Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen

by Jose Antonio Vargas

A country has a right to define and defend its borders—I understand that reality. But our history, past and present, proves that America has been defining and defending its borders while expanding its reach on its own terms. I also understand that a country has a right to know who resides within its borders and where people come from. That was among the reasons why I outed myself as undocumented. All of that aside, this country of countries, founded on the freedom of movement, must look itself in the mirror, clearly and carefully, before determining the price and cost of who gets to be an American in a globalized and interconnected twenty-first century. This is a twenty-first-century reality that the American government, along with multinational American corporations, has largely sculpted and created, from the wars we start to the iPhones we sell to the television shows and movies we make. This is a twenty-first-century reality in which tweets and Facebook messages travel much faster and more easily than human beings. Migration is the most natural thing people do, the root of how civilizations, nation-states, and countries were established. The difference, however, is that when white people move, then and now, it’s seen as courageous and necessary, celebrated in history books. Yet when people of color move, legally or illegally, the migration itself is subjected to question of legality. Is it a crime? Will they assimilate? When will they stop? There are an estimated 258 mi...