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Taniuska Tikay

Professor Huerta

English 1T

19 March 2018

Ready or Not Here We Come

The life of the average child in the united states as it is portrayed in the media is not one

of living in the constant state of fear of death, persecution, or war. This statement could be

argued by the staggering amount of children living in poverty, however it is primarily true. That

statement is not true for the unaccompanied minors that seek refuge in this country from their

war plagued countries that have been manifested with gang violence and political turmoil.

Valeria Luiselli, author of ​Tell Me How it Ends: an Essay in 40 Questions​, tells the stories of the

refugees seeking asylum in this country and the struggles they face in order to get here. The

essay is juxtaposed with her personal story in connection to the stories of the journeys the

children tell her while she is part of their immigration screening process where she plays the role

of their enterpretor. In agreeance with Luiselli’s work and basic human decency we can see that

the thousands of unaccompanied minors that migrated mostly from Central America through

Mexico are refugees seeking asylum in this country and should be granted protection not

deportation.

The children that came in waves to the United States did not migrate by coincidence, they

were pushed out of their countries by fear, violence, and poverty. Political turmoil and gang

violence that has taken over the top three countries where the children come from, El Salvador,

Honduras, and Guatemala. These countries have in some way or another been influenced by the
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U.S government to allow trade policies and labor, so it is valid for a person to want to migrate to

a place where they see there all the capital coming from. The children’s countries of origin are

impoverished and the microeconomy depends on gangs for capital, through this dependency we

see a rise in violence and recruitment of younger children. To deny a gang is to accept death, so

many of those sought out by gangs flee their countries only to experience horrors along their

journeys. Luiselli uses the statistic, “since 2006, around 120,000 migrants have disappeared in

their transit through Mexico”(26) to prove how dangerous it is for people who are migrated from

central america to the united states is. It is beyond what a child in this country could ever

imagine doing, it is beyond what any adult could imagine surviving. Along the way children

either witness or suffer from rape and/or physical abuse when they are atop of La Bestia, and

even turn themselves in to border patrol (ICE) as to avoid the trauma again. Luiselli uses these

facts in order to change the perspective of those who do not comprehend the complexity of the

situations the children are in when they are fleeing their country.

To hear the stories of the children is to validate them as human beings, therefore there

must be a discussion and action taken on immigration reform. In this country, arguments in

politics are often weighed by which political party you endorse, and that needs to change for the

sake of people who just want their rights granted. In this social climate one cannot bring up

immigration without bringing up the immigration crisis of 2014 and its impact on the lives of

thousands of children who were not given a fair opportunity to defend their cases because of the

priority juvenile docket. Luiselli defines this as a jump in the immigration waitlist of processings

from least priority to the top which ultimately made things worse for the children because instead

of being granted a proper amount of time to get a lawyer and prepare their case they had 21 days.
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The discussion if whether these children should have been granted asylum or not should not have

been based on your political party affiliation, it should have been a perspective of a human being

who validates the experiences of the children on their journeys and sees them as people looking a

better life. In sharing the stories of the children and how she was part of their screening process,

Luiselli sheds a light on the problems this country has when discussing the fates of thousands- no

one understands others perspectives so facil comments are made and questionable actions are

taken.

Through understanding of the experiences of the children, one would understand that

deportation would make things worse and the only solution would be to try to accomodate as

many children as possible. It is true that this country is glorified in the media and that a reason

why the children would come to this country is because it is seen to be the land of opportunity.

The idea that this country is fueled by the American Dream is a reality because to have this

ideology of this nation is deemed as patriotic, so in theory these unaccompanied minors are not

trying to take away from the Dream, they are trying to live by it by seeking work in the future

and contributing to society. These children are trying to embody what this nation has put out as

propaganda for so long, that this land is made up of immigrants who have worked hard and have

been rewarded in opportunity. The reality is that this country has a racist foundation and does not

accept immigrants of all races the same way, unfortunately these children do not fall under the

category of “wanted immigrants”. The United States contradicts itself because it is not a true

democracy and those who are representatives of the people do not represent the vast majority of

its citizens. Unfortunately, it is the unaccompanied minors who are stuck in the middle of this,
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even though they endured the journey- the battle has just begun when they enter this country and

its mostly an argument if they should be viewed as people or not.

Luiselli’s work has a personal connection that shows the difficulty of becoming a “legal

alien” and the truth behind the blocks this country has set up to leave people out. There are

different types of immigrants in this country: “legal”, “illegal”, and somewhere in between.

Those are defined by temporary Residents, permanent Residents, and refugees. If a person

cannot afford the process of applying for a type of visa to come this country they can choose an

“illegal” route where they pay someone to get them in (coyote). To default to a coyote is

dangerous and costly yet it is a risk that many take because it is cheaper than the “legal” route.

This is not to say that one type of immigrant is better or worse than another, to the

“conservatives” in this country all immigrants are bad. Little do they realize the process it takes

to be here and the amount of taxes immigrants pay to this country. Luiselli points out the

insecurity one feels during the process of becoming a “legal” resident of this country and the fear

she anxiousness she felt when everyone in her family but her were granted greencards before her.

This fear is a norm for those are undocumented in this country, and it is amplified when one has

their life depending on their “legal” status. The unaccompanied minors that migrated to this

country, all in search for some type of life better than their own, were subjected to the emotional

trauma that comes with the journey to get here and the hate that comes with being labelled

“alien” by natural born citizens.

The media in this country has been corrupted by news outlets who do not reinforce their

stories with facts, and it has caused a divide in society between those who believe the fallacies

and those who look for facts. In the article,“The Children of The Drug Wars: A Refugee Crisis,
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Not an Immigration Crisis”, published in The New York Times by Sonia Nazario, a Pulitzer

Prize winner for feature writing, she explains why the children migrating from Central American

countries are here because of the violence that has taken over in their countries. She informs the

public that the children are persecuted by gangs and they fear for their lives and they have no

other choice but to migrate. Nazario claims that, “These children are facing threats similar to the

forceful conscription of child soldiers by warlords in Sudan or during the civil war in Bosnia.

Being forced to sell drugs by narcos is no different from being forced into military service”(NY

Times 2014). In including examples of what this country deems as refugees we can see a logical

connection between the children who are accepted as refugees and those who are not. The New

York Times is a highly regarded publication and the piece by Nazario is reinforced by her

credentials and the reputation of the publication. Her argument that the unaccompanied minors

should be granted asylum is valid because she has given examples of first hand experience,

statistics of the violence in Central American countries, and a definition of what a refugee is. Not

all sources that discuss the immigration crisis of 2014 give the big picture view, or give

examples of the reasoning of why the children migrated- instead they give “solutions” to end the

migration with no regard for human life.

Some news outlets in this country are very popular and are considered reliable because

they are supported by leaders of the people, however they are not valid because they do not offer

any factual evidence. The website ​Breitbart.com​ is a type of blog that allows articles to be

published that may or may not include any facts on the topic discussed. Unfortunately, this

media outlet is considered to be a news outlet by the President of the United States of America,

so many people who believe in the word of the President are malinformed on certain topics. In
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June of 2014, Breitbart released an article titled, “4 Ways to End Illegal Immigration Crisis”, by

Ben Shapiro a young conservative who is believed to be more right leaning than a traditional

conservative. In his work, Shapiro presents the four solutions to end immigration to be: build a

wall, involve the National Guard, mass deportations, and end welfare. He is right that these

motions by the country would end immigration because it is rational to believe that if immigrants

can’t come in to stay then they won’t come at all. However, Shapiro does not present any facts to

prove his points, in fact, he makes these claims with no acknowledgement of why there is a crisis

in the first place. Shapiro’s argument does not face the reality that the country cannot afford to

go through with his “solutions”, because the estimated price to “build a wall” is at $21.6 billion,

plus the amount of training fees from the National Guard to stop people from coming in, in

addition the fees of deportation and detention of said “illegals”, and the rise of homelessness and

economic decline from the ending of welfare. The country cannot afford to take these actions

with its accumulated $18 trillion in debt, and all of this is in disregard of the lives of the

thousands of unaccompanied minors that would be left to face the violence and even death if

they are not given the opportunity to be considered refugees.

In the face of violence, terror, and rejection the unaccompanied minors that survived and

made it to this country should be given the label of refugees and be granted to opportunity to

contribute to society. These children are victims of traumas beyond imaginable, it is through

compassion and empathy that we as human beings of a nation that can offer more than they have

will come together and accept the children as outsiders that bring new cultural experiences that

will in the end enrich our society. The immigration crisis of 2014 will come to an end when we

as a nation validate the stories of the unaccompanied minors and grant them the status of
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refugees. After all it is the children that are making their attempt at the American Dream, and it

is their right to see how it ends for them in this nation.

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Works Cited

un, Ben Shapiro20. “4 Ways to End The Illegal Immigration Crisis.” Breitbart, 20 June 2014,

www.breitbart.com/big-government/2014/06/20/four-ways-close-morder/​.

Luiselli, Valeria, and Lizzie Davis. Tell Me How It Ends: an Essay in Forty Questions. 4th

Estate, 2017.

Nazario, Sonia. “The Children of the Drug Wars.” The New York Times, The New York Times,

11 July 2014,

www.nytimes.com/2014/07/13/opinion/sunday/a-refugee-crisis-not-an-immigration-crisis.html​.