Immigration to the United States from Guatemala
Until 1960, the U.S. Census Bureau did not record the number of immigrants from Guatemala, but it is known that from 1967 to 1980 close to 109,000 Guatemalans immigrated to the United States, due largely to political conflict and a devastating earthquake in 1976. The number has remained steadily around 40,000 in subsequent years. In 1992, Sam and Elida Mejia, featured in Sin País, left Guatemala during a civil war and illegally immigrated to California with their 1-year-old son, Gilbert. While the United States offered asylum to Guatemalan civil war refugees in the 1980s, the Mejias arrived a few years too late to qualify.
Based on results from a U.S. Census Bureau survey, the Pew Hispanic Center estimated in 2006 that there were 320,000 undocumented Guatemalans living in the United States. The International Organization for Migration believes an average of 2,500 Guatemalans are deported from the United States every year. According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.), the annual number of deportations has been stable in the past few years: 370,000 in 2008; 390,000 in 2009; 393,000 in 2010; and 397,000 in 2011. An I.C.E. spokesperson recently stated that that body is "Congressionally funded to remove 400,000 a year."
Illegal immigrants detained by federal officials are usually deported back to their home countries without being informed of their legal right to counsel or being put in touch with their home country consular officials. As punishment for unlawful presence in the United States, undocumented immigrants must return to their native countries to wait out bans lasting three to 10 years before applying for legal residency (assuming they have legal ways to immigrate, which many do not).
While there has been an absence of comprehensive federal immigration reform in recent years, it has been a frequent subject of state-level legislation and has already become a hot-button issue in the 2012 presidential campaign. Many states have advanced laws similar to Arizona's anti-immigrant SB 1070, which in 2011 made it a state crime to be an undocumented immigrant. In late June 2012, the Supreme Court ruled against much of SB 1070 but did uphold the provision allowing police to check the immigration status of people they detain.
Caption: Sam packing up in the preparation for deportation
Credit: Photo still from Sin País
» CBS News. "Illegal Border-Crossers Rarely Prosecuted."
» Eastman, John C. "Arizona Leads U.S. in Real Immigration Reform." Bloomberg, April 29, 2012.
» Harvard University.
» Jonas, Susanne."Increasing Visibility of Guatemalan Immigrants." Harvard Review of Latin America, Fall 2010/Winter 2011.
» Migration Information Source. "Guatemala: Economic Migrants Replace Political Refugees."
» Migration Policy Institute.
» The New York Times. "Immigration and Emigration."
Mixed-Status Families
In general, to be able to apply for an immigrant visa, a foreign citizen must fall under one of three immigration categories: family reunification, employment sponsorship or humanitarian cases (refugee and asylum adjustment). According to the Migration Policy Institute, the majority of people who wish to obtain lawful permanent residence in the United States qualify because they are family members of U.S. citizens or residents, employees of U.S. companies or refugees or asylum seekers who have been granted protection in the United States.
A mixed-status family is one in which family members have different immigration statuses--some members are U.S. citizens and/or legal residents while others remain undocumented, despite family and marriage ties to the United States. In Sin País, Sam, Elida and Gilbert Mejia were born in Guatemala, while Helen and Dulce were born in the United States and therefore are both U.S. citizens.
A report from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security revealed that during the period from January 1, 2011 to June 30, 2011, each of 46,486 of the immigrants removed from the country by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement claimed to be the parent of at least one U.S. citizen child. This number is a record high.
In January 2012 the Applied Research Center reported that more than 5,100 children of immigrants have ended up in foster care after their parents were detained or deported. Nearly a quarter of these children are California residents. The report prompted the California State Senate to vote in favor of a bill that would authorize juvenile court judges to provide detained or deported parents additional time to stay in the country while they apply for hardship waivers that could ultimately lead to legal residency. The bill also requires state child welfare authorities to guide counties on how to work with foreign consulates, which often serve as liaisons between deported parents and the child welfare department.
Under current law, undocumented immigrants face a ban from the United States for three to 10 years before they can apply for legal re-entry. Many detained parents are therefore faced with the decision to take their United States-born children with them or to leave them behind while they find a legal way to immigrate (which many never do).
However, applying for legal re-entry can be a daunting task. Even after the three- to 10-year waiting period, the process of obtaining immigrant visas is confusing and lengthy. Technically, immigrant visas become available each month to those whose priority dates (dates on which their petitions were filed) are listed in the U.S. State Department visa bulletin, but such dates frequently change. Mexican visa applications from 1993 are currently being processed and applicants from the Philippines have been waiting almost a quarter-century, since 1988. The same number of immigration visas are available for each country, regardless of population or visa demand.
United States-born children of immigrants must be 21 in order to sponsor their parents. In Sin País, Helen is only 14. A report released by the Urban Institute in 2010 shows that parental deportation can be detrimental to a child. Research shows that children of deported parents exhibit significant behavioral changes, including anxiety and anger, and face increased odds of lasting economic turmoil and social exclusion. The report also revealed that 45 percent of parents who were deported in 2011 were not apprehended for any criminal offense, but rather were victims of targeted raids.
Caption: Sam and Dulce Mejia-Perez outside of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
Credit: Photo courtesy of Theo Rigby
» Foley, Elise. "Immigration Enforcement Separated Thousands of U.S.-Born Children From Parents." The Huffington Post, March 30, 2012.
» Migration Information Source. "Legal Immigration to the United States."
» New American Media. "ICE Deported More Than 46,000 Immigrants with U.S. Citizen Children Last Year, Report Finds."
» "The Society Pages." "Wait Times for U.S. Family Reunification Visas."
» Southern California Public Radio. "Immigrant Visas."
» Migration Policy Institute.
» Southern California Public Radio. "Mixed-status Families.
» Yoshikawa, Hirokazu and Carola Suárez-Orozco. "Deporting Parents Hurts Kids." The New York Times, April 20, 2012.
Mixed-Status Families
In Sin País, Helen travels to Guatemala for Christmas to visit her parents and extended family, but her Guatemala-born brother Gilbert is unable to go along because as an undocumented immigrant he cannot freely travel between Guatemala and the United States. A bill called the DREAM (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act that first surfaced in 2001 addresses the situations of undocumented young people like Gilbert.
The DREAM Act is a response to the condition of approximately 2.1 million undocumented children and young adults in the United States today. Sometimes referred to as the 1.5 generation, these young people were brought to the United States by their parents at a young age and are growing up in a society in which they do not have legal access to many rights of citizenship.
Although many undocumented students, like Gilbert, achieve in school and have high hopes for their futures, they do not qualify for federal grants or loans for college and have to get loans from private banks or work to pay tuition. An inability to afford high college costs causes high school drop-out rates among undocumented students to be high, and college attendance rates to be low.
The DREAM Act was introduced in Congress in 2001. The bill proposes a system through which undocumented students with high school diplomas or GEDs would be able to achieve permanent residency either by serving in the armed services or by attending college in good standing for two years. The bill has not become law and has been revised and submitted to Congress in 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011. Some states, such as California and Illinois, have independently permitted undocumented students to attend universities and qualify for in-state tuition.
In June 2012, President Obama issued an executive order that will temporarily stop deportation of young, undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States illegally as children. During this period of "deferred action" from deportation, these young people will be eligible to apply for documentation that would allow them to work in the United States. While this would not provide the opportunity to obtain citizenship or permanent residency as the DREAM Act would, it has raised the hopes of many young undocumented immigrants.
Caption: Gilbert and Helen call their parents in Guatemala
Credit: Photo still from Sin País
» CNN. "GOP Version of Dream Act Holds Promise."
» Dream Act 2011.
» Fox News. "Re. Lamar Smith on DREAM Act: Democrats Are Dreaming."
» Immigration Policy Center. "The DREAM Act."
» Loria, Kevin. "DREAM Act Stalled, Obama Halts Deportations for Young Illegal Immigrants." The Christian Science Monitor, June 15, 2012.
» Migration Policy Institute.
» The New York Times. "Dream Act for New York."
» The White House Blog. "Get the Facts on the DREAM Act."
Mejia Family Case Summary
The Mejia family's home was raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) agents on an early morning in March 2007, in what turned out to be a case of mistaken identity--I.C.E. was actually looking for someone else. Nevertheless, Sam, Elida and their son, Gilbert, were placed in removal proceedings because they were in the United States without lawful immigration status. All had been living in this country for more than 15 years at that time, Gilbert since age 1. Sam and Elida had two U.S. citizen daughters, Helen and Dulce, who were 11 and 1 1/2 years old, respectively, at the time of the raid.
In immigration court, Sam and Elida applied for a form of relief from deportation known as cancellation of removal, based on their long residency in the United States and the exceptional hardship their deportation would cause to their two young U.S. citizen daughters. If their case was granted, they would become lawful permanent residents, or "green card holders." If his parents became lawful permanent residents, Gilbert, too, would become eligible to apply for cancellation of removal, based on the hardship his deportation would cause his parents. Gilbert also filed an asylum application.
After hearing Sam and Elida's case, the immigration judge granted their applications for cancellation of removal. However, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (D.H.S.) appealed that decision, arguing that not enough hardship was shown and, unfortunately, the judge's grant of permanent residency was overturned on appeal. Had D.H.S. not appealed the judge's grant, Sam and Elida and Gilbert would have become lawful permanent residents years ago. Sam and Elida's attorneys continued to fight to keep them in the United States, but after all efforts had been exhausted, Sam and Elida were deported on November 4, 2009, despite hundreds of letters written to D.H.S. on their behalf and numerous press articles and editorials calling on the government not to deport them. Helen, then 13, made the wrenching decision to stay in the United States with Gilbert rather than accompanying her parents and Dulce back to Guatemala so that she could continue her education in this country.
With Sam, Elida and Dulce in Guatemala and Gilbert and Helen on their own in the United States, the entire family was suffering. Elida, who had worked as a caretaker in the United States, resorted to selling tortillas on the street, while Sam was unable to find work at all. Dulce became withdrawn and hardly spoke. Helen's grades dropped, and Gilbert was overcome with the pressure of supporting his sister Helen, maintaining their house and pursuing his architecture studies. Eventually, with the help of their lawyers, Sam and Elida applied for a very rare form of temporary visa known as humanitarian parole and D.H.S., recognizing the extreme hardship that the Mejias, especially Dulce and Helen, were suffering, granted their application. The family was reunited in July 2010 and Sam and Elida have applied for annual humanitarian parole renewals since then. It is only a temporary solution, though, and their attorneys continue to seek a permanent means for Sam and Elida to remain in the United States with their children.
Gilbert's deportation case was temporarily closed in March 2012, thanks to a new D.H.S. policy of granting "prosecutorial discretion" to immigrants who meet certain sympathetic criteria and do not fall under D.H.S. deportation priorities. Under current D.H.S. prosecutorial discretion policies, a family like the Mejias probably never would have been placed in deportation proceedings.
Under a new policy announced by the Obama administration on June 15, 2012, Gilbert (and many other young immigrants) will also be eligible to apply for "deferred action" status for a period of two years, with the chance to renew. While deferred action status will not lead to permanent residence or citizenship for Gilbert, it will give him the opportunity to receive a temporary work permit for the first time in his life.
Caption: The Mejia-Perez family together in California on the night of the deportation of Sam and Elida
Credit: Photo courtesy of Theo Rigby
Immigration Myths
A list of 5 common myths about immigration to the United States.
Myth #1: Immigrants don't pay taxes and "freeload" off of the welfare system.
Immigrants pay taxes, just like anyone else--between $90 and $140 billion a year in federal, state and local taxes. Moreover, it's estimated that immigrants earn about $240 billion a year, pay $90 billion or more a year in taxes and use only about $5 billion in public benefits annually, so the government makes money off of immigrants--often because undocumented workers are afraid they'll get caught if they use public services such as health care. Undocumented immigrants pay income taxes, too: The Social Security Administration's balance of taxes that cannot be matched to workers' names and social security numbers grew by $20 billion between 1990 and 1998. While employers are obligated to ask for Social Security numbers, they don't have to confirm the authenticity of those numbers, leading to the use of millions of false Social Security cards. Often an undocumented immigrant applies for an ITIN number, which can be used in place of a Social Security number for the sole purpose of paying income taxes.
Myth #2: Immigrants don't want to learn English because they want to make Spanish our national language and take over our culture.
While 83 percent of immigrants to the United States do not speak English at home, a recent survey by the Pew Hispanic Center shows that a clear majority of Latinos (57 percent) believe that immigrants have to speak English to be a part of American society. And it is Latino immigrants, rather than native-born Latinos, who are more likely to say that immigrants must learn English. Another study published by the Population and Development Review concluded that English is not under threat as the dominant language spoken in the United States--even in Southern California, home to the largest concentration of Spanish-speaking immigrants.
Myth #3: Immigration to the United States has increased over the last century.
This is technically true in terms of sheer numbers, but keep in mind that at the start of the 20th century, the U.S. population was less than half what it is now. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in the early 20th century, the foreign-born population was about 15 percent of the total population, whereas now it stands at about 11.5 percent, so the rate of immigration relative to the United States-born population--the most accurate indicator--has decreased.
Myth #4: Immigrants on average are dramatically less educated than native-born Americans.
Taken together, immigrants on average have perhaps one year less education than Americans born in the United States. The proportion of immigrants in the labor force who have a bachelor's or post-graduate degree is higher than that of the native labor force, and the proportion of adult immigrants with eight or fewer years of education has been decreasing, while the proportion of adult immigrants with 16 years or more of education has been increasing.
Myth #5: Immigrants cause unemployment because they take jobs from native-born Americans.
The largest wave of immigration to the United States since the 1900s coincided with our lowest national unemployment rate and fastest economic growth. Many studies have shown that even among low-paid and minority groups, immigrants do not cause native unemployment. Many believe that, if anything, immigrants create new jobs with their purchasing power and the new businesses they start, a pattern that has been particularly important with the emergence of the high-tech industry. According to one recent study, immigrant entrepreneurs founded 25 percent of all U.S. engineering and technology companies launched in the last decade--such as Google, for example, which was co-founded by Russian immigrant Sergey Brin. Immigrant-founded companies were estimated to have generated $53 billion in sales in 2005 and created about 450,000 jobs as of 2005. In 2011, immigrants created 28% of all new firms and were twice as likely to start new businesses when compared to those born in the United States. Many immigrants also take low skilled, low paid jobs in agriculture and the service industry.
Caption: Mejia family portrait
Credit: Photo still from Sin País
» Cato Institute. "Immigration: The Demographic and Economic Facts."
» Wadhwa, Vivek, Saxenian, AnnaLee, Rissing, Ben A. and Gereffi, Gary, America's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs: Part I (January 4, 2007). Duke Science, Technology & Innovation Paper No. 23. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=990152 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.990152
» Dwoskin, Elizabeth. "Many Fast-Growing U.S. Jobs Go to Immigrants." Bloomberg BusinessWeek, March 15, 2012.
» Immigration Forum. "Top Ten Immigrants Myths and Facts."
» Pew Hispanic Center. "Hispanic Attitudes Toward Learning English."
» Population Council. "Linguistic Life Expectancies: Immigrant Language Retention in Southern California."
» U.S. Census Bureau. "The Foreign-Born Population in the United States: 2003."
» U.S. Census Bureau. "Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-born Population of the United States: 1850-1990."