAL immgrants, who paid a high price, went through an extensive background check, and waited the wait to come here LEGALLY. Indeed, the problem is not U.S. law. His parents put him in this predicament. While there could probably be some solution that might grant legal status to children (like the author) who were put in this predicament by their lawbreaking parents, the law would otherwise need to be enforced against the lawbreaking-decision makers who do not deserve rewards for their willful, conscious lawbreaking. The decision-makers need to be deported tout de suite. ILLEGAL immigration imposes catastrophic costs (financial and otherwise) upon our country. I am a life-long Democrat and an 'O8 Obama voter, and I am positively nauseated by the liberal spin on this issue--- the truth about the impact of ILLEGAL immigration is never told!
But it sounded like his parents were hard working immigrants--legal or not. Why don't you give credit to those illegals who have worked here for years and years and contributed thereby to building the economy? I'm an immigrant to this country and have been here since 1974; nobody EVER questions my status or looks at me twice--why? Because I'm white, I have a British accent that everyone seems to think is "cute" and my daughter who was born here is out and out an American. So I seem to have acceptable credentials on the surface--I'm not sure my Latino neighbors get the same credit.
Yes, I'm a legal immigrant, I work hard, pay my taxes and have most of the rights you have except that I can't vote. I'm offended by the inhospitable attitude of many Americans to those who, although they may have snuck into this country, work hard at jobs that you Americans don't seem to want. The fruit and vegetable pickers and other farm workers, the janitors in the building where I work--the maids and housekeepers in the upscale houses in the affluent neighborhoods. Have you forgotten where your ancestors came from? This is a nation of immigrants after all. Or were your ancestors such sainted people that they would never do anything to break the law to feed their family or to get a better life? Isn't that why most of them came here in the first place?
I'm not suggesting that all illegal immigrants should be given a blanket amnesty but what about doing the humane (and Christian) thing and helping them earn their legal status? After all, everyone seems to be SO concerned with their political representatives "Christian" beliefs, but they certainly don't treat the poorer underclass in this country, including the illegals, with much Christian concern.
1. This is NOT a "Christian" nation.
2. Thank you for immigrating LEGALLY, as all others must do. Americans welcome LEGAL immigrants across the full spectrum of nationalities.
3. Irrespective of whether this gentleman's parents were hardworking, that is irrelevant! They selfishly stepped in front of a LEGAL immigrant applicant because they expected that some day they would be rewarded for their lawbreaking. Granting amnesty for lawbreaking (as demonstrated by Reagan's 1986 amnesty) only serves to incentivize exponentially more lawbreaking.
4. No. I do not want for ANY employees to be paid poverty level wages and no benefits. Supporting this blackmarket labor business model is EXTREMELY HARMFUL to our society. When these lawbreaking employers hire ILLEGAL labor, the cost of the labor does not reflect the true costs of the services/goods produced because these lawbreaking businesses rely upon the UNWILLING American taxpayers to subsidize their illegal business operations--- because these lawbreaking business profiteers pay poverty level wages and no benefits, the true costs of the employment is shifted onto the backs of the American taxpayers who are being forced to pay the healthcare, social welfare, and other costs of their ILLEGAL labor force. And, let's not forget the stolen identities, the employment fraud, the tax fraud, and wage depression and lost job opportunities that result.
5. Race and ethnicity have NOTHING to do with this issue--- whoever is here ILLEGALLY must be deported. I don't care if you flew here on your Learjet from your pied-a-terre in Paris! If you are sans permission--- Au Revoir!
I agree with you about people working at jobs others don't seem to want, especially when so many (legal) people are unemployed but seem to prefer unemployment to real jobs that don't measure up to their expectations. How many art historians does a nation need? However, I really don't care for the empahsis on "Christian" beliefs. It was "Christians" who raped most of this country in the immediate aftermath of its discovery by Columbus and his ilk, who brought the diseases that killed 99% of the native population, who put civilizations older than their own to fire and sword in search of gold (but in the course of saving their souls). I'd say our present behavior is right in keeping with "Christian concern".
It is outrageous that someone like Jose has to worry about being deported. He is an American, papers or not. You cannot grow up in this country and get your entire education here without being an American. Our crazy laws have to change. I live in the late great state of Arizona.
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