Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen

As a publicly undocumented person, the author has been practicing “radical transparency” (118). While he has been criticized by many people, he continues to do what he has always done: ask questions. In 2012, after revealing his undocumented status, he hears nothing from the authorities. Perturbed, the author calls Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and demands clarification about his future. He is placed on hold. In 2013, the author is asked by the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify as part of a push toward immigration reform. With no information forthcoming from ICE, the author agrees. He takes friends and family members with him and reads his testimony to a packed hearing room. He laments that undocumented people are treated as statistics rather than individuals. He details the lies he told and the help he received. He reads from a book by John F. Kennedy. Then, he goes off script and begins asking the senators questions: what do they want to hear? What do they want to do with undocumented people? How do they define “American?” He receives little response from Republican senators. Despite this blanket of silence, the author would later discover that ICE was disinterested in him because he had never been arrested.