As an Undocumented Alien, First-Generation College Grad, I Am a Problem

New York Times (Room for Debate)

By Marco Saavedra

September 3, 2015

As an Undocumented Alien, First-Generation College Grad, I Am a Problem 

I am an illegal alien, first-generation college graduate, in asylum proceedings following the two weeks I spent in an Arizona immigration jail. Landing in jail was part of my attempt to draw attention to “dreamers” like me, immigrants who were brought here illegally as children by their parents and who want to become U.S. citizens because this is our home. We were protesting the more than two million people deported under President Obama. We are the problem.

Rich migrants and foreigners from other first-world countries are apparently not the problem. Nor are neo-liberal trade agreements that wreck indigenous economies or the mass media seduction to sacrifice everything for a better a life in the United States. Nor is America's insatiable appetite for drugs, that turn barrios into battlegrounds, or the corrupt remnants of a war on communism that leaves thousands with no alternative but to flee north.

If immigrants are deemed a problem — no matter what economics or morals say — we will be treated as such.

Fifteen years ago, when my family could no longer make a living as subsistence farmers in Oaxaca, we crossed the Mexican border into the U.S. to get jobs picking crops in California, and working at restaurants in New York. We’ve worked as janitors, caregivers and gas station attendants.

I wasn’t a problem when I was in elementary school, nor when I received a full scholarship to attend a prestigious boarding school in New England. I wasn't a problem when I was accepted to and attended a private liberal arts college in the Midwest. But I became a problem when I joined a group of young undocumented activists five years ago.

According to the Thomas theorem, if a phenomenon is deemed real, it will have real consequences: If immigrants are deemed a problem — no matter what economics or morals say — we will be treated as such. That is why, despite the fact that my parents own a restaurant; create jobs; pay payroll, sales, partnership and income taxes; and are active members of our local community, we are still seen as problems. And yet the landlord; the electric, cable, phone, gas and insurance companies; food delivery trucks and local philanthropies have no qualms with taking our money.

Are we really the problem that America is willing to undermine its democracy with?

For more information, go to:  www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com