Invisible Bodies and Immigration Reform

Guest blogger: Simarjit Kaur, second-year law student, University of San Francisco

In groups of two or three, they stood on the grass near the main road in front of Orchard Supply wearing jeans and cream-colored hats. Some stood quietly, while others chatted. It was only for mere seconds that I looked at their figures and then, they became invisible once more. I have heard over and over that we are in need of  immigration reform. For some it is a border issue, for others it is the urgency of uniting family members, for some it is the fear of immigrants in general, and for others, it is simply a “Latino” problem. Whatever the reason, the words “comprehensive immigration reform” has vibrated from every politician’s mouth in the last few months. The last presidential election results only further highlighted the “Latino” problem for Republicans.

No matter how many times I hear politicians talk about the need for immigration reform, I always wonder whether they realize that they are talking about living, breathing humans.  I understand that as a nation, our government has certain powers, responsibilities, and duties to secure the nation against the threats by any foreign individuals or nations, to protect interests of its own citizens against the interests of foreigners, and to advance its private interests as a nation. Therefore, it is not possible and even advisable to accept every person who wants to come to United States. It is understood that immigrating to United States is not a right but a privilege. However, when we do discuss immigrants, in particular undocumented immigrants, let us not forget that we are talking about people, individuals who are members of families, who are unique and have personal aspirations, who are students, field workers, factory workers, domestic workers, and those who are capable of much more if they are given the opportunity to bring about their potential. Undocumented immigrants not only hide their bodies in order to live here, they often end up hiding their aspirations, their potential, and their talents. Those individuals who enter United States without inspection are undocumented immigrants, but they are not illegal humans.

It is not the reluctance against the idea of allowing legal immigration to continue or of letting undocumented immigrants stay in the United States that makes me nervous; it is the indifference, hate, and beliefs of inferiority of immigrants as a group shared by some that makes me question the existence of the last century. Have we not learned that prejudice, indifference, and lack of respect for a particular group can become hate over time? It gradually seeps into our thoughts, into our conversations, into our words, and into the adjectives that we use to describe immigrants. We need conversation. We need an honest conversation. When Congress members sit in their seats to make their decision, when we all sit in our homes, in our workplace, in our social gatherings, we need a conversation where we do not just repeat what we have heard over and over. Instead, we need to listen to the stories, experiences, and challenges of these invisible bodies. It may involve looking into other solutions such as to help build Mexico’s economy rather than spending millions on a fence. Maybe we will not go that route, and maybe we will build even higher walls, but let us not build walls in our dialogues where we close our eyes and ears from the opinions that are different from our own.

My own experiences have led me to believe that if we continue to live with the immigration policies as they are, we will continue to tear families apart and ignore the hardships experienced by many undocumented immigrants. Many have spent decades to build a life for themselves and for their families. Their children go to school here. They are members of our communities. The policies we create today will impact the lives of these undocumented immigrants, their children, their families, their friends, and even our own. Our skin colors might be different, our accents might be different, the food we prepare in the kitchen and the music we listen in our cars might be different, but we share our common goal to live a better life with our families.

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