Immigration reform is a personal issue for Sandra
Sandra’s story: Suspicion of small steps toward immigration reform
Larry Love has direct experience with flaws in the U.S. immigration system. Larry interacts with people all over Salt Lake City and hears many personal stories of the wrenching consequences of a system badly in need of reform. The following is Larry’s account of an important conversation and personal true story:
I spoke with Sandra on July 14th, 2012 for over an hour about her goals and challenges. Sandra is a beautiful 17-year-old young woman that helps her father take care of her 3 younger siblings. Sandra has long jet-black hair and almost black eyes. She is athletic and quite tall considering her parents’ heights. As far as attitude is concerned, she can be obnoxious at times most likely due to being kept in the house without many outside activities that are allowed other than church or school.
Sandra and her brother were born in Mexico. Two other siblings were born in Salt Lake City. The family came to the US on visitor visas 15 years ago and they never left. They know that the visas have expired and that they are at risk of being deported. They live with this fear.
Two years ago Sandra’s mother and father explained to their children that they would be getting a divorce. The younger children were too small to understand what that meant although the short of it meant that mom would be leaving to live on her own and Dad would keep the 4 children with him at the home. Their father had bought 2 homes with his individual taxpayer identification number, issued for the purpose of paying taxes, and was renting one home out. With the divorce came the need to sell one of the homes. Financially it has been a struggle for both parents especially now that they have 2 sets of bills to pay rather than one.
The two younger boys are not mature enough to understand what “undocumented” means, so the explanation will have to come later when they are old enough to understand. Sandra is very leery to discuss immigration with any of her friends. Most of them don't know she is undocumented. She wonders what difference if any this would make in their friendships, but she has followed her father’s instructions and kept her status very hush hush.
Sandra is taking AP classes to get as much college credit as possible while in high school. She has been going around to different businesses trying to find companies that offer private scholarships although she has not had any luck as of yet. Sandra cannot qualify for any loans or government scholarships because of lack of documents. Sandra would like to get a job to help her father with the expenses, and she is debating whether or not to go buy a $100 dollar false social security card. She knows in her heart that doing so would go against her principles of honesty, yet she feels the pressure of the bills and the need to begin saving for college. She knows that such a card would not help her with any jobs that require E-Verify although there are still many jobs that you can get where a card like this would work just fine.
Sandra acts as the mother to her younger brothers and sisters since her mother left, and this really puts a damper on her social life. Still young, Sandra has great responsibilities. Sandra considers her studies a high priority, and she is hoping with all her heart that reasonable immigration reform can be passed soon. She does not feel comfortable giving her information to the government to qualify for the new Obama program because she fears that in 2 years she may be deported. In addition, it would also reveal information about her family members. So, for now, she is going to lay low and do her best to live in the shadows.
An American citizen who is at least 21 years old can petition for brothers and sisters. That is a long wait until Sandra’s brother turns 21, and even after that, there is presently a 16-year waiting list. And when her time comes, Sandra might have to leave the U.S. and be prohibited from coming back for 10 years.
Until reform comes, Sandra tries to live with a good attitude. Some of the neighbor girls overtly show their disdain for her, and this is very hard for her to understand. Why do they consider themselves better than her because of where they were born or the color of their skin? Sandra tries to make sense of these and other things as well but the reality of her situation speaks much louder than the voices heard at church, voices that that speak of equality and love.