There's more to me than my fair colored skin and my light brown hair that most people don't know about. My mom is an immigrant from Mexico City, therefore I am half hispanic. Nothing about me screams Latina, or how I am fluent in Spanish, but I have deep ancestral roots from Mexico. That is why I get very frustrated when it comes to the United States and our immigration laws. It seems as though everytime I look at the news there is some new issue regarding immigrants and all of the new restrictions we put on them. However, the thing that angers me the most is when people talk to me or around me about their issues with immigrants. To be fair they have no idea that I come from an immigrant parent but that shouldn't even matter. I have heard things like “immigrants are just criminals and rapists” or “immigrants take all of our jobs.” None of this is the case when it comes to my mom.

My mom was 29 when she immigrated to the United States from Mexico. She came on a K1 Visa. She left everything behind: her parents, her friends, and most importantly the only place she knew as home to marry my dad and start a new life together. They met each other at work in Mexico and fell in love. Once my mom made the difficult move to the United States, it took her over 6 years to acquire her citizenship. During those years, she found a job and worked hard to prepare herself for the citizenship test. She was forced to learn how to drive all over again, she had to quickly learn a new language, and she had to adjust to a new place that was completely different than what she was used to.

That is why it makes me mad when people categorize all immigrants as criminals who are a threat to our country. Needless to say, my mom is the hardest-working person I know, leaving for work at 7 in morning and coming home at 6, oftentimes working later until 11pm. She didn’t have an extravagant life in Mexico, losing both of her parents when she was just 17. She lived in a two room apartment with her aunt and uncle, walking over an hour to school everyday.

That is why I get angry when people feel like they can judge someone about a situation that they don't know anything about. Most immigrants come to the United States to escape their current situation in hopes of a better life. Immigrants take any job they can get, especially the jobs no one else wants to do. So why are we still discriminating against them and looking down upon them, treating them as though they aren't even human? Immigrants have as much of a right to be here as every other citizen because we all come from different places around the world. We should all accept everyone because everyone has a story that's special to them, therefore we need to judge less and love more.