Dear America, 

My name is Pamela Rodriguez. I came to the states when I was 8 years old. I had a really happy life in the Dominican Republic. I am the daughter of a single mother who jointly with her family’s helped raised two beautiful kids. ( I mean we’re cute) It was always believe that moving to America was the best way to give your kids a future like no other. So my mother did just that. We were lucky. Well we are lucky. And everyday I feel so so lucky that my mother was able to get petitioned the right way and with her we were given papers. La targeta verde. The green card. All of a sudden everyone in my family was so so happy for us. “Te vas pa nueva york” “Estas privonaaa, cuando vengas no me vas a conocer” were some of the comments I heard when we received our papers. People we’re so happy around us, everyone but me. 

See here’s the catch. I never wanted to come to America but for being here I am grateful. We came here by choice & luck. We came here because everyone believed America was the place where my mother could raise two kids alone and they’d still be successful and happy. And she did. She worked tirelessly multiple jobs to make sure Luis and I had everything. Here in America we struggled though. We were on Government assistance for years, we had to live in a room for 6 months because Mami couldn’t pay for an apartment and yes sometimes we had to choose if the lights would stay on or if we would watch tv. Of none of these things am I ashamed instead I am proud. Proud to be an immigrant of the United States whose humble beginnings guided her to go from an ESL class to Honor English. Whose long summers in the Dominican Republic always reminded her that home will always be home but for the sake of my family and my mother’s hard work I had to do everything in my power to make them proud. Over the last 16 years I have made myself a respectable member of society. I have graduated high school, college, have worked many jobs and currently work in the field I love so much. My brother graduated high school and though he did not continue to college he’s as smart if not smarter than me. He is a great salesman and he is happy in his job putting people in new cars to reach new roads everyday. And 16 years later we live in a beautiful home with our mother. No government assistant, just three hardworking adults still working on the American Dream their Mother once had. And yes this is a letter to America to say both Thank You but also ask Why? 

As of late, so much has happened to the immigration community a community I am a part of. A community I represent, one that even though some situations vary we all come here with the same goal and for the same reason. For a better future and for a better life. Earlier I mentioned that I came here by choice and so many immigrants don’t. They come here running away from death, from poverty, from situations that I honestly can never even imagined but have heard and have met the faces of those who experience it. So yes, I am an immigrant but I was lucky and I came here out of choice. Choice and luck not many have.

So America I ask you, why? Why have you forgot the simple human rights of people who walk miles, days, weeks to come to you. Why do we tarnish their dreams when AMERICA is the only ounce of HOPE they have left. These women, men, children, elderly decided to walk miles and miles in an unknown journey and when they arrived after a never ending walk and journey they were received by hate and disgust. Imagine that. I know you can not imagine it. I can’t either. But one thing I know we can do is ask for change, demand change. DEMAND RESPECT.

All of us live on our phones so I know for sure you have heard about the Immigration detention centers conditions and the injustice those people are experiencing. Why do we go on about our lives like they don’t need us? Why do we let a standing “President” disrespect basic human rights and not do anything? I am not asking you to stop doing what your doing and liberate them but even the comments we make around people, the tone we use when speaking about them or the approach we make when we see a tweet, a picture, a video. OUR VOICES MATTER and silence is so much louder than anything you can say. SO SAY SOMETHING.

For a while I worked with an immigration lawyer and I must say she is kick ass! Probably one of the best in her field. So speaking to her I thought it was smart to leave some tips below on what to do if ICE knocks on your door. Please be advised the raids that are happening are targeted to individuals that have a standing deportation orders.  ICE has many addresses on files from passed applications filed by people and they are going for the ones who have a deportation order. 

IF ICE KNOCKS ON YOUR DOOR:

• Do not open the door. I repeat DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR. 

• Ask if they have a warrant of arrest under your name and your address. 

• If the officer says yes then please ask them to slip it under the door or through a window but DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR until you see it, they can’t force their way into your home if they do not have this. 

• They most likely will say yes (lying), which is why it’s important you get the COPY.  A warrant of arrest and a deportation order are TWO DIFFERENT THINGS. 

• If they do not have the warrant eventually they will leave if you don’t open the door. In the time being please contact your lawyer explain what happened. 

• Be aware that sometimes they will lure you in. They will use examples like “I think your car is being towed” “We will help you, we just want to speak with you” “please open the door, it will be fast” AGAIN. DO NOT. OPEN. THE. DOOR. 

I’m not an immigration expert but I am an immigrant. My heart hurts for those who don’t have a place to go home too, because here in America they have found their home. I think of the fathers who for years have worked endless hours to provide for their families in return for only that, a happy family and today are in facilities begging for water and a shower. I think of the mothers who take care of their kids but also help raise the kids of others in hope of a good paying job. To the girls that we’re raped back “home” and left because staying in their villages after accusing their perpetrator could only get them killed. Please be more respectful. Please don’t make it a laughing matter. 

Truth of the matter is we are all immigrants and we all came to America because it’s the land of the free, of the hardworking it’s the land where every person is entitled to the purse of happiness.  I believe laws should be implemented where people who have committed crimes and aren’t good should not stay. But to put everyone in the sam category makes us a terrible place. Gives us an ugly personality. Separating families and letting kids go days without food and sleeping with on cold floors because all they wanted was a better future is inhumane.

The narrative needs to be corrects. Our personality needs to be fixed. America, we aren’t looking too good. We suck. We look like the bitch in the high school cafeteria who wants to have everyone cater to her but they can’t be apart of her friend group. We have millions of immigrants dedicate years of hard work to us for us and now here we are just bashing them all together in detention centers telling them basically “fuck off”.

My last words America is to your “President”, asking us to go back to where we come from after all the value we add to “your” country is not the fucking answer Mr. Trump.

if you need to contact a lawyer, need a consultation please call Gisele Chavez Garcia, Esq.
(212)-361-9647 or 845-232-2362. She does free consultations!!

http://giselachavezgarcia.com/

xoxo P$