i will never be scared of the felon who sits in the oval office.
In 1942 an executive order called the Mexican Farm Labor Program established the Bracero Program which allowed millions of Mexican men to work under short-term contracts in the United States. This happened due to a national agriculture shortage during WWII and it forced the United States to redress the fact that during The Great Depression they had deported over two million people to Mexico. Over four million braceros were brought to the United States to work in construction and in the fields. Both of my grandfathers formed a part of this program. When men would arrive at the camps that they’d temporarily call home they were stripped naked and sprayed with pesticides. Do you know what the long-term effects of being sprayed with pesticides are? Immunotoxicity, endocrine disruption, slowed neurological development, infertility, and cancer. Both of my grandfathers died from cancer.
Have you ever watched the show Home Before Dark? It is about a young girl and her family who return to her dad’s hometown to take care of her grandfather who has developed Alzheimer’s Disease. As the series progresses the young girl learns that her grandfather developed this disease as a long-term effect from working for a company that continuously exposed him to specific toxic chemicals. She investigates this in a rage both in a naïve attempt at healing her grandfather and in the fury of knowing there were people explicitly responsible for this. I watched this show around the time my grandfather, Don Pedro, passed away. Just like this young girl in the show I can never prove that my grandfathers passed away as a direct cause of having worked in the Bracero Program but it fills me with deep rage that it might even be a possibility. Even before I was born this country had taken something from me.
I don’t know when I realized that my status here made me different from the people around me. I’m sure it is a memory I blocked off from a young age because whatever the moment was must have been painful. There are certain things I remember such as being invited on trips and to events because I was so smart and not being able to go. This happened to me most in Elementary School. The government itself was telling me I was so special and brilliant but at the same time that because of my undocumented status I did not actually merit any of the recognition or rewards. I watched my friends and classmates plan for these trips.
The trips! God, how I envied the way my classmates could go to Europe or even to Mexico and tell me all about it. I think that I was young enough that I didn’t fully understand why I felt so shitty watching them do something I couldn’t. I was too young to understand why I couldn’t live the way they lived. The thing is that my parents and my sister made my life so full there came a point where I stopped noticing these differences. I’m not saying that to make you or myself feel better but because it is the truth. I remember moments here and there in my life where being undocumented felt like a dark cloud but for the most part it didn’t. In all ways except “legally” I am an American because I grew up like one. I can recite the pledge of allegiance in my sleep, I can square dance with my eyes closed, and if you put Miranda Lambert on I will know all the lyrics. (I’d never actually call myself an American but I was trying to make a point.)
Then in 2012 Barack Obama changed my life. I know that he is a war criminal and I’m not celebrating him but I am stating my truth. Barack Obama established Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals where if you met a very specific criteria and had ten thousand documents to prove it, you’d receive a temporary student/work permit to be in this country in a “legal” way. I fit this very specific criteria and have a mother who has kept every single document of mine I’ve ever received. I could go to college. I could work without having to figure out a job that would check if I’m here “legally” or not. I know and I respect that many people felt Deferred Action was a slap in the face because what we deserve is an actual path to citizenship but it made my life easier. In that respect I’ve never had to struggle and that is the truth and I feel very lucky for it every single second of every day.
When Donald Trump was first put into office he tried to take Deferred Action away completely. This he did not achieve but he did block people from being able to apply for the first time, we could renew, but as more people began to meet this specific criteria they would not be allowed to apply. Joe Biden during his entire presidency never even tried to go back to the original policy Barack Obama and him established in 2012. Then again, what did Joe Biden do? Your guess is as good as mine. Something Donald Trump did do, however, is propose that if those of us under Deferred Action condemned our parents to prison for bringing us to this country as children he would give us a path to citizenship. Please read that over three times and then sit with it for five minutes.
I remember when my parents were taking me around to try and figure out how to apply for Deferred Action for the first time. There were several people who were Mexican and who told my parents that there was no possibility for me to apply and simply tried to get money out of them. The application for Deferred Action is actually very easy to fill out once you’ve filled it out before but there are people out there who to this day will charge hundreds of dollars for filling it out. People who take advantage of their own communities. If you are reading this and you have DACA and pay for help filling it out, I will do it for free. Please feel free to message me here or anywhere else. Now, you may be asking yourself, dear reader — is it all free? Absolutely not! This is the United States government we’re talking about. While filling out the actual documents shouldn’t be something you pay for, you do have to pay a renewal fee every one and a half years. When you look it up it might say two years but that is wrong. You get the permit for two years but you pay every one and a half years. When Deferred Action first got put in place the fee was around $500 and is now over $600. As of September 2024 around 530,000 people pay that fee every one and a half years to this country. That is roughly 320 million dollars the government makes every one and a half years from renewing DACA alone. That doesn’t include other things such as social security or the fact that undocumented immigrants pay taxes. The United States government earns billions from people like me.
Now in order to talk about the current state of our country I’d like to take us back the 1950s. You know how I just told you that in the 1940s the United States brought thousands of Mexican men to this country because they needed workers? Well, in 1954 the United States decided it did not need them anymore. After touring the Los Angeles neighborhoods to calculate how much “illegal immigrants” were negatively affecting the city, President Eisenhower’s Attorney General, Herbert Brownell, pushed for congress to enact sanctions against people who employed undocumented workers. While this never became law Eisenhower’s administration did begin to push forward with mass deportations — this became known as Operation Wetback. “The first phase of the operation began in California and Arizona. Its effectiveness depended on publicity as well as manpower. Extensive media coverage that often exaggerated the strength of the Border Patrol, as well as targeted displays of strength, gave the impression of a greater force. In many regions, this strategy convinced thousands who had entered the U.S. illegally to repatriate voluntarily.” (U.S House of Representatives, “Hispanics in the Southwest,” Historical Essay.)
Does any of that sound familiar to you, dear reader? That may be because it is precisely what we are witnessing today! The United States loves to play this game where everything awful happens elsewhere and to someone else. That is a lie. Horrible, unspeakable things happened to people like you and me, right on this very land. Horrible things continue to happen to people like you and me on this very land and yet I can’t help but wholeheartedly believe it is all going to change. I understand the desperate fear that is happening right now not only within the immigrant community but in many communities. I understand that it isn’t easy to ask anyone to hold on a little longer or to fight a little harder but I look at my parents and I think that continuing this fight is the easiest thing in the world to me. I look at my parents and there is not a universe that exists where I don’t think this struggle is worth it for them.
At a moment where this administration wants us to feel scared and defeated I could not be filled with more hope. When I see the people of Los Angeles getting together to successfully kick ICE out of hotels, I see hope. When I see the people of Los Angeles getting together to deliver groceries for people who are unable to work due to the current situation, I see hope. When I see my neighbors supporting our local Arab grocery store, I see hope. When I woke up yesterday and saw my neighbor had put up a Palestine flag, I see hope. When I read that thousands of people are headed to march into Gaza to provide aid, I see hope. When I see that new ships are preparing to sail to Gaza, I see hope. When Trump threatened massive raids in Colorado and one of my friends who lives in another state offered to house me for free for a while, I saw hope.
I will never buy into the fear mongering. There is no military and no dictator that is stronger than the people. I’ve been obsessively studying history my entire life. I was a child who’s idea of fun was watching Liberty Kids and reading about Washington crossing the Delaware. I still have my fourth grade essay about why the discovery of the North Pole was shrouded in racism. I’ve learned about many empires and many violent rulers which is how I know my hope is not delusional. Maybe we won’t be the people who get to see a world where cruelty doesn’t reign over everyone but I want to be part of the people who pave the way for that world to eventually exist. I come from a long line of people who endured the unthinkable in order for me to sit here right now and write this and everything I do is motivated by those people so that their actions to get me here will have never been in vain.
I would like to reiterate something I said on my book account on Instagram: If you have legal status, you should be at these protests and if you are white and have legal status you should be at the forefront of all of this. I’m never shocked that it is my none-white friends who are always at these protests whether it be for immigrants, Palestine, or Black Lives Matter. If you are white and a citizen of this country start using your privilege for something meaningful. Reposting an infographic should be the very bare minimum for you.
Some places to donate:
CHIRLA - SUPPORT IMMIGRANTS TODAY.
CLEAN CARWASH - STAND WITH CARWASH WORKERS.
COMMUNITY JUSTICE EXCHANGE - BAIL FUND NETWORK.