Illegal Immigration: Breaking Open the Myths

Myth 1: Illegal Immigrants CHOOSE to come illegally instead of taking the proper channels to be documented.

Reality: According to Pramila Jayapal, an immigrant activist and founder of We Are One America. org, a major reason why people who come to work here do so illegally is because our system doesn't allow them with either the opportunity or the guidance to help them follow the proper procedures to legality. She argues, "there's an enormous discrepency between the number of immigrants permitted by law to enter the US and the number needed by the economy...The US allows roughly five thousand visas per year for low-skilled workers, but every years about four hundred thousand low-skilled jobs are filled by immigrants."

Aside from this gap in numbers, which doesn't offer immigrants the opportunity to even apply for visas, those who do try, or those who may come with a visa are often left alone to deal with a very complex system that is mean to push them out. Jayapal points out that "More than 90 percent of people who go through the incredibly complex immigration system don't have a attorney, and those who do get one often hire someone who exploits them and sometimes worsens their situation. "

The combination of lack of money, lack of understanding of the system and a lack of viable visa opportunities creates a situation where the United States demands the labor of immigrants but doesn't make it possible for them to come legally. Essentially, the new global economy, which greatly benefits the "developed " countries of this world creates a situation where these people have no other alternative than to migrate- it is a matter of survival.

Myth 2: Immigrants threaten our Social Security

Reality: Jayapal argues that the undocumented do not benefit from Social Security at all, but that they do "contribute $7 billion a year to the fund through pay-check deductions...[many] file tax returns every year, hoping that when immigration reform is passed, they can show themselves to have been responsible citizens...The National Foundation American Policy estimates that a moratorium on legal immigrants entering the country...would devastate the Social Security system, ballooning the deficit by one-third over a fifty-year period.

Myth 3: Immigrants compete with low-skilled workers and drive down wages

Reality: Although it is true that in the past years, especially since 2006 "wages and salaries made up a smaller proportion of the country's gross national product than any time since the 1940's" (Aviva Chomsky 12). However, it is not possible to discuss this effect without looking at the bigger picture and taking into consideration the root cause of these low wages: corporations and companies that pay low wages in order to increase profits. As Chomsky points out, "If you look at the small picture, it indeed seems to be the case that immigrants and low-skilled citizens are competing for the same jobs. Businesses certainly want this kind of this kind of competition- it means they can find people willing to work for low wages. And, businesses argue, keeps prices low. " But this is not the only part of the picture that people fail to recognize. As Jayapal points out, there are other causes the lead to the driving down of wages. For one, she argues that unionization has gone down significantly and therefore we have less labor laws to protect workers. In addition, Jayapal argues that we no longer have a "fixed number of jobs. Between 2000 and 2010 more than 33 million new jobs that require little or moderate traiing will be created in the US. Even if unemployed American workers agree to take these low-skilled jobs, we will still need more workers to fill them."

Essentially it is important to take other factors into consideration when looking at this myth of driving down wages because it is not right to point at illegal immigrants as the ONLY contributing force. Especially when the people who are benefitting are not those workers who are easily exploited and abused for lack of protections from the government or unions, but rather the CEOs who reap the economic benefits of their nearly free labor.

Myth 4: Immigrants bring crime to the United States

Reality: History shows that immigrants have greatly contributed to this country. Jayapal's organization has found that "Numerous studies have shown that crime rates are lower among immigrant populations than native-born populations." For those who would like a path to citizenship, demonstrating a "strong moral character" is an essential part of their request for citizenship. For this reason, these people tend to live model lives for themselves and their families.

Myth 5: Immigrants bring poverty to the United States

Reality: There are many economic contributions that immigrants provide that are not recognized by anti-immigrant groups. For example, Jayapal shows us that "immigrants provide a net economic benefit to the United States, estimated to be $10 billion a year...[immigrants] start small businesses and promot downtown revitalization."

Those who cannot make it financially don't struggle for lack of work or trying to better themselves, rather, this happens because the proper "mechanisms for integrating them into society" don't exist. Jayapal points out that in other countries in the European Union, there are formal integration programs that provide "basic information and orientation to new immgrants, along with language courses. In Denmark...your visa is contingent upon your completing integration classes within your first few months in the country. There are about ninety thousand people on waitlists for ESL programs in the US, and that doesn't even count the ones who have given up." This demonstrates the fact that although the United States clearly needs the labor of people from other countries, by not providing these programs of integration do not make it possible for them to ever rise above their low-economic status. As Jayapal says, "immigrants without English fluency earn about ten thousand dollars less in annual income than immigrants who do speak English. Many who don't learn English stay at the bottom of the economic ladder their entire lives."

Installation Description: ICE- Life Frozen

This is my first attempt at an installation of multiple portraits. My usual medium is the mural because of its accessibililty and the ability to integrate collaboration in the creation process of a mural. However, my aesthetic approach to these portraits still maintain the same mural appearance. I work in large scales and use a more "raw" approach to painting the human figure.

The Composition: These portraits are meant to be viewed as a sequence, and in this way, it still maintains somewhat of a mural form. The unifying factor to all four of these pieces is the American flag. This flag weaves through all four portraits overlapping the flags of the native countries from which each person originated. But the flag also represents those ideals of justice, due process and the freedom to pursue happiness that Americans take pride in. However, it is those exact ideals that our current immigration policies dishonor by denying people their right to due process and ignoring a person's need for a dignified life while still profiting of their labor.

But the flag also represents the integration of these migrant's lives into the fabric of our nation. Aside from the obvious financial contributions that come from their labor and services, these people also contribute culturally, politically and academically to our society. Through the experience of sacrifice and struggle, the histories of these migrants offer a true glimpse of that "American Dream" that so many Americans have lost sight of because of the racist, patriarchal and nativist perspectives that create blind and ignorant policies.

Maricela Sosa

Maricela Sosa, 32, came to the United States in 1997 when she walked through the US-Mexico border on foot. She was deported to her native Nicaragua in January 2009. She leaves behind her two children, daughter Cecia Sosa, 12, and her son Ronald, 9. Her husband, Ronald Sosa, 42, remains in an undisclosed location in the United States but has little to no contact with his children for fear of also being deported.

Before she was deported, both Cecia and Ronald began a hunger strike to protest their mother’s inevitable deportation in hopes of keeping her in the states longer and gaining support from the community for her release. However, on January 27, 2009, Maricela Sosa, was deported back to Nicaragua leaving her two children behind in Florida.

Both Cecia and Ronald Sosa are part of a lawsuit filed by Miami based organization American Fraternity Inc. on behalf of 600 children (US citizens) who have been left behind after one or both parents were detained and deported without any due process. Some of them are children whose parents await deportation proceedings. This lawsuit against President Obama was presented in the Supreme Court because congress has ruled that class-action immigration cases cannot be filed in federal courts.

According to American Fraternity Lawyer, Alfonso Oviedo Reyes, the immigration reform of 1996 changed the rights of American children. Before 1996, undocumented parents of American children had the right to have their deportation reviewed in court. And if they could show that they had been in the US for over seven years, had good moral character, and could prove that the hardship imposed on their children by their deportation would be extreme, they could the obtain residency. For forty years parents of American children had this right. But no longer. Reyes says, “Congress shut down all the ways to obtain legal residency and that’s why the number of undocumented immigrants has increased.”

Gragilia, Diego. “Group Representing 600 Children of Immigrants Sues President Obama.” Feet in Two Worlds: Telling the Stories of Today’s Immigrants. 1 Feburary 2009 <>

Peter Guzman

Peter Guzman is not illegal. He is a United States citizen, but this fact did not stop ICE officials from deporting him “on a bus with $3 in his pocket and put him out in Tijuana” (ACLU). On May 11, 2007, Guzman was taken from an LA County jail and sent to Mexico even though he had the documentation to prove he was a United States citizen. His family was never notified of where he was taken and for the next three months his family looked for him as they “slept in a banana warehouse and started their days at 6a.m., visiting hospitals, jails, shelters, and truck stops. His other scanned photos of the deceased from a Tijuana morgue.”

According to the ACLU, who has just filed a lawsuit on his behalf, Guzman was coerced into waving his legal rights as a US citizen. Guzman struggles with basic literacy, “visual processing, conceptualization skills and memory” and therefore did not fully understand the documents he signed to wave his rights.

The story of Guzman, who had to survive in Tijuana, where he knew nobody, by begging and sleeping outdoors, shows that the motivations behind many ICE raids and deportations have more to do with racism than they do with keeping law and order and protecting our borders. As the ACLU writes, “Jail personnel and ICE agents conduct screenings into inmates’ immigration status that ‘presume foreign citizenship of inmates based upon their race, ethnicity, appearance and/or surname.”

“Family of U.S. Citizen Illegally Deported to Mexico Says Government Endangered His Life” UCLU of Southern California. 27 February 2008. <>

Lilo Mancia and Jeffery

Lilo Mancia has been separated from his wife, Maria Briselda Amaya, who was deported to her native country of Honduras on March 6, 2007. Mr. Mancia stays behind with two small children, his youngest, Jeffery, a United States citizen. Although they were both arrested in an immigration raid in Massachusetts, at the Michael Bianco leather factory where they both worked, only she has been deported so far. Mr. Mancia is currently fighting his own deportation as he struggles to support his children on his own.

Lilo Mancia was the first to come to the United States, crossing through Laredo, Texas in 2005. His wife came later with their toddler, Kevin and was caught by the border patrol. But she applied for political asylum, though she this petition was eventually denied. Mr. Mancia and Ms. Amaya filed for political asylum because their neighborhood at home had been taken over by gangs, who “used the streets as a combat zone.” Ms. Amaya’s sister was shot and killed by a gang shooting while she was taking the bus home from Christmas shopping in 2003. Mr. Mancia recalls the horrors of the streets where they lived, claiming that one could easily walk down the street and walk over dead bodies who were victims of the gang violence. This reality was a motivating factor in their decision to leave and head to the United States.

After being separated from his mother, Jeffery, then two years old, became ill and had recurring earaches a loss of appetite because of an “acute sadness” according to Jaqueline Arieta, a nurse at the New Bedford Health Center. His older brother, Kevin, who was 5 at the time of the deportation asked for his mother repeatedly and according to his teacher Arthur Dutra refused to eat after the deportation of his mother.

Preston, Julia. “As Deportation Pace Rises, Illegal Immigrants Dig In” The New York Times. 1 May 2007. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/01/us/01deport.html

Adrian

Adrian is originally from Mexico City, but he and his family have been living in the United States since 1992, since he was 5 years old. The United States, in many ways, is the only home he really knows even if he came here illegally with his family through Nogales. His formative years were formed entirely in this country, not Mexico where he will be deported to next month.

Adrian's father was deported about six years ago, and he hired a lawyer to try to help him fight the deportation. Unfortunately, like many other immigrants' experience, this lawyer not only failed him, but also took a large sum of money without completing the job he had to do to keep his father in the United States. Once in Mexico, Adrian's father didn't check in with the US Embassy, which he was required to do. Because of this, ICE came to Adrian's family home looking for his father and instead found the whole family. This is typical of many of the raids; ICE comes looking for one person in particular but ends up taking away anyone who is not documented. One of his brothers is already in Mexico with his father, and in June, Adrian, his mother and his brother will have to report to immigration customs and will be deported as well.

I met Adrian through my wife, who teaches at a local community college; he was a student of hers for a couple of quarters. She recommended that I talk to Adrian about his experiences with ICE because he is in the process of being deported. What strikes me about Adrian's story is his dedication to bettering himself and his life for the sake of uplifting his family. Like so many immigrants, Adrian has succeeded academically in college, earning a high GPA and the respect of his teachers and peers through academic work as well as his work as a student organizer on campus. If Adrian was given the opportunity to continue with his studies, it is clear that he would continue to flourish and that he would contribute greatly to his community, both on and off campus. However, like so many others, Adrian will have to put these dreams on hold. All the work and energy he has put into building himself as an academic and student activist is now on hold because he is working tirelessly, six days a week at two jobs, to save money so that he and his family may have something to live off temporarily when they are deported.