Posted on 02/07/2013 4:57:02 AM PST by shoff
Friend --
I was brought to this country from Mexico when I was 2 years old.
I am an undocumented immigrant -- and I am living proof that our immigration system is broken.
For the first 17 years of my life, I slept on a couch. My mom worked three jobs to support our family.
I worked hard, too. I did my homework, participated in class, and earned the opportunity go to college. But after I enrolled, state law changed and many undocumented immigrants were forced to drop out. Suddenly they could no longer afford the education they were eager to work for.
We started organizing. We'd go up to people on campus, and ask them if they'd heard about the DREAM Act, which would allow hard-working immigrants who grew up in the U.S. to earn a path to citizenship. For those who opposed it, we'd tell them what happened to us.
It was amazing: Just telling our stories would change people's minds.
This is exactly how we're going to persuade people across the country to get behind President Obama's plan for comprehensive immigration reform.
Everyone has a story -- I'm sure you do, too. As the President said last week, "Unless you're one of the first Americans, a Native American, you came from someplace else. Somebody brought you."
At this critical moment, will you share your immigration story? Organizing for Action will use these stories to move the conversation forward.
Now, almost six years later, I've completed law school and was fortunate to receive deferred action. I consider myself an American, and I want to play by the same rules as everyone else. But, as it stands, I can never become a citizen. I can't adjust my status. For most of my life, I could have been arrested, detained, and deported.
I'm not alone. Millions of undocumented immigrants like me live in fear of being deported permanently to a country we may have never even visited. Our entire lives could be erased.
You might not live under the same shadow. But the best thing about this country is that we are more alike than we are different. We all have a story of a mother, or grandfather, or great-great grandparent who came here to find opportunity or safety.
Through this grassroots movement, we can raise our voices, tell our stories, and make sure Congress and all Americans better understand the ties that bind us. Our stories can drive our organizing. Share your own story today, and help Organizing for Action get the word out on why this matters:
http://my.barackobama.com/Share-Your-Immigration-Story
The majority of Americans agree we need to fix our badly broken system, and we saw major progress last week. But it's on us to keep up the momentum and make sure it gets done.
Thanks for speaking up.
Jose
Jose Magana
My ancestors immigrated (legally) to the Republic of Texas back in the 1840’s.
Maybe obama came “from somewhere else” but I sure as heck didn’t!
well Jose, hopefully as a lawyer, you will respect the law more than your parents did. And won’t spend the whole time helping people flout it. You really ought to figure out a way to assist Mexico in becoming a more legitimate less criminal country. That would go a long way toward helping your countrymen bloom where they are planted and have some opportunity other than being a drug dealer or drug runner or cougar.
The actions of parents can adversely affect their children, that’s not news. Perhaps the lack of foresight and concern for this obvious truism should bring the children to question the parents, asking why they would put their children into such a position.
No, it’s not fair to the children but the “unfairness” began with the parents making their children part of the illegality.
He is a broken record. It is just a rehash of his "you didn't build that speech."
“Suddenly they could no longer afford the education they were eager to work for. “
But he has no problem taking the tax dollars from US/state citizens to bump a citizen from getting the education that he, too, has worked for. Take that up with your mother who decided she would simply move to the head of the line.
My maternal grandfather came to the US in 1910. At that time, he was considered a subject of the crown, since Ireland was still a province of England. We’ve got all of his papers. Maternal grandmother was first generation Irish. Don’t know much about the paternal side. Grandfather came down to Michigan from Quebec. I know he died in 1948. My paternal grandmother died before I was born; she was a first generation Irish.
They came here legally! They became citizens. They spoke only English in the home until they learned the language and they adopted all American customs without whining or losing their own culture.
I am eternally grateful to them!
Lets be fair.
If a bad guy robs Brinks of $3,000,000.00 it is not his children’s fault.
They should be allowed to keep the money.
My family’s from the United States of America. Yours isn’t, and neither are you.
Now STFU.
I was at an illegal immigrant counter protest and one supporter stated that how can you blame the kids, the parents just wanted a better life for their children. I responded by saying so why is that America’s problem, what the parents did to their own children, and couldn’t Bernie Madoff say the same thing about his crime “it was just for a better life for my children”. After huffing “but that’s different” they hustled off.
Both sides of my family have been traced to coming over in early 1700’s from Germany and Ireland. They are followed the rules and worked hard.
It makes my wife mad (she is 1/4 Apache) when I put Native American on surveys. I tell her and others my lineage has been here almost as long as Indians. Even Indians came from somewhere else. They just got here first. I am as Native as the next person.
So when somebody breaks into your house and brings their kids, its ok for them to stay?
Jeez...GET OUT!
The sad thing is that if the Congress passes amnesty on 12 million plus illegals only a miniscule amount will ever come forward and apply for citizenship. Most Mexicans are highly national and have no desire to be come US citizens.
Thanks to my wife’s interest in genealogy, I’ve learned that I had ancestors in North America at the time of the Revolution, and they fought on both sides of the war. Quite a bit of Mom’s family tree came over from England (my earliest known ancestor is recorded in an English census shortly after the Norman conquest, in fact) and on Dad’s side I’m descended from Hessians.
But I recently learned that one of my more recent ancestors, my great-grandfather (Dad’s mom’s dad), may have come here illegally. He was born in the Azores and was a crewmember of a ship docked in New York, and one day decided to jump ship and remain in the States; this was some time before WWI, although I don’t recall exactly when he came to America (I do know that Nana was born in 1913, though).
On a somewhat “unrelated” note, it turns out that on my mom’s side of the family, I’m distantly related to Dolly Madison and John Marshall.
If you do the math from big sisters own Department of Homeland security you will see only 12% of the immigrants are illegal. The rest seem to have figured out how to use the broken system. But the illegal’s never go away and just keep adding up. Janet from another planet figures about 500,000 illegal’s each year multiply by 24 (approx years since last immigrant fix) and 12 million poor souls in the country. I’ll post my article about it later.
Cry me a river, Josie...most of my ancestors were here when we were still a British Colony, arriving in the 1600’s, others came legally through Ellis Island. All came before 1900. So just get your illegal, alien butt back to Mexico where it belongs.
My fathers family came from England in the 1690’s and also includes american indian over the years.
My mothers parents came from Lithuania in 1908 through Ellis Island and did it LEGALLY.
My wife came from Sweden in the 1980’s and it took her 15 years to get her US citizenship LEGALLY.
My daughter-in-law is from Monterrey, Mexico, and has her MS in Industrial Engineering and did so on a tennis scholarship. She is currently going through the process of getting her citizenship LEGALLY.
I have worked ranch laborers from Mexico who got their citizenship LEGALLY.
QUIT YOUR WHINING JOSE! EXISTING LAWS ALLOW YOU TO GET YOUR CITIZENSHIP. GET IN LINE AND JUST DO IT.
We need to change the tone of our argument, and explain that we are not anti-illegal immigration, but rather we are Pro LEGAL immigration.
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