Here We Go Again
Riding the Immigration Legislation Rollercoaster
By Adrian Avila

With all of the immigration talk going around at this point in time in the country, how can anyone keep up with all changes and new bills that get introduced, which for me seems like every day. Being an immigrant that is trying to stay informed about the legislation that will have a direct impact on my life is no easy task.

Conscious of the fact that immigration legislation falls in and out of play faster than one can really grasp the full details of the actual bill, I have made it a rule of mine not to follow any of the new bills that are introduced, really for the sake of my sanity.

For the past four years about twice a month my mother barges into my room and delivers that latest news in the immigration reform fight. “Mijo we won, we are going to get legalization, they are going to pass a good bill!” my mother would say to me with a look of triumph on her face. This look would not last long when the following week she would come in and sadly say, “It's over, we are not going to get anything, we might even be sent back mijo.”  All of this coming from a television news report that doesn't really make any of the legislation clear. In reality it just makes the actual facts more distorted like a game of telephone.

This confusion in information is very typical in the immigrant community, where the local Spanish news reports on legislation concerning the fate of immigrants with the intent that the community will be informed, but fails to see the effects of the informational rollercoaster that takes it viewers through. It's not the media's fault, they are only reporting on what is happening in this never ending fight. So how can one keep ones self from reacting to this overwhelming information? The best way I have found is just to ignore it all together. My hopes have gotten up too many times and them slammed to the ground with hopes of some form of a path to legalization.

This “one-week-we-won-next-week-we-lost” type of living can take a huge toll mentally on a person. After a while one starts to lose hope that any good change will ever come. I have been waiting 17 years for any kind of change to happen, and yet here I sit with the same amount of rights and privileges as I did when I entered this country by foot at the age of five.

Every time you even hear that any hope of legalization is possible one starts to dream. Like all of the opportunities that will be possible once giving the proper documentation. Opportunities such as, traveling, a proper job, the prospect to drive legally like everyone else, and the simple yet important feeling of just feeling like a human being.

I have received criticism from my peers because of my decision to keep away from any information about legislation having to do with immigration. My friends tell me that I should be up to date with everything that is happening so that when things really happens I will be one of the first to know. I ask them how they would feel if their hopes were lifted and then thrown to the ground a few times a year. It's hard for them to understand because none of them are undocumented immigrants so they have never had to deal with the kind of stress that being an immigrant brings.

Even if a just immigration legislation bill passes I don't see how immediate the change would be. The amount of money and energy that would be required to carrying out the logistics of the bill would enormous.

In the end I would rather save myself the stress and keep my saneness by not following the ever changing immigration debate, and would rather focus my energy when a just and realistic legislation passes.