Liz: Reaction to News of Immigration Agents Detaining Immigrants in Champaign Urbana

Photo: students at Central High School, where Liz does her community service learning.

I just wanted to reflect on the article we read this week in class about the fact that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement was here in Champaign. I guess I just didn’t realize that people we are working with in our community partners are directly at risk of being deported. I cannot even imagine what it would be like to be shipped out of the country with less than 24 hours notice. I also feel bad for the children because I feel like their lives can change so quickly and there is nothing they can do to stop it. In class we were talking about how the children are often left behind without their parents because the children are protected as US citizens (if they were born here). It just doesn’t seem right to me that families can be split up on the spot like that. I really hope that in our generation the laws on immigration are changed. I don’t think that closing the borders is the right solution. I also feel that Americans need to change their stereotypes of immigrants. Many people believe that immigrants are all criminals and this is simply not true. Immigrants are coming into this country because they want to start a new and better life than what they had in their native country. It’s really sad that they come here with so much hope but instead of welcoming and encouraging them, the Americans are discriminatory. Please try to be open-minded to all people no matter where they are from, because we don’t always know how hard they had to work to get here.