For a Better Life

By Anonymous / Winter 2021

Dear Mom,

After learning about the true histories behind this country, it has caught my attention that events that happened in the past are very similar to events happening in today’s society many years later. One thing in particular that I would like to point out to you is the problem of immigration that exists today. You and I have discussed this issue multiple times and still have very different views on this topic. I would like to share some of our history with you that shows that immigration has been an issue in the past as well. As you know with the former president trying to build a wall to stop all immigrants from entering from Mexico, this topic became a heated debate across all of The United States. This mostly began with the lies that were spread by former President Trump. He told the nation that Mexico was sending over their worst and all of the people that were coming to the US were rapists, drug dealers, and murderers and people believed him. He called them all criminals. People, including you, also believed that it was these immigrants from Mexico that were stealing our jobs. All of this misinformation fueled xenophobia in this country and support of building a wall to stop illegal immigrants from entering the US. Not to mention, those who were caught living here illegally were put into detention centers where they were kept in terrible conditions. As Mark Twain once said “History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” I want to share with you about some of the events that I have learned about recently that are a part of our history that were similar to what is happening today related to immigration.

In the past, there was a similar event happening with the Chinese and the Irish. There was a time when the Irish were being described as “a race of savages” similar to Trump categorizing the Mexican race as “criminals”. The same things were happening when Chinese immigrants were coming to the US as well. People believed that China was sending their worst over to the US. They believed that the Chinese were a threat to our country’s safety and that they are stealing all of our jobs. We hear this over and over again as there is no other way to describe these immigrants. The idea of building a wall was not all Trump’s idea, in fact when Chinese immigration was seen as an issue in the US, they wanted a wall built to keep them out as well. In 1882, the US actually made a law called the Chinese Exclusion Act that banned immigrants from coming to the US from China. This is like the Muslim ban that Trump had placed on Muslim countries. We cannot continue to place bans on a whole race from entering the US. The US was a country built by immigrants and I feel like a lot of people forget or don’t even know that side of our history.

These myths of immigrants being criminals and threats to our country and our citizens are repeated through time over and over again and it is still happening today. A big part of this is the media and misinformation that is spread while trying to keep the idea of white supremacy and nativism alive. In reality however, most of these people are not coming here to commit crimes or steal our jobs. They are simply trying to make a better life for themselves and their families. If coming to the US illegally with the risk of being caught and deported seems like a better choice, imagine the current conditions that they are currently living in. They have just as much of a right to a better life as we do. People think that they are stealing our jobs when they are actually taking unwanted jobs that most Americans would not want. If we did not have immigrants working in the fields, who else would do it? We need to realize that this cheap labor is actually essential labor. They are essential workers keeping this country going even in the midst of this pandemic. People see them as a threat when they are actually very important to our society and we do not even realize it because that is not what the media portrays. We need to let go of these repeated myths that we keep hearing over and over again due to xenophobia, we can work together as one to create an even better and more accepting society.

I want to ask you mom, to what extent would you go to give me a better life. If you knew coming to the United States would do that for me and the rest of our family, would you? I hope that after learning all of this your views on immigration have changed or you have at least started to think deeper about the issue.

Your daughter