We are not criminals
Recently, I read several comments on my blog entries. I found several negative comments that caught my attention. Some of the comments were extremely disturbing, hateful, and racist.
One of the comments said, Ju: I don’t understand. You willfully overstayed your visa. You violated the law, and committed a crime by you own admission. You are displaying bad manners and making thing worse for other Koreans who wish to “visit” the USA. I have no sympathy or respect for someone like you.
Other comment said, “What are you waiting for? Get the fuck out of here, faggot. Stop whining. Just leave and come back when you’re ready to do it the right way.
I wasn’t surprised due to the fact that I received these kinds of hateful comments on my entries. In fact, this is similar arguments that other anti-immigrant people claimed over again, again, and again. The criticism, which is I violated the law and committed a crime for these following reasons: overstayed visa and displaying bad manners to people who wish to visit the USA. These are the main arguments that I received from the critics time to time, but there is no strong content, facts, examples, or even statistics to back it up the arguments.
Before I tackle these arguments, I just want to say that I truly respect the law of this country, and always will. One of the arguments they claimed was that I violated the law and committed a crime because my visa had expired. This is a blunt argument without knowing any facts or background check. Obviously, there is a clear misconception of this argument. The truth is there are thousands of undocumented students who came to this country when we were young, without knowing about our immigration status. Most of them brought here by their parents at a very young age, as young as 1 or 2 year old. We had no choice but to follow our parent’s decision. Ever since then, we grew up here and hope to contribute back to the society. We speak perfect English, follow by the rule, and show great respect for our country. Matter of fact, we pay taxes too! One research show that the average of undocumented student’s GPA is 3.8, which is an outstanding academic performance. Also, most of the undocumented students graduate from high school with honors and served thousands of hours in the community. So what makes us perceived as criminals? How can you say we committed a crime when our only desire is to give back to our peers and the community? How can you say we violated the law when we brought here at the very young age without knowing anything about our immigration status? How can you say such things like go back to our own country when we grew up this country almost entire life? The facts and statistics are clear, we are not criminals. We are Americans.
The other argument was that I’m displaying “bad” manners (?) to people who wish to visit the USA. As you can clearly see that it doesn’t make sense at all. How do I display “bad” manners to people who wish to visit the USA? Are they trying to say that I’m cutting a line for immigrants to get in the USA? I truly understand how difficult for other immigrants who wish to come here. However, it has nothing to do with us. It’s rather serious matter of our broken immigration system. If we fix our current immigration system, we can help not only people who wish to come to the U.S., but also we can help 12 million undocumented immigrants who are denied basic rights. That is why we need to find possible solution to solve broken immigration system. Again, I will repeat that it has nothing to do with undocumented students. As I mentioned it before, these undocumented students brought here by our parents without knowing about immigration status. They grew up here just like normal kids and they followed by the rule. Maria Elena Durazo once said, “They (undocumented students) have done what society has asked of them: they have worked hard, studied hard, and have obtained educational success in spite of tremendous obstacles. Now it is society’s turn to do the right thing.” Like I said, we didn’t have a choice when we were young, we simply brought here by our parents. So instead of blaming on 12 million undocumented immigrants, we need to find possible solution and fix the broken immigration system in a logical way. Of course, we have to pay the fine, learn how to speak English, and respect the law of this country. We are simply demanding for a chance to be legalized in this country. We must pass comprehensive immigration now!
Remember, we are a nation of immigrants.
