Losses of a Good Cause

Imelda J. Munoz

As people sometimes say, “Good things don’t always turn out to be so good”. It’s not that hard to agree. While Ronald Reagan was in office in the 1980’s, he set up an amnesty law for immigrants, which was passed in 1986. It is said that people who immigrated to the U.S. before 1986 were able to get legal document papers to stay in the U.S. This amnesty benefited some people such as my parents. After the amnesty of 1986 was passed, many of my family members immigrated to the U.S., but did not have the same luck. In fact, our family began to disintegrate. It became difficult for immigrants to find a job, and many of them decided to go back home to Mexico. Even though this amnesty gave my parents a chance to stay legally in this country, it got to the point where we were being separated from our extended family and didn’t have the chance to reunite with them after many years.

The amnesty helped my parents get their legal document papers in 1986 and have high hopes for succeeding in the U.S. My parents immigrated to the U.S. in the 1980’s. My mother was nine, and my father was about fifteen, and neither of them had legal papers to stay in the U.S. My father told me that when he came to the U.S., he was planning to work for about two years the most and then go back to Mexico. That’s what many people used to do at that time. In 1986, President Ronald Geagan was in office and he decided to make an amnesty that gave immigrants the opportunity to have legal papers if they had been living in the U.S. before 1986. Reagan did not have a lot of support from the congress, and my parents were worried about what might happen if it did not succeed. Luckily, my parents finally got their papers. They found jobs easily and were able to go back and forth to Mexico whenever they wanted to. Proudly, my mother got her citizenship and now has great opportunities of working in a job that she is satisfied with.

After 1986, many of my family members came to the U.S. from Mexico, but did not have the same luck. For example, one of my uncles tried getting his legal papers, but it was too late for him to get them right away. He was sent back to Mexico, and it took about two years to be able to come back to the U.S. and get his papers. His hopes for returning to the U.S. vanished more and more each day. My father decided to help my uncle get his papers as soon as possible. In addition, he would also call him once in a while to see how he was doing and to let him know how the status of his application was going. This whole situation became more stressful for my father each day, and my uncle became more desperate. It was then that my uncle decided to immigrate to the U.S. again even though he did not have his papers. Consequently, my uncle was not able to find a decent job. Instead, he has been working in a factory that pays him less than the minimum wage. Sadly, he has not tried going back to Mexico no matter how bad he wants to.

This amnesty has also led to disintegration between my family. Until now I’ve heard that I have many family members around the U.S., such as in Indiana, California, Texas, Kankakee, Nebraska, North and South Carolina and many other parts of the U.S. Sadly, I have not gotten a chance to meet them all. My parents have told me that the reason many of our family members have not come to Illinois is because those other states are more affordable, and it is easier for them to find jobs there. I was also told that most of them are scared that they’ll get sent back to Mexico. It is such a hard situation because without knowing it a few years ago, I found out that my next door neighbor is my father’s cousin. It was like a cold bucket of water was poured on my head since I was starting to have a little crush on my neighbor’s son, but he is really my uncle.

Nevertheless, this amnesty of 1986 gave my parents the opportunity to have good jobs and to be part of the U.S. although it has also led to disintegration of our family despite the fact that we’re all in the same country. Many other families got separated as well, and many immigrants did not like this at all. It became difficult for them to find a job and forced them to return to Mexico. Various immigrants’ hopes of reaching the American Dream have now vanished. One thing I know is that some of them will keep trying to get the life they’re looking for and have the best for their family. Even though people say that “Good things don’t always turn out to be so good”, I think that every individual’s attempt to reach a certain dream will pay off.