Testimonials
My family and I always felt like we were walking on eggshells since my dad is undocumented. Anywhere other than home we felt like my dad wasn’t safe. We can’t travel long distances with him, we have to keep track of random checkpoints that are set around the city. Doing everything to avoid authorities. The constant state of paranoia gets to him and he feels like he never really rests. He’s been living like that ever since he was 14. He ended up dropping out junior year and finding work was very hard since he was an undocumented immigrant. Living in such a restrictive environment, working extra hard for little pay. After he met my mom and had me we were moving constantly because either it got too expensive to keep living in LA or there wasn’t any work. We ended up moving to Richmond where there are a lot of undocumented immigrants , and thankfully that community supports undocumented immigrants but the locals giving jobs.I wish my dad could walk outside without having to worry about being taken away from us, but he can’t be too careful, he has been deported once before and had to go through the border again because he didn’t want to leave my mom and I. We have tried so many times to get my dad's papers but it would take too long, and waiting for papers feels like too much. We were so close once, my dad was about to go back to Honduras to prove his residency, and he told me that he was going to be gone for a while. I was 16 at the time and I really thought I wasn’t going to see my dad again based on what has happened to other people in the family.
- Selvin Moya
Moving to another country represents way more than just the change in position. Despite the most obvious change of language for many, there are also changes in culture, environment, values, and people. As an international student, my transition to the US was rather smooth. I came at the age of 13, on the second year of middle school (because elementary in China last six years). Given that most international students come in at the beginning of high school or college, this gave me more time to adapt to the language and culture. However, this does come with a significant challenge. Me getting to adapt to the environment early on also means that I had to face the language barrier at an earlier age. My first two years in the US were extremely difficult. Even nowadays I have to often repeat statements because of my accent, so when I first came the difficulty in communication was tremendous. On top of that, I had to adapt to a new school system knowing absolutely no one near me. One significant change that many don’t realize is the change in living expenses. The cost of living in the US, I am estimating, is at least double than it is in China. It was a weird experience buying large fries for the price I could have bought a big mic meal. This made me begin to spend money a lot more carefully, which I suppose is a good thing. In terms of immigration, my family has been having quite an experience. We started the immigration application (EB5 application) 2 years before I came to the US, so that would make it 8 years since we started the application. It was estimated that it would take 3-5 years for the application to finish, but now we still haven't gotten the chance to be interviewed.
- Jason Chen
My mother was born in Poland during communist rule and endured a difficult childhood due to widespread shortages, few employment opportunities, and significant family tensions. After completing her education at a music academy and becoming a masterful pianist, she left her home country due to scant employment opportunities to work laborious odd jobs on a ship conducting scientific experiments at sea for months at a time. While being a difficult job, this experience allowed her to travel the world. After months at sea, she would arrive at a new unknown part of the globe providing her with experiences ranging from hiking in the Himalayas to exploring an island inhabited by natives untouched by civilization. In order to conform to her extreme budget, these expeditions were often extremely risky, and lead to inhumanly stressful situations and she narrowly avoided death many times. Upon the news of her pregnancy, she began searching for better employment opportunities where she could best use her musical talents. She applied for a tourist visa to the US and immigrated in November 2003. Although she had very little money, hardly knew any English, and no family or friends upon arrival, my mother was set on finding a better life for her and her unborn child.
Prior to arriving, my mother arranged a temporary place to stay in a basement where she lived for several months. During that time, she spent her days desperately searching for a job to support her soon-to-be-born child (me) and acquire an H1B visa. My mother, a talented pianist, first applied to a music conservatory where she could acquire a visa and where her talents would be best served by providing piano lessons. Things were looking great after she heard back saying she got the job only to take a turn for the worst when the conservatory went back on their word. This left her only a few months before her tourist visa expired. I was born on March 7, 2004, greeted by an exhausted mother who was still living in a basement and searching for a place to live. After my birth, my mother still desperately needed a visa and after the homeowner heard about her troubles, decided to give my mother and her newborn child a few weeks to move out with no place to go. Having to worry about retaining her immigration status, the ability to pay rent, and still having enough money for food would be enough to drive anyone insane. Add to the mix knowing hardly any English and a constantly wailing baby, I find it hard to imagine a more stressful environment. Although some are able to take such a stressful situation with some grace, my mother has always panicked over the slightest problem so I cannot imagine her at this time in her life.
Miraculously things began to turn around when at church one Sunday, a stranger came up to her and upon hearing her situation, offered my mother and I a place to stay rent-free. Soon, she found a church with a music program willing to give her a start by supplying students for private piano lessons and sponsoring her visa. Over several years, slowly but surely, my mother saved up enough to rent a small apartment where she privately taught piano lessons.
Growing up, I was exposed to my mother’s immigration issues very slowly; however, I fully discovered her situation driving back home from a trip to Yellowstone when she was pulled over for speeding (her specialty). Reviewing her documents, the officer somehow determined she had been undocumented for some time. After my mother broke down in tears and described her situation, the officer let her go with a ticket and no further trouble. My mother explained to me she had gone through all the proper immigration steps to renew her H1B visa only to learn an incompetent lawyer had botched the application and despite all the money she later spent on appeals, she never received a visa extension due to a broken immigration system. At the time, I wanted to help so badly. Whatever it took, reading immigration law, perhaps going to court?