Immigrants Make America Great
This article tells the true story of an immigrant living in Tennessee, as recounted in an interview. I met Jane as a kid, my family being clients of her local business, and she had been in and out of my life ever since. Last month, in a one-on-one conversation, I asked about her experience as an immigrant, how current immigration views affect her, and what misinformation she most commonly encounters.
As Jane walked through the doors of the immigration office for her citizenship interview, she was greeted with posters saying, “Deport Illegals Now” and “Protect your homeland. Defend your culture.” On a day she had waited years for, these were the words she was met with. The immigration office has never looked like that before. Her entire human being was struck down into one word: “Illegal.”
Jane arrived in America at 8 years old with her mom from Mexico. She said goodbye to her family, friends, culture, and everything else she knew. She was told they would take only what they needed, but was not told the true reason they were leaving; she assumed they were going on a trip. She had not seen her family since then for fear that she could not come back.’’
When Jane grew up hearing the word 'immigrant', it wasn’t a special word, and it wasn’t something that made someone different. That all changed when she moved to America. ‘immigrant’ changed to ‘alien,’ and ‘undocumented’ changed to ‘criminal.’ A place of more opportunities changed into a place where she was seen as less than. She described the change, saying, “I couldn’t speak the language, I was different because I spoke Spanish. The culture, as well, there were things I wasn’t familiar with, and that's when I realized I was an immigrant. And you know, my status, I wasn’t legal here. That made a huge difference.” Even as a kid, the words ‘immigrant’ changed to different.
Jane and her mom made many sacrifices to come to America, she remarks, “being taken away from your family, your culture, everything you knew, and now it's like starting from scratch, assimilating, you couldn’t be close to your family as much. Realizing it's a different system than back home.” Spending all her adolescence in the states, she describes “having to be americanized, [trying to] still keeping my roots, that has been one of the struggles for me.”
As she went into high school, Jane commented on “see[ing] my friends around me getting drivers license and things like that, the normal things as you grow. You start to realize oh wait a minute, I’m not like all the other kids. I can’t do the same things. I tried to live my life as much as I could and assimilate.” Later, she was put into a class to prepare her for college, but she knew she couldn’t apply due to her legal status. “Thats when I started to face all the realities that come with not being documented in this country.”
In 2017, Jane started DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), giving her access to a driver's license, the ability to work, and a path to citizenship, but not residency. “I was only able to obtain permanent residency through my marriage. I was married to an American, but for me, for my country, I wasn’t able to apply for a residency unless I was pardoned for entering the country illegally. I had to ask for pardon, and I was able to do that because my husband was in the Navy, and I was able to stay here in the country. But I was on parole in place, that is what granted me to stay in the country without having to leave and just waiting. I was pardoned for entering the country illegally, and that's how I obtained permanent residency. I was able to apply for citizenship this March 2025, waited a couple month[s], took the civics test, had my interviews, and that's when I became a citizen, took my oath.” Now that she is a citizen, Jane is most excited to vote and help others through the process.
The process of gaining citizenship took her 7 years, despite having a faster path by being married to an active-duty American. Even though she is a documented citizen of the US, she still comments on how “the recent acts that have been throughout this administration, things have changed. Even for me, I know I’m legal, but I feel like I’m also a prey to prejudice for being different, the color of my skin.”
To address the misinformation about immigrants causing prejudice, Jane adds that “just because one person might do one bad thing, doesn’t mean all the people will. Not all immigrants are criminals. There are immigrants who are contributing; they are your neighbors, members of society, people contributing to this country.” Misinformation about immigrants and crime is highly common, “because of that sentiment, all immigrants are paying.”
When asked about the general feeling of the immigrant community, she responds, “definitely fear, fear of not being able to go out and do normal things that you usually would be able to do, like go to the store or buy groceries, because there's that fear that at any time a cop can stop you over and ask for your documentation. There's more of staying inside your home and not going out. It's been a constant fear, to the point of paranoia. People stop going to work. People stop running their businesses.”
“Immigrants make America great. Since the beginning, people have contributed to this country from many places. The beginning of this country is freedom and the pursuit of happiness, and when immigrants come here, that is what they are trying to do. Pursue that dream, pursue that happiness, however that may be, working hard, finding a new job, career, and integrating themselves into this country. That’s one of the things people forget about with all this. We are also contributors to the country.”
“When I was doing my citizenship classes, we were all coming in, and it was people from different countries, the Middle East, Asia, South America, everywhere. It reminded me of going into my ELL class when I first came here. There were people from many countries learning English, and I realized that everyone being so different shouldn’t be something that should be put against people. Just because you are from a different country. Like how right now it is, where if you are from another country, you are a criminal, you're this, you're that, you’re taking our jobs. That sentiment, I don’t think it is according, because everyone is contributing. Everyone I met there is packaging the meat at the factory, cleaning the windows of people's houses, building houses, cleaning houses; it's all a contribution, and it's what makes America great.”
