I was born in Barranquilla, Colombia, a city on the northern coast of the country; the same city that Shakira and Sofia Vergara call home. My family and I immigrated to this county when I was six years old, I became a citizen at the age of sixteen; but to some, that does not matter because to them I will always be an immigrant and they will always question my legal status.
Imagine being a kid and having a classmate say to you, " How did you get here? did you swim over?" Or, how about being told to go back where you came from because you do not belong, this had happened to me and not just once or as a kid. As an adult, it has happened.
I am one of the blessed immigrants in this country that has had it "easy" because my parents were able to do things "right." I have never lived with the fear of being deported for not having a piece of paper that gives me the false protection of being here. I never had to question myself after graduating high school about life, because I knew I could go to college if I wanted to. However, I knew many classmates in high school that lived with that fear. I had a handful of friends that questioned themselves because they did not know what they would do after graduating.
Being an immigrant in this country is not easy, it will never be easy. But currently, it is not just not easy but also dangerous. I turn on the news, and all I hear is the continuous hate speech and not only towards immigrants but all minority groups. It has to stop. No one person is better than the next. No human has more rights than another.
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