Real Lives of U.S. Illegal Immigrants(Part 2)

Part one

The story of Akubue is all too familiar with people in immigrant communities around the United States. In today’s America, the lives of the undocumented is not just limiting, it is devastating. With greater enforcement by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) the human cost is pilling.

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Twenty-seven year old Paul Kamau,(not his real name), a Kenyan immigrant had a recent experience that was for the record books. In company of friends from Boston, Massachusetts, Paul and his friends were heading to a pre-wedding in Maine when they missed their way. Driving through rural roads they found themselves in Canada. Through the help of villagers they found their way back to the United States. At the border they were asked to present their ID cards. The border patrol found out that Kamua’s student visa expired some two years ago. From immigration detention camp he was flown back to Kenya.

The prevailing economic downturn in America has exacerbated hostility to undocumented immigrants. ICE agents have intensified raids at work places. It has resulted in undocumented immigrants’ arrests and deportations. In many cases, parents are deported while their kids born in America are left with relations or in foster homes. The government has recently expanded it test of the e-verify – an electronic verification used to clarify that employees are legally authorized to work in the United States. In five seconds it can verify social security numbers with the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration. It has resulted in the firing and arrest of undocumented immigrants working with fake social security numbers. The crack down is so intense that the fear of deportation has become more pronounced in America than at any other time in the last twenty-five years. With over 100,000 undocumented immigrants deported in the last one year, the Obama’s administration seemed to be pandering to the Republicans who are demanding the securing of the U.S. Mexican border and the enforcement of the immigration laws in the books before they can support immigration reforms.

Consequently, undocumented immigrants who used to live life in the underground are pushed further into the dark. A mere traffic stop can now lead to deportation as city police officers are now wired to crosscheck drivers with ICE data base. As states and the U.S. federal government tightens requirements for the issuing of state and federal ID cards, undocumented immigrants are left in limbo. Most airlines now require the presentation of state approved photo ID before a passenger boards a plane for a local flight. What it means is that many undocumented immigrants cannot travel by air within the United States. So an undocumented immigrant who wished to attend his brother’s wedding at a different part of the United States may not be able to go if the distance is unreasonably far for road transportation to take him.

These realities seem to be making many undocumented immigrants in the United States to head toward Canada. But Canada is not a cake walk either. Tunde Arabi (not his real name) was an undocumented Nigerian doctor who lived with his wife and children in New Hampshire for five years. He made a living driving a cab while his wife worked under the table as a nurse’s aide. They were waiting and praying for the amnesty bill to pass Congress. One night, police raided an apartment near theirs and arrested a Nigerian. The next week, the doctor sent his wife and children over to Canada. When he sold off their belongings and headed to Canada himself, he was arrested at the border. He has been in detention ever since.

...to be continued