After her brother was gunned down in 2012, Jessica Mejía and her mother wanted to legally migrate to the U.S. But like millions of migrants who want to move to the U.S., they discovered how difficult it is.
Carmen Ramirez and her daughter, Jessica Mejia in their Baytown, Texas home on August 24, 2023. Ramirez and Mejia, originally from Colombia, are pursuing US citizenship and preparing to take the naturalization test together.Jessica Mejía and her family had a good life in Colombia. They owned an electronics business and traveled to Houston every year, where they stayed with Mejía’s older sister Nataly, who had moved to Texas to study English at Houston Community College.
Fearing for their lives, Mejía and her mother used their tourist visas to flee to Houston. Her father decided to stay behind, Mejía said. When their tourist visas expired, they remained in Houston as undocumented immigrants. Even though the country’s two major political parties agree the current immigration system doesn’t work, they have been divided on how to overhaul a system that has been a political wedge issue for decades.
Republicans, meanwhile, have pushed to seal the southern border with more barriers and border agents and called for deporting undocumented immigrants already in the country, arguing that they should simply get in line to immigrate legally to the U.S. But there’s no widespread support among Republican lawmakers for such a proposal; Republican lawmakers who have proposed creating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented people have been painted as weak on border security by immigration hardliners in their party.
“That's precisely why you have so many people coming to the United States illegally,” he said. “Because they believe that if they get here, if they stick it out long enough, eventually, the system will bend to their will, they'll find some reason to be able to get a green card and eventually become a citizen.”
Bier said many of the roughly 1 million green card recipients per year enter the country illegally because they felt they had no other choice. Claiming asylum. The huge numbers of migrants entering through the southern border in recent years are mostly asylum-seekers, who must meet the same threshold as refugees but typically appear at the U.S. border rather than applying from their home countries. A recordwere pending as of December, and it can take an average of five years for each case to be decided. Those who are given asylum can apply for a green card.
One Percent for America says it has approved about 632 loans at 1% interest to cover citizenship fees — currently $750, not counting the cost of a lawyer. Seventy loans have gone to immigrants in Texas, including Mejía and her mother.When she was younger, Mejía said she took her family’s visits to Houston for granted.
So for seven years, Mejía lived in Houston with her sister as an undocumented immigrant and worked as a private Spanish teacher, giving lessons to a 6-year-old boy a few days per week. Later she got a job waiting tables at a Mexican restaurant in Houston. She said there were times she was frustrated, especially when customers made fun of her accent when she spoke English.
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Immigrating legally means navigating a system both political parties say is broken. Here’s why it’s so difficult.After her brother was gunned down in 2012, Jessica Mejía and her mother wanted to legally migrate to the U.S. But like millions of migrants who want to move to the U.S., they discovered how difficult it is.
Leer más »