Dear Future President, 

                        First of all, I want to congratulate you on winning the election. Upon congratulating you I would like to express my concerns regarding a certain issue. The issue concerns racial identity  and treatment of Mexican American immigrants. I understand that there are more important issues that should be resolved. This has been an issue for many years and I believe it is time to resolve it. This is an issue not only for the Mexican population but for the Hispanic/Latino population as well. 

                        Everyday in America Hispanics, Latinos, and Mexican-Americans face discrimination. They face a problem related to racial identity. Based on the color of their skin, these groups are labeled as Mexicans. Many Hispanics/Latinos find this very offensive to their culture and lifestyle. Mexican-Americans are Americans of full or partial Mexican descent, whereas Hispanic and Latinos are people of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto-Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish races, ethnicities, or ancestry. As you can tell, both are very different. Everyday, many Hispanic/Latino people get bullied by being told "Go Back To Mexico!!!". Everyday Latinos get treated unfairly. 

                         Many of these families immigrate here to get a better life, but instead they find hate and struggle. My mother is a single mother of five and undocumented. Eighteen years ago, she came to work and help her family in Mexico. She was just seventeen years old when she made the trip that included walking thousands of miles in the heat, experiencing thirst and pain.  Everyday she struggles to work long enough to have just enough so we can have a place to live and something to eat. To this day she is still afraid of one day getting deported and having to leave us.                   

                        My uncle is Hispanic. He shared the same the same struggles as my mother when he got here. When he first got here he got a job as a framer. He didn't know anything about being a building or measurements, but because he was undocumented and didn't know English he had to struggle and learn. So for years he worked from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm on very low pay. He worked in the blistering heat and freezing winter to complete many houses. Sometimes he would get sick or seriously injured but he refused to miss a day. He was determined to get out of poverty.

                       Now my uncle owns his own framing company and has his own workers. His business partners which were once his bosses have gotten to known him and love his work. I look to my uncle. I see the struggle he had and how he chose to keep going. He chose to keep going and ignore the hateful comments from some of the house owners. He used to talk about some of the house owners., and how sometimes the house owners would come look at the house and would stare at them in disgust because they were tired and sweaty. How sometimes his companions would carpool on the way to work, but the police would stop them for no reason and take one of them away to be deported. How the Americans would say they were stealing their jobs when they were just sitting on the ground doing nothing while the Latinos worked. 

                  Many people say Hispanics are disgusting , rapists, lazy, or drug dealers. They say Latinos only bring crime to this country. But if people could just open their eyes and see their struggle everyday. Many Latinos students in school are very hardworking and intelligent enough to graduate with top honors. But at the time to apply for a for a job or profession they are often turned down for absence of a paper. 

             Without Latinos what would this country be? All the hard determined workers, the dreamers, and the families that now call this country home. I understand there are some drunks and lazy people  but why deport the one that actually want to be here. Why discriminate and stereotype while only seeing what we want to see?  We need to understand, we need to listen, and have the understanding to know why Latinos are what they are.

 My suggestion would be that before deporting, to do a background check. Does the person have a family? Why are they here?  So future president let us not hate and discriminate. Let us not split families, ruin dreams, bully each other. Let us all live in peace without discrimination. "Change Starts With One"

Sincerely, Jennifer