yuri Oregon

Immigration

this is what came to do in the united states, but most of our opportunities are taken away because of what we are, where we came from, and the color of our skin.

Dear future president,

Throughout the course of studying politics in class, and getting to know a lot more of our rights I have gotten the chance to think about the situations going around America that are important to everybody, and to myself. Although there are so many problems around the world I felt most connected to Immigration.

I come from a family of immigrants that have crossed the border in order to achieve a better life, and for their kids in this case me, the rest of my family, and other families around the world that have done the same. In many cases or basically all of them they're dream of coming to America gets ruined because of all the things we need to have a better life get shut down for who we are, from where we came from ,or from what we did to get to the “other side”. My mom worked day, and night to pay the rent, and to put food on our plate most of the time I wouldn't even get to see her cause she'd come home give us a quick meal, and leave to her other job so she could make extra money so she could buy us our necessities. My brother had the opportunity to go to middle school, and high school, but lost his chances to go to college because he isn’t a legal citizen and because of the requirement that students have a social security number, and enough money to pay for it so now he's working from early in the morning to late at night trying to save up the money to be able to go. Sometimes I'm afraid myself I've come this far working hard to get my grades up giving my mom a reason to smile making plans for the future, and hoping to be able to graduate, but what if after all that work it all got lost because some president or some law that wants to send all latinos back to where they came from now that's the biggest fear we're all afraid to face.

Imagine being in our shoes going through all the trouble of finding a good stable job, and then hearing people want to send you back whatever happened to the hard work? Whatever happened to working day, and night shifts to try to take care of your children? What happen to their hard work in school? But those are just some of the questions that we can't get any answer from, and many more that come to mind.

I got the opportunity to go to Mexico, and see the the grounds of where my culture comes from believe me it's beautiful, but beautiful to visit not beautiful to stay, and live. Traveling to the other side of the water in a little chalupa or if you had the chances in a mini boat with a mini motor to get to a barn with their so called houses made of rock, mud, dried palms, cardboard or whatever you could find. Having to find the perfect bush or tree to be able to use the bathroom, but oh watch out for those chalupas, and boats, and make sure the person with the binoculars doesn't see you! Eating beans, and tortillas everyday, and if your whole day trying to get a ton of fish went great you'd get some nopales to go with that too. The way they live is no place anyone wants to live a place that no one wants to go back to.

In the article Why U.S Citizenship matters by The Times Editorial Board states “Nor did President obama’s 2012 decision to defer the deportation of so called “Dreamers” young people brought here illegally as young children by their parents grant them citizenship, despite the fact that Obama characterized the Dreamers as “Americans in their heart, in their minds in every single way but one; on paper.” Citizenship is also unlikely to be the primary objective of additional executive action by Obama to protect the millions of other immigrants from deportation.” meaning that while we’re all here we can feel American, we can shop at American stores, but there's only one thing we need which is the paperwork that we don't have.

Dear future president I hope that you hear what we all have to say, and what we all have to prove. Hopefully you can be the change, and the start of something new for the 11 million undocumented immigrants residing to be in the United States.  

Jefferson HS

Jefferson HS Students

10th,11th, and 12th grade students at Jefferson HS in Portland Oregon.

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