(7) AMERICAN ENOUGH, WITH JAYWALKING AS AN ALLEGORY

As the characters said themselves, the nuances of immigration policy are complex, and I don’t know enough to have a strong opinion for or against them. I would hope those reading this would be self-aware and humble enough to hold similar views. One thing I do know though is that we collectively have a tendency to make topics like illegal immigration more of a black and white issue than they really are. We simplify this difficult process into “they should have come here legally” or “if they knew they were illegal, then they shouldn’t have had kids.” But we honestly know nothing about the situations from which these people leave (or flee), how tedious the process of becoming a citizen is, their access to this knowledge, general emotional empathy for their situations, or the tests they’d have to pass to become legal — ones most of us would likely fail ourselves. 

    This blissful ignorance  is a privilege that many immigrants, legal or illegal, and Hispanics don’t have. This is especially true for Mexicans because when we think of illegal immigration, we often associate it with them. To an extent, this is understandable given the high amount of immigrants from Mexico, but the way immigration is portrayed by the media, the government, and by citizens is so biasely skewed that we rarely associate it with any other racial group. For instance, how often have you thought of Canadians when someone brought up illegal immigration? I know I hadn’t. After all, they come here illegally too, but because they “blend in” with the general population more, we rarely think of them.

    Instead, we often think of Mexicans — or possibly anyone who looks traditionally Hispanic. The problem with this line of thought is that is creates a distortion about being “passable.” Because when we think of these illegal immigrants who “look Mexican,” it means we end up targeting all Hispanic ethnic groups (including Cubans, Guatemalans, Costa Ricans, Puerto Ricans, etc.), people who look Hispanic (as is the case with some Native Americans) or the racially ambiguous, who we may assume are Hispanic (certain Indians, Southeast Asians, Middle Easterners, and biracial people). As a consequence of this, it also means that those Mexicans (or Hispanics) who don’t meet these racial expectations (those who are multicultural, or look more Black, White, or Asian) are excluded from this prejudice. This in turn may cause many of those who possess the features we associate with Hispanics to feel unwelcome, even if they are here legally, even if they were born in the U.S., and even if their family has been here for generations. I am not here to tell you how to feel about illegal immigration, just to say that if you do think about, discuss, protest, or advertise it, make sure to include people of all races, not just those who look Mexican. And if we were to approach these issues with a little more empathy and less bias, it might cause many of us to take on more humanitarian views.