Education, hard work, determination – these are often cited as the key to success in the United States, access to that all-pervading myth of ‘the American Dream’, a myth so potent that it draws 105,000 foreign-born illegals into this country every year. But the American dream is as remote to some as if they had stayed in Morocco, Taiwan, Nigeria or Venezuela. When my article came out in The Village Voice defending illegal aliens from many of the accusations often levied at them, I checked an online message board connected to the Coalition of Student Advocates (CoSA), a group which provides an online forum for the children of illegals brought into this country from an early age. One girl wrote in excitement after reading the article, which aimed to dispel many of the dispersions cast upon illegals: “Let’s get together in NYC and have a party. I’ll bring the cake.” A poignant reply swiftly followed: “Did someone mention cake?
I just want my papers.”
Coming originally from the UK, America is still a foreign country to me. New Yorkers struggle to understand my accent, and I stick out like a sore thumb wandering through my Hasidic Jewish neighbourhood with skinny tees and 4 inch heels. I’m still an outsider, an observer, but the possibility for acceptance, access to that holy grail of American myth-making, the American Dream, is still there for me. It comforts me to think that I won’t be a waitress forever. And then I received a message from ‘Amy’, a girl working in the service industry in New York City, who said she wanted to speak with me urgently.
Amy came to my apartment, as she felt it was too dangerous for us to talk in public. A tall, attractive Asian girl, articulate, well-educated, sharp and funny, she’s been in this country for 23 years, narrowly missing out on the 1986 IRCA, a law providing a blanket amnesty for those who entered the US before January 1st of 1982, by a matter of weeks. She thinks like an American, she talks like an American, she was educated through the American system, she pays American taxes, she has the ability to both recognize America's faults and praise its achievements with a swift intellect which leaves you breathless. Amy had aspirations to become a lawyer after college – but left law school upon discovering that her undocumented status means that she would have been unable to step up to the bar. For Amy can't wave that essential piece of paper which 'validates' her as a citizen. Brought over here by her parents from Taiwan when she was three years old to escape persecution from the Kuomingtang, her family was not considered for refugee status as the US government did not acknowledge the humanitarian crisis in Taiwan at this time. Amy and her family began to slot into life in the US as one of the 11 million undocumented people living here today.
Because of bureaucratic technicalities, Amy is not an American
citizen, but she
is an American. If Amy were ever to be granted citizenship, it is certain that she would not take it for granted, because she's thought of little else her entire life. Meeting someone like Amy, who is exactly my age, is completely sobering. I've researched my decision to come to the US on and off for five years or so, considered schools, looked at colleges, applied for jobs from the UK or Spain to meet with the same response "Are you in the US? Because if you're not in the US we can't even consider you. Are you eligible to work?". Yet to go to the US and actively seek work as a foreign passport holder is grounds for deportation, as is my current activity, writing about immigration without the ‘correct’ visa. My acquaintance with these issues is patchy, piecemeal, cobbled together from talks with an immigration lawyer and the advice of friends. Amy is a wealth of knowledge about new bills, past amnesties, potential changes to the law, because she is forced to keep abreast of these issues on a regular basis - hoping that something may change about this system and allow her to stop working part-time in the service industry and start both her career and her life as an American citizen.
Many of the criticisms and aspersions cast upon illegal aliens focus on their uneducated status, their inability to speak English, their failure to pay taxes, their ‘abuse’ of the welfare system. Yet several days ago, in the Mercury news, there was an article about how much money illegal immigrants put into Social Security and Medicare. The numbers are staggering. Taxes alone are estimated at around $83 billion a year. The IRS chooses to turn a blind eye to identity theft because it is added profit to them. Illegals can pay tax, but not file tax returns. If America were to somehow deport all of the 8-10 million illegals (2% of the total population) currently residing in the US and slow down immigration even more than the 900,000 or so visas handed out each year, there would be economic chaos. Employers simply can’t rely solely on unionized workers. These 900,000 foreign immigrants are needed to keep up with growth alone. Amy is a perfect example of one such illegal who contributes to the American economic system without reaping the benefits of citizenship. She works a forty-hour week, pays for her own Health Insurance since her workplace does not provide this, has a bank account, credit cards, a driver’s license (gained before new laws prohibited illegals from gaining such documentation), a social security number (not valid for employment) and is more American than I could ever hope to be. Yet Amy lives in constant fear of deportation, a fear most American citizens are unable to comprehend.
“I was going to tell my story to Glamour Magazine. They said they couldn’t do it without a picture. I was like, ‘Are you crazy? No fucking way!”
She shakes her head in disbelief.
“Don’t people realize that this is my
life which I could jeopardize by going public? But to them it’s just another story for their next publication.”
I suggest that many Americans misperceive the process of gaining citizenship, and think it’s actually a lot easier than it proves to be. She nods in agreement.
“There’s some kind of idea that illegals come here, and if they stay long enough, they’ll automatically be granted citizenship. That’s not true. My family has never taken anything from anyone, and we paid taxes all our lives. My parents had to pay out-of-state tuition to send me and my sisters to college, despite having spent every year since we arrived in the US paying taxes in our state. Twenty-three years later, we’re still undocumented.”
She pauses.
“I’m scared to leave. There is a ten-year bar on re-entering the US once the INS realizes that you’ve been out of status in the US for any amount of time. I don’t know where else to go, as I speak English far better than any other language.”
I discuss the situation of illegals in this country with Amy. She is a realist, conceding that outsourcing, the use of illegals as cheap unskilled labor, NAFTA, is all “just business. It’s real life. America is run like a business, and Bush is one hell of a businessman.” She suggests to me that whilst Bush’s Migrant Worker Program corrects some issues, it doesn’t account for those illegals already here, who have an education and are ready and able to work and contribute towards their adopted country. Amy is one voice among many. 65,000 undocumented students graduate from high school in the United States every year, and because of their lack of papers, are faced with astronomical out-of-state tuition fees should they wish to attend college, or more realistically, no college at all.
Amy has few choices. She can get married for papers, “But it goes against everything I was taught,” or she can continue working in a dead-end job, with few, if any career prospects, and hope that the DREAM act will pass in Congress this week when it is re-introduced for the third time.
The DREAM Act states that any child brought illegally into the US at the age of 15 or under, has lived in this country for five years and has demonstrated excellent moral character will be given the opportunity to gain six years of conditional status. The proviso is that the candidate continues onto either college, or the US military for two years. After six years during which their behavior and character is subject to further scrutiny, they can apply for citizenship. Contrast this bill to the indiscriminate handing out of 60,000 green cards with the infamous ‘green card lottery’, and one starts to question what kind of people government officials are trying to let into this country.
I spoke to Josh Bernstein - one of the campaigners for DREAM - about the proposed bill. He was optimistic about the upcoming Congressional vote, and felt that the achievements of many undocumented constituents had been responsible for DREAM’s increase in popularity among House members.
“I think the most important thing for people to realize is that these kids have battled hard to get to this stage. They’ve been brought into this country through no fault of their own. They’ve been educated as Americans, have had to learn a second language, a new culture, and have thrown themselves into a new society. Most are not from affluent backgrounds, and to have avoided the social problems associated with poverty, not just avoided, but to have proved themselves to be so amazing, both academically and socially, is miraculous. They are the living embodiment of the American Dream – the belief that you can build yourself up from nothing. We can’t turn them away from their country. They belong to America now.”
Josh put me in contact with Kamal Essaheb, like Amy, another New Yorker. Kamal has been in the US since he was eleven years old. Unlike Amy who is not known to the INS and is compelled to stay anonymous to protect her identity and her future in the United States, Kamal is currently fighting against his impending deportation. After 9/11, Kamal took his family along to 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan for ‘Special Registration’ – a demand that men of a certain age from predominantly Muslim countries must register with the INS. This set into action the chain of events which is inexorably leading to Kamal and his family being deported. The story is a familiar one. The New York Times covered a similar case several years back looking at 17 year old Mohammed, a parentless high-school senior who was nearly deported back to Pakistan following Special Registration. Mohammed got lucky. Following the publication of the article in The New York Times, Senator Ackerman intervened, and Mohammed was allowed to stay. The publicity for his case perhaps alleviated a recognised public demand for justice to be served for such victims of indiscriminate and uncompassionate laws. Yet the media lost interest after Mohammed’s case. Thousands of stories remain untold and unacknowledged by the New York media, and consequently the public. Private bills by Senators are the exception, and many, like Kamal, are not so lucky.
Kamal is one of life’s achievers. Josh described him to me as “a young Kennedy,” and after a brief telephone conversation, I could see why. After graduating from Queen’s College, Kamal was offered a place to attend Stein Scholars Program in Public Interest Law and Ethics at Fordham University, a highly selective scholarship program for students committed to public interest. He started volunteering at a local organization called ‘Sanctuary for Families’ that provided shelter, counseling and legal service to battered women and children. Kamal is one of those people who is patently brilliant. In person, he’s affable, good-looking, warm and intelligent, an All-American young adult. Yet nothing that Kamal, or his brothers, Hassan, completing a Masters at Columbia, and Housseine, an Actuary, has achieved is likely to make a difference to their immigration case.
“Every few months, we go to a master calendar hearing and hope that this won’t be the hearing where we’re ordered deported. If deported, the law will prevent us from returning to our homes here for at least 10 years, and likely much longer than that. We live on borrowed time, never quite knowing where we’ll be six months from now.”
Talking to Kamal is like talking to an adult who has lived through decades of strife. The possibility that he may be removed from his home and his friends is ever-present. Like Amy, marriage would be the only ‘legal’ route for Kamal to become a citizen. A false marriage precisely for such purposes is anathema to Kamal. He admits ruefully that “Now is the time I probably need it most, a partner, support, the possibility of getting my papers. Yet I can’t comprehend starting anything new, not now, not with this hanging over me.” Even if he did get married, this would not prevent his family from being deported, and Kamal refuses to stay in the US without his siblings. He admits he is already mentally prepared for leaving the US, one foot hesitantly poised out of the door.
The punitive laws brought into existence after 9/11 are often cited as displaying an American fear of race, particularly those immigrants of Muslim countries. Whilst it is true that those of Asian and Arab countries have suffered major indignities since the WTC attack, what is glaringly apparent is that the system fails immigrants of every ethnicity and nationality. Sunny is a 21 year old British girl living in South Florida, brought into the country illegally by her parents when she was nine years old. Sunny was unable to attend college due to the out-of-state fees she would have had to pay for a degree course. She is now in a quandary as to where her future lies – in the US, without further education and papers, and thus without access to a career suiting someone of her intellect, or in the UK. If she returns to the UK, she again will have to pay foreign student fees for university attendance as she has been out of the country for such a lengthy period of time. Illegality places its victims in an impossible Catch 22 situation.
The argument against Amy, Kamal and Sunny is simply that they are illegal. Kamal’s father lost his green card after being exploited by his employer, who subsequently mismanaged the paperwork, leaving the family without immigrant status. Amy recites a similar tale. Sunny’s parents did not research their decision, but simply turned up in Florida expecting the route to citizenship to be a relatively simple. It is a tale which is painfully familiar amongst undocumented citizens. The process of ‘legalizing’ oneself in this country is full of bureaucratic pitfalls and misinformation. Immigration lawyers vary in standard from the very brilliant, to the direfully inadequate, and for those immigration candidates whose English is less than adequate, informing oneself becomes practically impossible. As a university graduate, potential law student and first-language English speaker, even I found the maze of information concerning work visas, residency and citizenship impossible to navigate without effective legal representation. It is easy to comprehend how families such as Kamal’s, Amy’s and Sunny’s, without the right lawyer, simply fall out of the system.
Opponents to the DREAM and the Student Adjustment Act point out that allowing people like Amy, Sunny and Kamal citizenship would ‘reward’ such ‘illegal’ behavior. I found one message on the CoSA website which suggests precisely the opposite.
Me and my family came to the US ten years ago. Dad, Mom, sister and of course me… They were all adults when they came, I was just 12. As time passed, we all stayed here illegally for a few years, until my sister married an American citizen. Of course, she became a resident and then a citizen, and because of the laws my parents became permanent residents after a few years. I however, did not, and became an illegal immigrant because I reached the age of 21. So, it appears to me that the American laws rewarded my family despite their illegal behavior, yet I, who was the least at fault because it was not my choice to come here, cannot be pardoned?Amy says simply that; “no one can truly understand our situation unless they’ve walked in our shoes – a million miles and then some.” I spoke to many New Yorkers about the issue of illegal aliens, what they thought, would they support DREAM and the Student Adjustment Act, and time and time again I was faced with the same reply:
“My grandfather was illegal.” “My Mother was illegal.” “I came here as a refugee.” “I got a green card through my wife.”
Does an illegal deserve that most coveted of all prizes, citizenship? I asked a former Vietnamese refugee now a citizen, working as a cop with NYPD.
“We are a country of immigrants. If someone proves to be of worth to our country, if someone takes citizenship that seriously, then yes, they deserve to be here.”
Unless Senator Clinton files a Private Bill, a highly unlikely proposal, unless the DREAM act passes this week, Kamal will return to Morocco, a country of which he has little recollection. Whether the DREAM act will pass or not is doubtful. Despite Josh’s optimism, Kamal and others remain skeptical. They have been through too much to place their hopes solely on the creaky workings of the immigration system and the law courts. Contrasting the slowness of this bill with the speed in which the REAL ID Act is rattling through Congress, one starts to have serious doubts about where the interests of American bureaucracy lie. The REAL ID act creates a number of obstacles for Asylum seekers and other applicants, meaning that the high burden of proof required to file such an act would rise to almost impossible proportions. Access to the courts will be prohibited under this law, meaning that many unlawful deportations will see no judicial review or hearings. There is already an enormous immigration backlog in this country, yet this law, designed to expediate deportation proceedings, has major repercussions on civil liberties for potential immigrants and asylum seekers. It would only increase the problem. It is interesting to note that of the 33 billion dollars allotted to the Department of Homeland Security this year, only six million dollars was allocated to decreasing the immigration backlog. There is simply no hope for people like Amy and Kamal whilst the system remains in its present inefficient state. The DREAM act and the Student Adjustment Act would be a major start to readdressing the balance of power, and allowing the innocent victims of US immigration procedures to gain back some rights. But the issue remains an unpopular one in the press. If one brilliant athlete is reprieved, Congress is able to pat themselves on the back, ride on the media attention, and then return to ignoring the real issue at stake. That this system is in desperate need of reform, help and support, to ensure that the other Mohammeds are similarly given justice, is evident.
Awareness is growing. I attended a film screening at NYU last week, where talented law students, filmmakers and social workers gathered to discuss these issues with an intelligence, clarity and simplicity such a ‘grey area’ of law belies. That the lawyers of the future are devoting their time to immigration clinics, into giving their clients the help the system has denied them, is impressive. America has produced these people, and it has a right to feel proud. Yet America has also produced those such as Amy, Kamal and Sunny, and it shows itself reluctant to feel the pride these talented non-citizens have the potential to evoke for a country they feel is their own. The REAL ID act has been attached to an appropriations bill in the Senate, and is expected to be taken up with little real discussion, during this week. The DREAM Act will be presented shortly afterwards, and will face the full scrutiny of the floor. Kamal has a further deportation hearing in the next few days. Sunny is still in South Florida, planning how to study for the college course which she has worked towards all her young life. Amy will continue working part-time in the service industry, harboring her continued dream to one day own her own business. How will you cope? I asked her.
“I’ll figure it out because I have to. Like most illegals, I’ll always find a way.”
She smiles.
“We’re survivors.”
