Placing a Stay on Passion

Think of your passion. What drives you? What moves you to go the extra mile even if nobody notices? Is it playing a sport? Is it documenting events in order to become a journalist? Is it caring for people? Whatever it is, I would like to state that your passion is valid no matter who you are or what it may be as long as it is within good intentions. Now imagine having this desire, this dream, this passion of yours ripped from your hands for one and only one reason: you are an undocumented citizen.

Cesar Vargas, an undocumented immigrant
with dreams of being a New York lawyer
Courtesy of nytimes.com

That is the beginning of thousands of stories just like Cesar Vargas'; a passion temporarily put on hold due to the status of his citizenship. Cesar Vargas came to the United States from Mexico when he was five years old, nearly twenty-five years ago. Since immigrating from Mexico to New York State, Cesar Vargas had dreams of becoming a lawyer for the state. He had all the right credentials; he graduated college and law school with honors, interned for several highly powerful people, and passed the bar exam. The only thing he did not have was a perfect evaluation that checked both his background and his character. He passed the character evaluation with flying colors, the background check not so much. The committee recommended that Vargas not practice law, and sent his case and the cases of many other hopefuls to the Supreme Court and higher legislation.

Within the article the New York Times wrote about Vargas, they also discussed how several states are having issues about allowing undocumented immigrants perform law in the modern day. New York, California, Florida, and a few more states are considering amendments to the rules placed over immigrant status. The largest issues are the fact that under the program of deferred action, immigrants who were brought here illegally as children are authorized to work in any field, including law.

Vargas's focal argument is the fact that there is no clause about immigration in the admission to become a practicing lawyer. According to the New York Times, "The crux of his argument, he said, is a paragraph in state judiciary law that specifically precludes race, color, creed, national origin or “alienage” — being a foreigner — as grounds for prohibiting admission". So why are many like Vargas being denied the grounds to perform their passion over their immigration status? For that answer I suggest you turn to the news. Besides a few recent events, immigration reform is one of the single largest issues in the country. 

It was still a major issue back in the 1980's when Reyna Grande immigrated to the United States. Even as she grew up, it was clear that the dreams of immigrants were different than the dreams of citizens. Her passion for writing was never truly acknowledged until eighth grade. When she was in elementary school she entered in writing contests, but she never even placed. The results of her first competition were down putting to say the least, "Out of the eight books [Mrs. Anderson her teacher] chose, not even one was written by one of the kids at my table, the non-English speakers". Although like Vargas, being told she couldn't perform her passion only made her want to even more.

With the subject of immigration reform being so heated and controversial, it's helpful to take a few steps back and look at a few stories at a time to get a perspective on things. I'll admit, I didn't really start this project with a super open mind about immigration. Having middle class parents who work constantly to maintain that status, I always considered immigrants without green cards and paperwork to be freeloaders. Yet, we're all human, and we can never forget that. I stated that in my first piece and I will reiterate it once more. We all go through struggles, but no one deserves to be told that their passion or dream is invalid or should wait a little while.

In reality, we're all dreamers. From the ones we have subconsciously to the little things that keep us hoping for better, our goals are what make us human. As a teenager with barely a tenth of my life completed, the world seems like an open book. That's why it's so easy for someone like myself to relate to Reyna as she was growing up, optimistic, hopeful, and constantly dreaming. She wouldn't give up till she made her father proud, and writing was her freedom from the dreary horror she lived in. For myself, I adore helping people and trying to make things memorable. I'm quite the sentimental person, so I've always dreamed of becoming a doctor so that others could remember the time they got back on their feet with a little help. Reading tales like Cesar Vargas's make any dreamer gasp, how dare you stop someone from doing what they love because of something as arbitrary as their immigration status.

I know I had stated goals for this blog, one of those to have a goal for each post, but I've realized that each time I write, my perspective changes. Sometimes those goals sound lovely and highly attainable, but your dreams change, and so can your goals. But to all those with a passion, I wish you the greatest amount of luck because people will try to stop you. There will be barriers, some small and some large, but none you can't overcome. Perhaps the one dream we should all share is that in a year, two, or just eventually no one like Cesar Vargas, Reyna Grande, or even ourselves will be told we can't achieve something just because of where we come from.