No One Is Illegal
if you could
would you ensure that your loved ones
received the covet vaccine
if you could would you support hourly
workers receiving a minimum wage
if you could would you change the
injustices of our systemic racism
if your child had a learning disability
would you propose the best learning
opportunities for them
if your parents were a nursing home
wouldn’t you want to ensure they were
secure
and comfortable if the answer to any of
these
is yes then you have the power to be an
advocate to be a defender
an influencer advocacy is a powerful
notion
that converts the what is to the what
should be
to advocate is to have courage and
commitment for the things that matter to
us
it comes from within our own personal
experiences or from the empathy
we feel from others or for lucky
sometimes from both
its effect is to influence decisions in
political economic and social systems
by influencing individuals communities
and institutions
as advocates we can change the world
around us
but it doesn’t mean changing the whole
world it just means changing the world
you live in we best use advocacy when we
are fueled by
focus and joined by allies all while
understanding
our historical context of the change we
seek let me tell you about my historical
context
and the passion that fueled my focus
along with the allies that supported my
advocacy
journey in recent years when i am asked
what i do for a living
i smile and answer truthfully i keep
families together
now that response usually yields a
positive one
but when there’s a follow-up question to
my actual title
not so much when i share that i am an
immigration attorney i usually get one
of two responses
the first and the most common has been
oh great the second
has been oh my you must be exhausted
bless your heart
while i prefer the latter i am not
discouraged by the former
you see being an immigrant advocate has
been a part of my identity since i was a
child
i just didn’t realize it until much
later on in my adult life
this is why maya angelou’s words
resonate so deeply with me
you cannot really know where you are
going until you know where you have been
the root of my commitment to immigrants
can be summarized in two vivid childhood
memories
the first i was six years old in
kindergarten my sister and i had just
arrived from colombia
we were living in rocky hill connecticut
and it was no secret we were the only
foreigners in that school
one day during recess my sister who was
in the second grade was pushing me on
the swing set
when out of nowhere jason and his
friends stood directly in front of us
with a mean look on his face he told us
to get off his swing
the natural-born rebel in me looked to
the right
and i looked to my left and after seeing
empty swings on both sides
i said no we’re not leaving
at that time as celia cruz used to say
our english
was not very good looking and so it gave
him ample opportunity
to mock our broken english
after he finished his slew of insults
and his face had transformed
his eyes had squinted his forehead had
crinkled
his face all red he yelled get out of
here you spicks
that hateful phrase was immediately
followed by his spit landing on my
forehead
my six-year-old forehead
i may have been young and i need to
understand the racist meaning of that
word but i
instantly felt the disgust in his voice
and to this day i can still feel the
fury of hate in his words
i just remember feeling helpless and
dirty
the second memory occurred when i was 13
years old
living in hagerstown maryland i was at
the grocery store with my family
when i had wandered off and overheard a
woman speaking spanish to the cashier
i immediately smiled finding another
person that spoke spanish
in public in that town was like finding
a unicorn
there weren’t that many of us and if we
were seeing we quickly disappeared
i could see that she was using her young
daughter to translate the cashier’s face
of contempt
told me otherwise at that time
my english had dramatically improved and
so i was overwhelmed with the desire to
go and help her
and so i did i invited my inquisitive
self into that conversation
and began translating as if i had been
there the entire time
the woman’s eyes gave a sigh of relief
i don’t remember the cashier but i have
never forgotten
the gratitude shining through that
woman’s smile
it is one of my earliest memories of
what it feels like to have a true moment
of connection
with a complete stranger and what
empathy has felt like for me
ever since as an immigrant child
i did experience the initial bouts of
racism but that faded as i eventually
thrived
i excelled in high school went to
college on a scholarship
there i studied and worked full time and
i volunteered at the human rights center
translating for immigrants and refugees
my senior year in college i took a
course in international human rights
and one might say this is where the
trajectory of my present life
began the professor
who was a priest that had later become
an immigration and
international human rights attorney
exemplified a love for humanity
that transcended his lectures and all of
his worldly travels
his raw and compassionate teachings were
so infectious
they ignited in me a spark i didn’t know
i had
but as i got older i realized that spark
had actually been there
all along it had been there since i was
a child it just needed to come into
focus
his teachings bridged the gap between my
personal immigrant experiences
and the realization that i had privilege
even as an immigrant
yeah i had suffered severe childhood
traumas and i had to work
multiple jobs to sustain myself but
nonetheless i came to understand
that i had been afforded opportunities
my immigrant counterparts had not
this awareness fueled me all the way to
law school where i specifically pursued
a field in law
that stemmed from the very discomfort i
had first felt
as my 6 and 13 year old self
as an immigrant adult i’ve been
fortunate to have incredible role models
first in undergrad then in law school
and now in my present day
they have supported my ideas they have
encouraged my creativity
and they have challenged my thought
process
their actions have showed me the impact
of advocacy
i’ll never forget the time that my law
school mentor
purchased an entire washer and dryer set
for her immigrant client
who with her minor child had just
escaped an abusive relationship
it wasn’t so much the purchase that left
an impression on me
as it was the fact that in different
ways she always
showed up for her clients my role models
have had one thing in common
and that is that they have consistently
and selflessly
showed up as an adult i have tried to
intentionally
surround myself with those type of
people
people who are kind who are wise who are
selfless
leaders who know how to follow
organizers with infectious energies
empowering women and the men that
support them
people of color who refused to be
silenced
survivors who became fearless
marginalized people
who found their voice resilient
immigrant and refugees and if there was
ever a time
that the world needed more of these
allies and of these advocates and their
collective love
it is now we need them now more than
ever
the development of my advocacy journey
has led me here today
to my core i believe this fundamental
truth
no human being is illegal i
say it i breathe it i live it
so much so that it’s the guest wi-fi
password at my office
i have shattered it at the top of my
lungs at every march and rally i have
attended
and i correct every immigrant that calls
themselves an illegal
because here they’ve only known
themselves to be illegal
to be less than to be dirty
illegal alien is an important phrase
that is neither accurate
nor neutral it is offensive and
dehumanizing
and in recent years has been
intentionally polarizing
human beings cannot be illegal
mass shootings are illegal rape and
sexual assault
are illegal discrimination
tax evasion bribery wire fraud
abuse of power those acts
are illegal immigrants
whether documented or not have names and
families
they have hopes and dreams just like you
and i do
they want better for themselves just
like you and i do
they bleed the exact same red blood that
you and i bleed
they are human just like you and me
the woman who after 13 years of enduring
horrific abuse at the hands of her
husband
who was subjected to rapes and beatings
and thus
miscarriages who had no protection from
her
destabilized government who fled in
order to just
breathe that woman and her child
are human just like you and me
the man who arrived 10 20 years ago
looking for better opportunities
but who stayed who built a life and a
family here
who has worked here and paid taxes who
has been an otherwise
outstanding citizen that man
is human just like you and me
but when they are forcibly their country
due to the ongoing persecution
of corrupt governments or the wars and
civil wars and the devastating aftermath
or the violence of criminal
transnational organizations
or the deadly political unrest
or the severe economic despair
they are cast aside as subhuman and
generalized as criminals
that hateful phrase of illegal alien can
be countered with the power of accurate
and compassionate words because as we
know
words are so powerful they can either
unite a nation or cause an insurrection
they are so powerful they can start a
movement where they can leave a lifetime
impression
words are transformational
as an immigrant advocate i believe that
undocumented immigrants
are americans just like you and me
so where can your advocacy journey begin
how can you help your family or your
neighbor
we’ll start with this basic concept in
what settings or circumstances
does your heart pull you to do more or
make you mindful
of doing better perhaps you heard
something
that made you emotional perhaps seeing
someone suffering
drew you to want to help or protect them
maybe
an experience left you suddenly
uncomfortable and you didn’t know why
pay attention to that reaction and that
discomfort in your gut
talk to it listen to it identify it
for it might be how your passion can
come into focus
the magnitude of your advocacy does not
have to be huge
gandhi said it best when he said do not
look for
big things just do small things with
great love
the smaller the thing the greater must
be our love
so identify what moves you what sparks a
flurry of ideas and thoughts
and after that interest emerges then put
it into focus by seeking your allies
search amongst your friends your
colleagues your community contacts
look at your leaders and the movers and
shakers that work in and around that
interest
you will find much happiness building
and organizing with them
their knowledge will polish your ideas
and they will connect you with even
more diverse thinkers and you will
evolve
this is how you can begin to change the
world you live in
from the what is to the what should be
it is how your
if i could can become the i did
it is how you can become the advocate
this world needs
jk rowling said we do not need magic to
change the world
we have all the power inside us already
we have the power to imagine better
i imagine a world where no one is
illegal
will you join me
you