MHCC student reveals immigration struggle
To protect the identity of the person being profiled, The Advocate has decided to not publish his name and use “Juan” as a replacement. At first, Juan was hesitant of joining the protest. He had a lot to risk, primarily being deported to Mexico City. Juan is not a legal United States citizen; he’s an undocumented immigrant. Juan asked his friends whether or not if he should go, and they advised him not to. In the end, “I was like, man you know what? I’m going to risk it, if something happens then it’s for the community,” Juan said. At the protest he was alert, watching for vans and buses. He said those were what the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration services, formerly Immigration and Naturalization Service, use to deport illegal immigrants. However, Juan kept a positive spirit. Juan enjoyed the protest because everybody was walking with each other and united. Juan lived in Mexico City when he was a kid. When he was 8 years old, Juan and his father, came to Portland. He said there were a few of reasons his father brought him here: 1. His father was getting old and couldn’t care for him. 2. He didn’t want Juan to suffer because they had no money. 3. Juan’s mother died when he was 6 years old and his father remarried later on. Juan and his stepmother didn’t get along. They paid a “coyote” (a person who helps illegal immigrants cross the border) $2000 to help them come to America. They crossed the border at Ciudad, Juarez, and went straight to Phoenix, AZ. and from there straight to Portland. It took them a month and a half to go from Mexico City to Portland. Juan said the scariest part of the trip was when a helicopter came and spotted them. They were able to get away from the helicopter by hiding under the trees. When they reached the U.S. borders, Juan said everything started to brighten up. He describes that parts of Mexico was dry and had bushes, and the border that they crossed was dirty, but once they got to U.S. territory they started to notice it was more green. Even though they it was at night, Juana noticed the trees. When they got to Portland, they stayed at a relatives’ house, who were U.S. citizens. After a while his father left to go back to Mexico, leaving Juan in the care of his relatives. Now, at age 20, he’s stuck in limbo. Not only is he not a U.S. citizen but he’s not a Mexican citizen as either. “I can’t go back because I have no parents over there,” Juan said. “I don’t have legal papers to be there and I don’t have legal papers to be here, so I’m stuck.” His parents are now deceased, and he has no relatives in Mexico. With having nobody to go back to in Mexico, Juan and his relatives decided it was time to become citizens. They found out the fastest way to become a citizen was to be adopted by his relatives. However, he was 15 at the time, and the stipulation is they had to do it by the time he was 16 years old. The first part was to find a lawyer, but the eight to 10 lawyers they asked rejected the case because there was not enough time to finalize the papers by the time he turned 16. They eventually found someone to represent them and were able to finalize the adoption papers. However, the papers were finalized four months after Juan turned 16. He was adopted but not considered a citizen. After that, they filed two appeals to the INS to state he was an illegal immigrant; and in the time he has been here, he did not commit any crimes and didn’t work. Along with the appeals, he sent in a letter of recommendation from his high school principal, an Oregon senator and a petition signed by teachers from his high school. In doing so they were hoping for a hearing where he could present himself to a judge and explain his case, but the appeals never went through. He said even Channel 8 tried calling down to the INS to make a plea for him but it didn’t work. “I gave myself to the INS, I told them, ‘Hey look I’m an illegal immigrant,’” he said. “I should have already been deported but since I haven’t worked one single day in the U.S. they have no reason to deport me, I guess.” His principal used the No Child Left Behind Act to keep him in high school for another year. He was to finish his Certificate of Initial Masteries in high school. Now, with trying everything he could possibly do, Juan is trying to keep a low profile and live a normal life. He tries to blend in with everybody, keep going to school since that’s still important to him, also keep active, help the community and spend time with his friends. He says that he’s not scared, just a little nervous and more aware of his surroundings. Juan tries to be home by 8 p.m. “I want to keep myself under the sand,” Juan said. His sister always encourages him to not worry about the problem: to stay cool, keep active, and don’t worry too much. She told Juan sooner or later something might happen, so while he’s here, try to keep everything as positive as possible. For right now he has some freedom, he can go anywhere. But if the HR 4437 bill passes he expresses that i’ts like being chased all the time. To him it would be like planning how to make every move and step. “I’m going to go here, then I’m going to my house then I have to go here, here, here and here,” Juan said. “It’s like the Underground Railroad. That’s not freedom, that’s more like hell because you have to go run away and hide.” Another way Juan tries to keep a low profile is not having a job because he doesn’t want to get caught and do an illegal act. For money, sometimes he cleans his relatives’ house for $20, which is enough to pay for gas. His adopted parents feed and shelter him. “[But] its going to be hard because I want to move out of the house, but how can I move out if I can’t work?” Juan said. Even though he said he’s only nervous about being caught, he’s scared about the HR 4437 bill being passed. Not only because he might be deported to Mexico, but he’s scared for his adopted parents. They could be thrown in jail because they helped him by adopting him and letting him live in their house. Juan said if the bill gets passed and if he gets deported back to Mexico, he would try to find work and get help. “I don’t know how or where. The problem is whatever I have done here in college, whatever I’ve done in high school, my education, its not going to be counted,” Juan said. “I have to start over again.”
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