Why do dignified immigration services matter?

By Maureen Aguilar | Board Member

I started teaching Spanish at the high school level five years ago. While I have enjoyed my time teaching others the beauty of the Spanish language and its culture, my experience as a teacher in an urban school shaped my view of life, my community, and my stance on the access provided to people for dignified immigration services. My students, their heritage, and their life stories were transformative. Being born in Florida and then raised in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, I was able to connect with my students on a deeper level. I too moved to this country, but the reasons why I moved were different. I did not move to the United States because I was seeking safety. I was not fleeing my country either. As a young woman pursuing higher education, the college application process seemed easy, the access to financial aid went smoothly, and the ability to speak English and Spanish fluently put me at the top of the list at the universities I applied.

This was the point where my students’ experiences as DACA recipients or undocumented scholars in the United States disconnected from my story. I had to listen carefully, sit back and understand that though their dream to reach higher education was just as big as mine at the time, there were limitations they had to overcome. There were structural limitations that would inhibit them from pursuing their dream. These were foundational barriers that have been placed regardless of how badly they wanted to attain a goal. The premise is that If you work hard, you can achieve anything that you want. This isn’t quite realistic because access to dignified immigration services is scarce and very costly.

In May of 2019, during AP exam week, we received news from the office that one of my students had been deported. No, he didn’t commit a crime. He wasn’t at the wrong place at the wrong time either. My life was shaken to the core by this incident because, in a flash of a moment, my students’ lives were shaken by the reality that their friend was no longer with us. It felt like we were mourning the death of a loved one. It was abrupt, it was humiliating, it was unfair. I remember sitting on the steps of our school consoling his high school sweetheart. I consoled her in silence because nothing I said was going to be enough.

I knew deportations occurred frequently and I knew that people suffered daily due to the lack of immigration reforms in this country, but this time, I experienced the pain caused when one of my excellent, bright, and curious scholars was expelled at the young age of 17 from the city he called home. His plans of passing AP Spanish Language and Culture with a perfect score were banished in the blink of an eye. And this story repeats itself every year, as thousands of immigrants are subject to “mandatory detention” with no right to a hearing before a judge. (See source #1)

This is why dignified access to immigration services matters. Because my students, their siblings, and their families deserve better. When I think about this traumatic case, I know my student and his family would have benefited from immigration support. Dignified access to immigration services matters, because immigrants have rights and their lives matter regardless of our political views. It matters because this country is not a monolith! According to Pew Research, more than 40 million people living in the U.S. were born in another country, accounting for about one-fifth of the world’s migrants. (See source #2)

To wrap up, I’d like to remind you that the mission of Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors also matters. As you donate, as you volunteer, or you participate and engage with this organization, you are actively contributing to the change needed in our society. We need more people like you, people who are committed to advocacy and action because the access to immigration services is a human right.

Sources: #1 Amnesty International USA, Jailed Without Justice: Immigration Detention in the USA (2009), available at http://www.amnestyusa.org/immigration-detention/immigrant-detention-report/page.do?id=1641033. #2. Key Findings About US Immigrants (2020), available at https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/08/20/key-findings-about-u-s-immigrants/