*This is the real experience of someone who came to the US illegally. Quotes are not exact.
Chilpancingo, Guerrero, 2004
“I was 23 years old when I decided to come to the United States. Money was very tight and I wanted a better life. I wanted my family to have a better life too. My sister had invited me and I took the chance. I’m from Chilpancingo, Gurrero so I took a plane to get to the Sonora border with Tucson, Arizona.” Anonymous started.
“We tried several times before we were successful. One of those times we even got caught and put in the border detention center. All they gave us were peanut butter crackers and juice. To this day I still hate peanut butter. At the end of the day, they let us go.”
“On our way, we were robbed, ran out of food, ran out of money. We were told it was going to be a 1-day walk so we only brought one meal. It ended up being 3 days, we went 2 without food. We were drinking water from horse troughs at farms we would pass at night. The nights were really cold, and the days were really hot. We were a group of 16, only one girl, and the coyote*. I remember the girl because she destroyed her toes walking. At night it would be dark so we’d be stubbing out toes on whatever was on the ground. You didn’t know what animals were around either. Snakes, scorpions, spiders, and other wild animals.”
A Coyote (Coe-yo-teh) is the person who leads people over the border. It’s considered slang for “people smuggler.
“Everyone made it to Tucson, Arizona. On the third day we stopped walking. We waited until the person who was going to pick us up showed up. Two cars showed up, a minivan and a smaller car. The smaller car drove off and left the doors of the van open. We ran to the van. The girl had her family dragging her by the armpits to the van. Can you imagine 16 people in a minivan?”
“Halfway to our destination, we got a flat tire, so we got out of the car and a police car pulled up behind us. He asked if we were okay, we said yes, and he left. We changed the tire and started driving again. We got inside the city of Tucson and the same tire went flat and we thought that was it. It was in front of a cop, and another showed up. They started calling people. One of the cops was talking with the driver, the coyote. He asked us where we were coming from, and we lied and said work. Everyone was disappointed, we almost made it. The cop said it’s okay, the bus stop is over there and he let us go. We called someone to pick us up and take us to the safe house where we stayed the night. The next day the coyotes bought a bunch of food for everyone and we finally ate on the third day.”
“We waited for 2 days for another person to pick us up and take us to Las Vegas. That’s when we meet the head of the organization of coyotes. He got us new clothes. On the first day there we had steak. We ate like kings that day. The head guy said we were finally safe, and after 3 days they moved us to Iowa. It took 2 days to get there because we dropped people off along the way. The whole thing cost me $3500, which I borrowed from my sister’s husband.”
As of today they now charge $8000-$10,000 per person.
“I started off working in a factory and a fast food chain restaurant. I would work, change, work then sleep. I was living in a one-bedroom trailer with 7 other people, including my sister and her husband for the first 2 years of my being here. Then me and a friend moved to another trailer. My plan was to stay here a year-year and a half, make some money, and go back. I’ve been here 19 years now.”
“I know you have one question, why didn’t you come here legally? We didn’t have the money to go through the process. I came here for money. It costs $20,000 to go through the legal process. If I had that money I would’ve stayed in Mexico. It’s a corrupt system. There have been times where people have gone missing in my city…If people knew you had money, you’d go missing.”
United States of America, 2023
In June this year, Florida governor Ron DeSantis stated that if an immigrant is caught crossing the border wall with ‘hostile intent’ to use deadly force, and along with this he called immigrants ‘illegal aliens’. This is how people in power are talking about other human beings. However, it’s not only the way they talk about them, it’s how they treat them too. Many laws have been put in place to harm immigrants, and this prejudice being put into law could lead to the deaths of thousands. It’s extremely important to bring attention to the fact that it’s not just one stray person thinking like this, but numerous people and their racism is putting people in danger. People who are humans just like everyone else. The way they’re being treated is unfair, and all news on this is constantly being snuffed out. It’s time that this situation gets more awareness.
Going back to Ron Desantis, he’s done even more beyond his awful words. A law was passed July 1 of this year that stated that drivers licenses from Connecticut, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and Delaware were invalid in Florida. This was just a smaller technicality of the bill, the overall bill prohibits the issuance of those who cannot provide evidence that they’re a US citizen. The point of making the drivers licenses from those specific states invalid was because these states give driving privilege licenses to illegal immigrants. By making all licenses from these states invalid, the driving privilege ones would be as well. However, it’s not only the drivers licenses, they added in a clause that states that all hospitals that accept Medicaid are required to document whether the patient is a US citizen or not, claiming that this factor won’t affect the patients care and that what’s documented won’t be reported to Immigration Police. It’s hard to believe that they’re not going to report or discriminate. If they weren’t going to do so then they wouldn’t be documenting this information at all. Laws like this lead to people not getting the healthcare they need. This puts people in danger.
Anonymous gave their opinion on the laws DeSantis has made: “I think it’s stupid. Every person needs to be treated equal…The laws are way too harsh. He came from an immigrant family and yet he keeps putting these heartless laws with no sense trying to hurt people. I do think there should be laws, but not this cruel.”
However, it’s not just this that puts people in danger, Greg Abott also implemented a floating wall in the Rio Grande. This wall is made up of large buoys with a wire and concrete base. In between each buoy is a circular razor blade and under the surface is razor wire. These razor wire barrels go on for miles, and 2 have died specifically to this border, but there have been countless deaths of those who have tried to come to America for a better life. A Texas judge ruled that the buoys block the Rio Grande and are a threat to human life. The removal of the buoys should be going into place by September 15th. Despite the loss of lives, the governor’s office claims that they were just protecting Texas lives, and that this only prolongs the chaos caused by President Biden’s open border policies.
Just this past month, on September 13th, the DACA program was declared unlawful. The DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) is a program that protects those who came here illegally as children, meaning they can work and live their lives without fear of deportation. The termination of this program again means that about 580,000 people are no longer allowed to work, and no longer protected against deportation. Many of these people grew up American and have no ties to their families in other countries, yet they’re at risk of being deported somewhere they haven’t been since they were a child. It’s a scary situation to be in, and thousands are about to be thrown into that exact situation.
“…it’s unfair to make kids pay for adult decisions. The thing is, until you experience it, you can’t fully understand, everyone has a different story.”
This blatant racism from these people who have all eyes on them has made other people feel safe showing their own racism as it’s come up in workplaces as well. Some workplaces have restricted what languages people can speak at their own jobs, which is extremely unlawful. A local workplace had a manager say that their employees are no longer allowed to speak their native languages (Spanish, French, and various native African languages) in the workplace. It’s not only this though, racism has become more and more prevalent in the past few years.
“You can make a great life here in the United States if you go through the right path. But you have to get through the language barrier, racist people, the names, and just bad treatment because people know you are an immigrant. Or assume you are. I’m grateful for the family I made here and the life I have here.” Anonymous ended.
The treatment of other human beings is horrible. The murder, prejudice and racism are disgraceful. All these people really want is to live a good life, just like you or me. They deserve some respect for what they faced and continue to face as racism continues to be prevalent today. When it comes down to it, America is built on the immigration of people from Britain. Why should this be any different? Especially when America is considered the melting pot country.
