Today, I went to guest-teach at a middle school in Reno. My job was to try to explain to the 12-year-old students assembled the complex immigration system we have today, in the simplest terms. How there are citizens (both born here and naturalized), permanent residents (who have mainly gained that status through family relationships, employment, asylum or the visa lottery), non-immigrants (such as the many international students and scholars, using F-1 and J-1 visas, with whom I have worked, as well as people at casinos with H-2 visas and people on the slopes this winter with J-1 visas, models, actors, rockers, athletes, tourists, etc.). In fact, there is a visa status for almost every letter of the English alphabet and many letters have more than one category (such as H-1, -2, -3, etc.). It has become very complicated and it gets more complicated every day.
Once I explained to the kids about people who are in the U.S. legally, we opened the discussion and began talking about illegal immigrants and undocumented immigrants. What's the difference? Well, since the Immigration Act of 1996 (also called IRAIRA), the law treats people who came in with documents and then violated their status (stayed too long, worked when they weren't supposed to, went to school when it wasn't allowed, etc.) very differently from people who came in with no documents at all. Those that came with legal documents to be a tourist or worker and then violated their status still have some possibilities for adjusting their status (becoming a permanent resident), especially through marriage to a U.S. citizen. Those who came without documents can almost never become a permanent resident of the U.S. without going home first and going through a lengthy process that will probably keep them at home for two years or more. This is true, even if they marry a U.S. citizen and even if their children are born here (I know one couple with exactly this case). Because people fear what could happen (or even change in our laws) once they leave the U.S., and because people seldom wish to leave their spouse and/or children for two years or more, many people who came to the U.S. and settled down here with an American husband or wife, and who do not have papers, just live in a sort of underground limbo, and their American families fear for them.
On the surface, their lives seem normal (they take the kids to school, live in a house or apartment, go to church, do some simple work for cash) but they are, in fact, very much living in hiding. They cannot get a driver's license, which makes life quite challenging (though this may change in some states). Imagine getting the kids to school without being able to use a car?! They cannot open a bank account or buy health insurance in most cases. They can pay rent, shop, spend money and pay taxes, but they cannot ever let anyone know they have no documents because, even with an American husband and children, an undocumented spouse can be deported. In fact, he or she will be deported if discovered, unless he or she gets an attorney in time, whom he or she can afford (very difficult), who intervenes and files a petition for a waiver of deportation based on hardship a U.S. citizen and "good moral character" (however the court wants to define this). These waivers are hard to get and can ONLY be applied for if a person is already at risk of deportation. If a person wants to take this risk, they cannot do so unless they can get themselves into a deportation situation. It's a very big contradiction - a "catch 22." Undocumented people in America today have no current avenue to apply to become legal.
There are very few options for undocumented people. I think the kids were surprised about this. But then we talked about their peers. It is estimated that 85,000 high school graduates each year are undocumented. They have often gone through our whole school system as undocumented students and although the school administration may know this, their friends seldom do. They do all the same things the other kids do and often, these kids really think of themselves as American. This country is often the only country they know. Many undocumented students came to the U.S as very small children, with no control (or even idea) over what their parents were doing. Our state laws have allowed these children to go to school, even though our Federal laws state they should not be here in the first place. So they go along having fairly normal lives in many cases, until they reach 15. That's when their friends begin to learn to drive and get a learner's permit. That's a big rite of passage in the U.S. However, undocumented students cannot get a driver's license and because of that, if they ever drive, they could be caught driving without a license. Most parents will not allow their children to take this risk, as it would be likely to lead to deportation.
After high school, life gets gradually more complex. I have met many immigrant parents with very little education who are absolutely convinced that education is the key for their children. They work terribly hard to get their kids in a community college or university because they have to pay cash - undocumented students cannot get any form of assistance. Some colleges and universities (particularly in high population density states) do not accept undocumented students. Those schools that do are happy to have them - as long as they pay cash. There may occasionally be exceptions to this rule, but mostly at private schools. Yet, I have met many parents with low-paying jobs who have sacrificed everything to have the money to get their kids in school. While it is a wonderful and touching thing to see, the fact remains: as immigration laws stand today, these undocumented students, who are beginning to gain bachelors degrees in droves, cannot work or stay legally in the U.S. after they get a college degree.
The students I was teaching got the message. "So what happens to them?" How will they face life as an educated person with no rights? What if they come from a war-torn country or a country so impoverished that they have no chances there? What if they do not speak the language of that country, because they grew up here, or they have no knowledge of that culture? I explained that undocumented student graduates have three choices today after gaining a bachelors degree: 1. go back to illegal manual labor, 2. buy false documents to work professionally, or 3. go back to a country they do not know. Which is the best option? None of the options are good.
The kids asked, "Why has this happened?" One beautiful blonde girl with big blue eyes asked, "Why can't we just let them stay? What's the big deal?" I laughed. I explained that all nations have limited resources, both in jobs and in material supplies such as land and gasoline, and America is in the painful process of deciding how much of our resources we are willing to share and how much room we have for more people. I explained that it's very complex and has a lot to do with economics - both the businesses that hire all these undocumented people because they get cheap labor and the people who come, who usually long to be home, but they cannot work and eat in the nations in which they were born. I left the kids with this thought: in about 6 years, you will be old enough to vote. You need to decide how much you want our country to share with others, and what laws would be fair for people who work here. Then you need to make your voice heard. In the meantime, I said, have compassion for the undocumented people. You may decide they should not be here because of our needs but at least realize, they are human beings and should be treated with respect, no matter what. They are trying to do the best they can for their families and that, in the end, is what we all have in common.
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