Imagine your dad is driving you to school. He is the most hard-working, noble and honest man you’ve come to know.
Nearly half a mile from school, ICE officials suddenly pulls the car over and escorts your father to their vehicle in handcuffs. You don’t know how long he’ll be gone or if he’ll return at all, and all it took was a brief moment to separate him from your family. This was the case for 13 year-old Fatima Gonzalez.
As a branch of the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s top and only priority should be notorious cartel leaders who impose an actual threat to the United States. As President Donald Trump has remarked, the only immigrants worthy of removal are the undocumented and criminal—the ones he has infamously claimed are bringing drugs, crime and rape.
The warrant ICE claims to possess for the detainment of Gonzalez’s father was no more than a 10-year old DUI and a 20-year old penalty for having the wrong car registration sticker. However, his active participation in both his community and his daughter’s school is overshadowed by his past. Like all families, there is a loved one who has committed mistakes, both insignificant and life-changing, but has made the effort to make it right. They have learned to deal with the past, and because of this, we appreciate and love them even more for the valiance of change.
I understand that in regards to upholding the law, these people have made the decision to commit a misdemeanor, and if repeated, a felony.
Yet we must consider the countless contributions they have made essential to our society. Contrary to popular belief, undocumented residents have contributed $11.6 billion dollars in taxes according to last year’s study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The myth that immigrants come to this country and do nothing but take is false. In reality, many of them long for the right to vote and participate in a government in which they yield no benefits. Yet still, 40 percent of eligible voters did not register to vote in last year’s election.
Additionally, activists worked diligently to push for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which provides financial aid to willing and undocumented college students, unlike the 30 percent of high school graduates citizens the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated did not pursue higher education.
There is more to just their undocumented backgrounds. These are people seeking refuge and opportunity who cannot afford to wait, in best circumstances, less than a decade. These are students, workers and taxpayers, but most of all, family members. It is Lady Liberty who asked we give her our tired, our poor, our hungry and our huddled masses yearning to be free.
America’s foundation was established through sweat on the backs of immigrants. By turning our backs on them, we are not representing the American Dream.
It is because of us that they are oppressed the way they are today.
TCHS School Newspaper