Jose, welcome to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
Thank you for having me.
Um, let's talk
about the immigrant experience during this period,
especially the undocumented immigrant experience.
Coronavirus has-has affected everyone.
Everyone, everyone, everyone.
But as an undocumented immigrant in America right now,
there's a unique experience that is amplivied by--
amplified by coronavirus.
Could you-- could you tell us a little bit about what that is?
Because you've been speaking so much on it.
Yeah. So, I mean, you know, o--
you know, our job at Define American is how do we humanize
this issue so people can understand it, right?
Wherever they are, whatever their experiences are.
So, to me, what's happening is it's exposing
just how hypocritical we are as a society.
-Mm-hmm. -Right? So, we rely on immigrant workers
as "essential workers,"
yet we don't really want to treat them as essential people.
We just want to treat them as workers.
Like, you know, I'm lucky. I live in California.
I'm in Berkeley, where I-- where I am right now.
And in California, Governor Newsom
is the only governor so far that has said
that we're gonna provide relief to undocumented workers
who are actually part of our economy
and part of our communities.
That's not something that Governor Cuomo has done yet.
That's not something that Texas--
What, 1.7 million undocumented workers in the state of Texas.
I mean, what would the construction industry,
the agricultural industry,
-like, how would they survive without us? -Mm-hmm.
And, yet, like, the response hasn't been,
you know-- hasn't not only been fair
but been humane in this regard.
So, I remember I was reading this essay and--
I think it was in The Wall Street Journal--
and um, by Susan Orlean, who I love.
And the essay was-- She said,
"Never Taking Travel for Granted Again."
(chuckles) And then I remember thinking,
"Wait, as an undocumented person, we can't travel."
Right? There's only actually 12 states
that allow undocumented people like me to drive.
-Right? California is one of 'em. -Mm-hmm.
Like, New York finally, um, is making it happen.
But the reality is undocumented immigrants are actually--
Social distancing for us
is not something that the pandemic brought.
It's actually a way of life. It's our reality.
-So... -It's interesting, because for-for many, um...
for many on-on the right,
coronavirus and-and the relief efforts
actually created a bit of a storm
in and around undocumented immigrants, you know?
Because they-they said, "Well-well,
"this is another example of how undocumented immigrants
want to leech off the system."
You know, you would see people online saying,
"Why do they want our taxpayer money?
"Why should we pay for illegal immigrants
who are in this country?"
How do you respond to somebody like that?
Because, I mean, you see it as a culture war online,
and-and it-it, you know-- it's-- it gets stoked
every single day from the top.
But-but the question is,
how do you even respond to somebody like that?
The fact that undocumented workers
contribute billions of dollars in taxes and Social Security--
if people knew that-- it doesn't matter
if you're left, right, center-- if they knew the facts,
then they wouldn't say that, right?
-I mean, look around. Who's working? -Right.
Right? So, again,
to me, what's been dangerous and hurtful
is this thinking that immigrants are here just as labor.
We're just here to work.
There was a-- There was that great quote that, I think,
someone from the-- from the EU said, that,
"Oh, we asked for workers, and they gave us people."
-Right? 'Cause we are people. -Hmm.
And-- But the reality is, the way this administration,
this very anti-immigrant administration,
has been enacting policies,
not only about undocumented immigrants, by the way--
I mean, the reality is
the assault is beyond the undocumented population, right?
They're going after people seeking asylum.
They're banning foreign students.
They're ending work permits for talented international students.
They're banning new green cards for 60 days.
And, of course, DACA, which I'm sure
-you're-you're aware about, right? -Right. Right.
Right now, so, we have, what, 200,000 DACA recipients
who are literally fighting this pandemic--
hospital workers, food workers, farmers, teachers.
And yet, ev-- any day now,
the Supreme Court can make a decision
that says that they-- that they can no longer be here...
Yeah. I won't lie, one of the more confusing things for me
that-that struck me when I came to America
was a little bit of the hypocrisy in the story.
Because I was shocked when I found out
that you could be an undocumented worker
in America but pay taxes.
In fact, the IRS is more than happy
to collect the tax from you, and so you're contributing
-to society, but then, -More than happy!
at the same time, people make it seem
like you're not a part of that society.
And then, again, that story came to the fore in coronavirus.
You know, you started seeing stories
of how the-the meat processing plants,
-the-the farms, they said, -Yes.
"Hey, uh, we-we would appreciate it right now
"if you didn't raid us or anything,
because our workers are undocumented."
The people who are delivering food.
The people who are driving people around in Ubers.
The people who are just, you know, getting you around,
getting your food to you, looking after you in hospitals,
cleaning your-- Whatever it is,
these people are undocumented,
and, yet, they seem to be very essential to the society.
Do you-- do you think that there's a-- there's a breakdown
in how people perceive what an undocumented worker is?
Absolutely. I mean, that's why, you know,
when I-- when I came out as undocumented
almost nine years ago now, my-my purpose is,
how do we change the narrative of this issue?
How do we complicate it?
How do we get it out of this Mexico border wall
that it's stuck in that helped elect Donald Trump?
When, in reality, undocumented people live
with people who are U.S. citizens by birth,
are green card-- It's called a mixed-status family.
You know, like, right now, you know,
it's-it's graduation season, right?
So, I don't know where I would be if it weren't for my teachers
at Crittenden Middle School and at Mountain View High School.
Right? Like, before there was a DREAM Act,
before anybody knew what this was,
my teachers were the ones who, like, made sure
that I was more than pieces of papers, right?
And so right now, actually, at-at Define American,
we're about to host an Immigrad,
like, a graduation for-for immigrant students--
uh, for students from immigrant backgrounds, right?
'Cause, right now, in this country,
there's about four million K to, uh--
K to 12th grade students who are immigrants
or live with somebody who is undocumented.
And the reality is this is a really difficult time.
So how do we celebrate them?
So we're hosting this big Immigrad on Sunday
at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Check it out.
Go to DefineAmerican.com.
And if you want some inspiration,
go on Instagram or Twitter or Facebook
and just type "Immigrad"
and you see stories of, like, first, second,
third-generation immigrant students who are here
and who are honoring their parents
for the sacrifices that they've made
just so they could be here.
Jose, thank you so much for taking the time.
And, um, we, uh--
we'll tell people to try and check out the--
You said it's Immigrad that people should check out online.
It-It's a virtual graduation
at 3:00 p.m. Eastern on Saturday.
There's a special guest. You'll love her. She's great.
So please check it out on Sunday.
-On Saturday. -Thank you so much for being with us, Jose.
Thank you.