I am currently under a TN visa and have gone through an insane amount of hoops to get here. Still trying to win the H1-B Lottery because its the only way i can apply for residency. Been living in the US for 10+ years starting with a student visa.

  • MathVelazquez [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Do you run into other people going thru/who have gone thru the immigration process that say stuff like "I did it the right way, I don't support illegal immigrants."

    • Ludens [comrade/them]
      hexagon
      ·
      4 years ago

      Yeah the vast majority. I managed to inform a lot of my friends and family as to why that way of thinking is terribly wrong but we all started like that. Even I said those exact words at some point in the past. Some don't ever inform themselves and stay like that. There's a huuuge sense of spite from the "legal immigrants" towards DACA recipients and ironically those are the ones i feel the most sympathy for. The worst cases, like my aunt who we don't speak to anymore (a lot of hispanic families have that one aunt), came in illegally and managed to become residents and are now complaining about illegal immigration....

      • MathVelazquez [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Yeah I have heard the same sentiment from friends and classmates unfortunately and obviously there are a ton of US-born people that have the same (or worse) ideas about "legal" immigration. What ended up "radicalizing" you about immigration? Have you seen people changing their minds and getting a better take about it in the last couple years at least?

        • Ludens [comrade/them]
          hexagon
          ·
          4 years ago

          For sure its getting better, i think trump kinda made us have a common enemy and that helped a lot. Personally for me it was teachers, specifically teachers in the US. They see this shit daily and in the most raw possible way. From students who's parents got deported to students who have been told by both mexicans and americans that they don't belong in either group. it's rough for the kids out there.

          • MathVelazquez [he/him]
            ·
            4 years ago

            Most white Americans, even the best intentioned liberals, don't realize that Mexico still has a lot of problems with colonial hierarchy in their own country. Internalized colonialism is the hardest kind to break, that's why there's fuckheads like the Latinos for Trump. I didn't think about that bit about teachers, but now that you say it a huge percentage of latinx students I knew in college were going into education. The school system in America is still an organ of colonialism, but at least in my neck of the woods we're going through the growing pains of bringing in new teaching methods.