I'm an Illegal Immigrant in America Because I Have No Choice
Posted: Thursday, February 21, 2008
by Jeff Brown
Inner Projection
I know about your laws against us. I know about your 700 miles fence. But they can't keep out starving people. You can build your wall into the ocean, we'll swim around it. You can build it a mile deep into the ground, we'll dig under it. You can build it a mile into the sky, we'll climb over it.
I've been across that desert so many times after coming here and being sent back I know each stone and mound of dirt. Sometimes dirt is my best friend. On the worst days I've sucked water from it. Eaten bugs and dead animals to survive, getting so sick one time I threw up blood.
Here I've seen your kids complain that they are sad, everyone's got an iphone except them. In my country, on special occasions like my birthday, my mom would give us a couple eggs. She'd dress 'em up nice, but seeing the want in my sister's eyes I'd always share. Your kids get Ring Dings and Yoo Hoos for snacks. We'd get fruit that was laying around so long it was starting to change a rotten color. Just having shoes was a treat for us. I don't ask for much.
To get across the boarder, I've spent thousands of dollars on men who squeeze money out of you like they're racing to skin a jack rabbit because they haven't eaten for weeks. I've had your lawyers take thousands of dollars for a green card they knew they'd never give me, explaining weeks later that the money was gone "Because that paperwork is expensive."
I've worked in your factories where companies make lots of money off us as we sweat all day without air conditioning or fans. We pay your social security and Medicare without ever a chance of getting any of that money. We pay your gas tax, food and clothing tax, but I don't know where that money goes. Don't know. Don't see it.
I know your president wants to work some amnesty deal where we admit we're illegal and we go back to our country to wait for a visa. I'll never turn myself in because I'll die before I ever see that promised visa. Even family and friends who have their green cards have to wait three, five, ten, eleven years to see their kids. One time when I was back in my country, my neighbor came home to get her daughter who looked at her mom stranger than a stranger in the street.
I know you want to control us. You want to protect your country. But you took what was ours long ago. You forced us to come back illegal. That ain't nice but I'm not angry. I just need to get some work and send money back to my family. I only wish I could get my story out to more of you. I know what I'd say. I know what I'd show you. Pictures of my kids with tears in their smiles. They're brave but if they wake up scared at night or don't know why they get so sad and lonely I'm not there to lift them with my arms and heart. And that hurts. I know you know that's true.
I don't want you to give me much. Just let me work, send money home, and know that I'd do just about anything to keep doing it. And I don't even want to stay in your country. I've got nearly enough money sent home and saved to buy a little house and some land. That's all I want. That's all I want. I hope you understand. Look in your kid's eyes and if they reflect back to you any hope, that's all I want. Some of that reflected hope shinning on me and mine. Nothing big. Nothing much.
God bless.
An Illegal Immigrant, a human, just like you.
For important information on immigration and illegal immigration read my other articles:
"Illegal Immigration is Not About Money Lost or Laws Broken"
"America's Newest Citizen, My Wife: $10,000, Fear and Trepidation, and Extreme Relief"
This Article has been viewed 4,907 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
More commentsOmg I feel you all, and Im crying while reading cuz im in the same situation, and it hurts inside. I dont feel like human being, im an allien so it is even worse than being an animal :(. Im a a smart ambitious good hearted beautiful polish ILLEGAL immigrant. I came here when i was a teenager (17) i mean i was forced to move here by my mother. I had a tourist visa that expired in 2005 and we couldnt do anything about it. My mom sent me to so school and explained that as long as im in school everything is going to be okay. So i finished High School and now im in college. I'd love to be a doctor one day but cant bcuz of my status. Some people could say " why dont u go back to your country?' .. sure i could do that, except i dont wanna come back, my family is here all my friends are here my life is here. It makes me depressed and sick to my stomach. The worst part is that i hear all those racist comments about immigrants from different people, and they dont even realize that im ilegal cuz i have blonde hair and light skin carnation, and i have to listen to that and cantt say nothing.
What did i do so wrong in my life that i have to be punished like that?? I cant drive, cant work, cant become a doctor. and yes i agree .. ilegal immigrants dont pay taxes but belive me give me ssn and i will be happy to do so.....
I cant take it no more, its like im crying everyday bcuz theres nothing i can do about it. Yes i could marry a citizen, but i dont wanna marry someone for papers!!
i will kill myself if i ever get deported!! This is my home...My place..
Please let me stay, I'm begging!!i like your coment and i cryied when i read this because your not the only one with these feeling.. im an imigrant too cant do anything like you ..
i have my friends family and i dont imagine my self in another country without the people i grew up with and away from the country that i love.
i also cry when i think about it but i try not to because like you said there is nothing we can do about it =[
guess that our future without papers is just going to be hard work less money. and probably end up going back to the place where we came from .
i also want to stay in here and have the same opportunities that people with papers have.
i think we should all get together and show the gov. theres so many of us who were brought here so young its not fair for them to steriotype us like the bad illegal imigrants that are doing bad things in this country we were willing to continue our edecation they should support us and help us out insted of pushing us out because with out people like us america wouldnt be wat it is now we deserve the chance to show them we should stay...they should be supper happy that we love this country so jmuch that we want to stay here why they dont think of it like that there only pretectin themselfs its time for us to do something about it...but want could we do about it???
Illegal Immigration. See the ILLEGAL in that? This is America. Go back to Mexico.
Been to Mexico, and even before the drug lords moved it, if I had been born in Mexico, no one in the U.S. could build a fence big enough to keep me from going over it.
Many of these people come to the U.S. as their only way to feed their family (after the U.S. put a million of their farmers out of work). I can't believe how heartless these supposedly 'religious' people are who want nothing more than to send these people back to those horrid living conditions, so they can feast alone at their trough.
Nice morals. Have fun in hell.
Sad that so many spoiled, lazy, ignorant Americans have no clue as to what it's like to live outside the states, the injustices in countries where govt. control is so excessive and corrupt it's nearly impossible to survive never mind thrive. And so many Americans, spoiled and lazy, don't even have a clue, nor have they taken the time out of dedication and respect for their country, to see why it works so well and what they can do to keep it that way. Why should those who just happened to be born in countries that limit economic, health, and life possibilities in the extreme be ostracized? If by some mere roll of the dice Americans had been born elsewhere amongst severe limited economic possibility and political corruption, their tune would certainly be different. On top of it all, America basically means immigrant, for 99% (excluding the 1% Native American) HAVE come from other countries. The ignorance and outright selfish shame of such heinously malevolent comments I see on here are stupefying.
quit making mexico look like a total disaster its not as bad as you describe it now!!
I was brought to the US illegally when i was 3 years old. I am an 18 now,and an A student through out my school years, and have no criminal records. My dream is to become a Registered Nurse. What is my best option as far as becoming legal.
thanks,
xxxx
I'm an U.S. citizen but I have to agree with the fact, and I have always thought this, that I come from immigrants. Granted that I am 1/16 Cherokee Native American, but that doesn't really count on any legal papers, so I don't claim it. I don't like the fact that one of the issues that we face today is closing our borders. But I also don't like the issue that Mexico is the #1 way to get drugs to the U.S. from other countries. Mexico isn't growing the drugs, they're just pushing them through the U.S. Unfortunately anyone can be paid off. I wish someone would come up with an immigration reform act that includes keeping the students here who have been here their entire lives, but also saying that once they complete high school then they should be a U.S. citizen. Wouldn't that make sense? I'm having to write a paper for class and that's how I came across this article. There's so much more I think of this but I don't want to overwhelm anyone with my comments. But those are just a few thoughts. I'm thankful my Hispanic friends parents took the risk and came here. I love them and they are wonderful people and actually they treat me better than most White Anglo Americans I know!
your article is vary nice!!!
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