I did a TED talk — "Hiding In Plain Sight: My Life As An Undocumented American" - Page 8

Was this comment for me or Pianos?

Sorry I just saw your comment! I have a very weird situation. Here's a weird timeline:

2007 — I got my drivers license.
2008 — I got a work permit. I worked at a grocery store as a cashier.
2010 — I am a junior in college. I got a letter in the mail that said my visa expired in 2002. If this is true, then how was it possible for me to get a work permit in the year 2008?

So apparently I went out of status in 2002, but I was still able to legally work in 2008??? Not sure what the deal was. That's called a perfect example of why/how the immigration system is broken. Wouldn't you agree?

I am the most harmless user here, I don't know why everyone is so afraid of me and feels victimized by me. So, everyone who questions you is rude as hell? I am not going to agree with you blinding if thats what you want. You have lots of users here already, you don't need me pom-poming you. "Give me a U- give me a N - give m D -give me O give me a C " yeah see, thats just not me.

There are lots of ways that being undocumented has affected my life. They just weren't as obvious to me, as I imagine they were for you. For example:

(1) STUDY ABROAD: In high school I wanted to go on a class trip to China but my mom said we couldn't afford it. She said the same thing in college when I wanted to study abroad, and she was pretty damn adamant about it. The real reason was that if I left the country, I wouldn't be allowed back in.

(2) FINANCIAL AID: When I applied to college, I had to apply as an international student because I obviously didn't have a green card. A lot of schools evaluate US citizens/permanent residents differently than international students. At Northwestern, international students basically don't get financial aid. So I had to take out $110,000 in student loans while my friends were paying basically half that. The longer-term consequence of this is that I owe so much money, I can't move out of my house. I won't be able to move out for another year or two, while 90% of my friends are off gallivanting around the world or living in condos in midtown Manhattan.

(3) WORK EXPERIENCE: My parents have continuously filed paperwork for permanent resident status since like 1998. We've had several different visas, and in college my parents filed yet another green card application. My work permit expired Oct 2008 (freshman year) and when I wanted to work in college, my mom told me she had applied for a new work permit for me but it hadn't arrived yet. I didn't realize that there was no work permit that was coming. My parents didn't include me in their immigration stuff bc it really is an adults' issue. There were so many lawyers involved all the time and they didn't want me to be worried about the paperwork.

(4) INTERNSHIPS: I got accepted to a really awesome internship during my junior year. They asked for a work permit and actually rescinded my offer once I couldn't produce a work permit. I was totally bummed but this is another example of how being undocumented has created obstacles for me.

(5) COLLEGE GRADUATION: I live in Texas but went to school in Chicago. My parents had to drive 20+ hours to my college graduation ceremony because they couldn't fly there (no ID). And my brother had to rent a car for them because he had a valid driver's license, but they didn't. It was actually pretty scary to trek through highways littered with border patrol because you never know who is going to stop you.

(6) NIGHTLIFE: Warning... first world problem:
Chicago is the best city in this country, partially for its amazing nightlife. After I learned about my status, going out to bars and clubs made me really paranoid because I never knew if I was going to lose my drivers license, or if a bouncer was going to take it, because if I lost my license, I wouldn't be able to get another one (meaning I wouldn't be able to fly home to see my family for winter/spring break). I also used to get really paranoid at airports for the same reason.

(7) PRISON: I was part of an investigative journalism think tank my senior year of college. We had to go interview an inmate in prison and the first time my class went, I couldn't go because I didn't know if my ID would trigger an immigration alarm in the prison's identification database. Luckily I got to go see the inmate and this was the incredible outcome!

(8 ) DETENTION CENTER: My dad got picked up by ICE back in May. I had to bail him out of the detention center. I'm pretty sure this is an experience unique to undocumented immigrants (and the families of felons).

(9) JURY DUTY: That's right folks - I got called in for jury duty!! Sadly I couldn't go for obvious reasons.

(10) VISITING RELATIVES: I have a huge family (like 50+ cousins). None of them live in the US. I've never been to a family wedding or met any of my cousins' kids. My grandpa is my best friend and I'm dying to see him, so I had to apply for AP and I'm waiting for hopefully an approval to come through.

(11) HEALTHCARE: I'm 24 years old. A lot of my friends are on their parents' healthcare plans, but since my parents don't qualify for Obamacare, I have to pay for private insurance through work. It's not easy to watch your parents skip basic checkups with the dentist and doctor while I'm getting my teeth cleaned twice a year for basically no cost. Their sacrifices have made it possible for me to find a good job, and it's completely unfair that they can't reap the benefits of their own hard work.



So yeah, perhaps I'm not "undocumented enough" in some respects but that doesn't mean I haven't seen my fair share of obstacles. My parents worked damn hard to make sure that I felt like I had a normal American childhood, and I'm glad they did because not once as a kid was I ever plagued with the thought that I could get kicked out of this country. I never had to live with that type of fear until my junior year of college. If I had known what kind of obstacles and roadblocks I'd have to face in the future, then I never would have tried as hard as I did in school and in life. I'm sorry if you went through something different, but things are getting better now for ALL of us.

You haven't shared much about your personal background but I encourage you to talk about it so you can help people understand what it means to be undocumented. If they understand, they will change. You can be a part of that.

Listen, don't pay too much attention to certain comments. I'm just sorry that you are undocumented in one way or another. Like I said, I wouldn't want to wish that on anyone. I'm terribly sorry, your dad got picked up by ICE; fuck, I would have died if that happened to my dad. Again, thanks for fighting for our cause. I wish, I could come out and do the same, but that would cause my dad to lose his job. So again, thank you for the TeD talk and voicing your thoughts on the matter.

Undocumented enough? lmao I am sorry but this made laugh, I didn't think about like that, but yes, it would seem that is it. Every experience you put there isn't one that many of us haven't experience, so I am not sure why you thought it would make whatever point you're trying to make here valid, that you've had your shared of hardships just as the rest of us? Why some of them were interesting to read, most of them are as barely what one would consider harship. "My life was ruined... when I was called to jury duty and I couldn't go - its Obamas fault he hasn't done ENOUGH" am I suppose to feel bad or something? lol I am not saying your experiences here are not heartbreaking, actually, I am tears from the fact that your night life was boring, it was so touching. ;_; see? I could share all my experiences I could make them heartbreaking, sad and touching but what would that do exactly? Make my points more valid? thats just using emotions to get people to pity me.

My main point here is that you trying to take the position that being here in your own personal situation was the worst thing possible, nothing comes close to what you went through when like I said, there are millions of people out there who are in positions 10X as worse as yours. Lets take in mind you family visa was upgraded somehow to an investors ones.

http://www.uscis.gov/working-united-...grant-investor

Don't you need money for this? What went wrong that you couldn't a better status out of this? Or am I wrong, and if I am, can you explain this further? It seems as your life was all colorful and wonderful until that dreadful day you found out your existence here was all but a lie, wait thats too dramatic, undocumented, there we go.

I still like the video btw.





Still not sure why others didn't leave it as that. I am going to put little warning signs next time to prevent people from taking what I said I would leave alone.




Actually, lets agree to disagree, and move on, but by all means you are welcome to continue replying to me.

LOL excuse me? Are you seriously telling her this when shes out there http://www.washingtonpost.com/postev...ies-like-mine/ replying to anyone who dares questions her and doesn't agree with her?

So tell me about your background. Who are you, how did you get to the US, when did you learn you were undocumented and how has that affected your life?

You seem so quick to judge everyone else — come on, share a little.

Oh Piano, you crack me up man. I don't even know what to tell you. Yea, sure. I love having people like her on our side. I don't care that she had it better or worse than us nor if she is enough this or that. She is on our side, and we need all the help that we can get. But you can disagree and that is cool with me. Just difference of opinion and nothing more

Indeed, I feel like I could use some extra courage. But then I feel like perhaps it's better to stay quiet. Can't get hurt even more if no one knows... right? Can't make the best out of it either if you don't push aggressively enough.

I was too scared for a long time to tell anyone about my situation & status. Only some time after I got my work permit and finally started moving towards adjustment of status (no thanks to my family) did I finally feel like I could start telling more people about my situation.

Most of my immediate family are US citizens. Yet they (parents) purposely let my legal status lapse and didn't petition for me (well not until it was too late anyway).

I feel like maybe I should do something more... Surely my case is a great example of how broken this immigration system is.

Some awesome quotes from my interactions with USCIS/Immigration Lawyers

"No one can compel him to sign anything" - Immigration Attorney & later USCIS themselves
"I don't understand" - Immigration Attorney
"Why would someone do that?" - Immigration Attorney
When I asked "Isn't there something that can be done to force some action?"
"No, because it's technically not illegal to keep you here illegally" - Immigration Attorney