Analysis Of Outlaw : My Life As An Undocumented Immigrants '

In “The Deportation of Wopper Barraza” by Maceo Montoya, the main character Wopper is a slacker, who avoids work as much as possible while living with his parents. Wopper lifestyle concerned the people around him. He constantly got into various troubles and his most recent trouble distanced him from his parents and loved ones. For Wopper, being deported was the key to a new life. A life, where people will not consider him as slacker again, but more like an intelligent individual with priceless thoughts and valuable knowledge.

Enrique’s journey from Honduras to the U.S. unveils the innate loyalty of a loving child to their mother and presents the dangers that a migrant faces on the road with consistent angst; nevertheless, it supports the idea that compassion shown by some strangers can boost the retreating confidence within a person. In Sonia Nazario’s “Enrique’s Journey,” he seeks the beacon of light that all migrants hope to encounter; “El Norte.” Like many children before him, it is the answer to the problems of a hard life. While being hunted down “like animals” leading to “seven futile attempts,” he is

Vargas is really good at drawing the audience in with his emotional description, and his story telling ability. He is able to make the reader understand the struggle of being an undocumented immigrant trying to live in the United States and be happy with who he is. The audience is able to understand each decision that he makes in order to try to keep himself out of trouble, but they could always see the constant fear that he could come crashing down at any given moment if he was found out. It is hard to imagine living in that kind of situation, and Vargas portrays his experience extremely

Correspondingly, Vargas has not only immersed himself into his new culture, but learned to love it as well. He “built a career as a journalist, interviewing some of the most famous people in the country” (Vargas). Even though he is living the American dream, he is also “living a different kind of reality… in fear of being found out (Vargas).” Because of his status, it is hard to live a “normal” life. Even with all he has done to “earn” citizenship, he is still unrecognized as

Jose Vargas tells the story of his life; from coming to America, finding out that he is residing here illegally, learning how to live with that, and finally to sharing with everyone that he is an undocumented immigrant. Jose has a difficult task in front of him, though. He must win his audience over to his side so that he can further his agenda of developing an easier path for undocumented immigrants to receive citizenship. There are many ways he could go about this, trying to skirt the topic of his illegal activities, but Jose is an intelligent man and knows how to influence his audience. He uses the story of his life to connect with others, and in connecting with them wins them over, even if only indeterminably so. In My Life as an

Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, shares his life-long journey as an undocumented immigrant in his text, “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant.” As the title suggests, Vargas attempts to convey to his audience, who likely never has and never will experience anything similar to what he has, what it is like to live as an immigrant in the United States of America. Skillfully, Vargas details the perfect number of personal stories to reach the emotional side of his audience, which is anyone who is not an immigrant. Through the use of his personal accounts Vargas is able to effectively communicate that immigrants are humans too while simultaneously proving his credibility, as he has experience and a vast amount of knowledge

Many immigrants want human right like other but they still don’t give respect.In Sonia Nazario’s Enrique's Journey. Enrique face many challenges to get to the United States. Enrique and Lourdes’ challenges illustrate the undocumented people don’t have same human right

The term immigrant is defined as “a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence” (“Immigrant”). In her autobiography, Barefoot Heart, Elva Trevino Hart speaks of her immigrant ways and how she fought to become the Mexican-American writer she is today. She speaks about the working of land, the migrant camps, plus the existence she had to deal with in both the Mexican and American worlds. Hart tells the story of her family and the trials they went through along with her physical detachment and sense of alienation at home and in the American (Anglo) society. The loneliness and deprivation was the desire that drove Hart to defy the odds and acquire the unattainable sense of belonging into American

In the novel Enrique’s Journey, Sonia Nazario demonstrates the onerous journey of illegal immigrants. Sonia Nazario aims for the readers to make them understand what most of the immigrants go through during their journey to the United States. By appealing to ethos and pathos throughout the book, Sonia Nazario portrays the path that Enrique undergoes to reunite with his mother.

Lawrence Hill’s novel, The Illegal, is a classic tale of struggle in the lives of immigrants that illegally enter countries. The illegal takes to ground when a young aspiring athlete, Keita, who is affected by the instability in his country. Zantoroland, Keita’s country, is home to rife political conflict. Hence, his family known to be Faloo, become victims of this instability. Keita’s father, Yoyo, is a journalist that uncovers high ranking government officials and so when a coup d’état happens, it puts a target on his family’s head including Keita. Keita needs to leave the country or there is the possibility of being killed by these new government “officials”. His talent regarding athletics is his only way out of the country. Keita’s journey

As depicted in John Steinbeck's novel Grapes of Wrath the 1930's was a time when migrant workers like the story's Joad family had to leave their homes, cross a perilous desert, live through the social injustices of the time, and work at jobs with low insufficient pay just to have a better life (Steinbeck). Seventy years later, the situations and experiences stay the same but the people are no longer native-born Americans but illegal immigrants who sacrifice everything to come to the United States to live a better life, as a result of that the 500,000 immigrants that illegally enter the United States through the Mexican border annually and stay in the country are the Joads of today (Aizenman).

For many years, people from all over the world have come to the United States seeking a better life for themselves, their spouse, their children and even their children's children. However, not every immigrant comes into this country legally and many of these illegal immigrants are poor, uneducated and may be carrying contagious diseases. They may arrive here via human trafficking, smuggling or other methods. There is one thing we know for sure that many of them choose to remain silence when they become victims. The three main reasons they become invisible victims are they are not aware they are victimized, they don't know the right way to ask for help and they are afraid to be fired or even deported.

There are many phrases that dehumanize an individual. One of these phrases is illegal immigrant. The phrase has been used by media outlets, politicians, and the public for years in the United States. It diminishes the idea that diversity is substantially vast in our country (Chomsky, 2014). “Immigrants exhibit a large proportion of ingenious and valuable workmen,” said Founding Father, Thomas Jefferson. In 2013, more than 41.3 million of the United States population were immigrants. This made up 13 percent of the U.S. population at the time and the percentage has only increased since then (Zong and Batalova). On November 20th of 2014, President Barack Obama addressed the nation regarding his plans on immigration. The President said, “My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too” (The White House). An illegal immigrant is defined as a foreign-born, undocumented individual who migrates across the national borders in a way that infringes the immigration regulations and laws of the country (United States Department of Homeland Security). There are many reasons as to how and why this phrase receives adverse responses. Illegal immigrant is a phrase that labels and misrepresents the undocumented individuals of the United States who are an influential and dynamic part of the society.

Each and every story in Selections from Underground America: Narratives of undocumented Lives, show that these citizens are trying to be free. Through my lifetime, I came across a quote that connects to my essay. Ralph Ellison, “When I discover who I am, I’ll be free.” Everyone in these stories are trying to find a better life, meaning to be free, and find the American Dream.

The demonization of the United States’s non-Anglo population is made apparent through Immigration reforms expressed in David Bacon’s Illegal People and by the implementation of the broken windows theory to law enforcement practices in Ana Muniz’s Police, Power and the Production of Racial Boundaries. Bacon talks about how the negative sentiment towards Undocumented workers, or immigrants as he later generalizes, shape the perception of them as an undermining force that should be gotten rid of. Additionally, he makes that apparent through his mentioning of post-Nixon Administrations engaging in reforms to enforce policies that make it so in order to gain employment one must have a valid Social Security card number. Furthermore, he notes that the exploitation of undocumented workers is a problem that can be solved if worker unions, African Americans, and Undocumented workers come together. Similar to how immigrants are dehumanized, whole groups of people are subjected to the same treatment because of implementations of gang injunctions. Muniz notes that gang injunctions, like the ones she saw in Los Angeles’s Cadillac-Corning allow for the continued testing of repressive policies on an already oppressed community.