Intro

• A work of “creative nonfiction, rooted in careful reporting, translated as poetry, shared by chosen family, and sometimes hard to read....”
• Focuses on undocumented people, but not Dreamers

Chapter 1: Staten Island

• Staten Island = least diverse, most white, most conservative (& only Republican) borough of NYC
• Day laborers: do any kind of manual labor, just hired by the day to do work
  • In Staten Island, 70% undocumented, most looking for more permanent work
  • No workplace regulations, exploitation (just not getting paid, no breaks, etc.) bc undocumented
• Language barrier
  • Almost all immigrants try to learn English formally
  • Every immigrant knows that no matter how fluent you are, to some people, you will never speak English.
• Clean up from hurricanes (Katrina, Sandy) = a lot by Latinx, undocumented workers
  • Did the most dangerous and difficult work
  • Often the first responders
  • Also often disproportionately affected by disasters, but denied aid

Chapter 2: Ground Zero

• Fires burned long and hot— longest structural fire on record; lots of toxic materials, metals, fuel; very few survivors
  • First responders = EMTs and firefighters; second responders = undocumented
  • Contractors hired subcontractors, often immigrants, to recruit undocumented dayworkers— mostly Eastern Eur, Latinx
  • Not given adequate protection, compensation, healthcare; still living in fear of deportation
  • True dangers of the work not explained to them
• Many undocumented workers who see victims of 9/11 (injured, killed) not included in official lists
  • Often worked without papers, which were required to get compensation after
  • Employers hesitant to say they had undocumented people working for them

Chapter 3: Miami

• Undocumented immigrants can’t get health insurance... and the “sick immigrant” is the biggest fear of Right
• Don’t have access to pharmacies, necessary drugs/tx → often rely on botanicás for unprescribed medicine, indigenous cures
• Voodoo religion = result of anti-colonial resistance, attempts at maintaining traditional religions when white people tried to proselytize
• Housekeeping → dangerous work: vast temperature changes, chemicals from ovens and cleaning; very frequent sexual harassment; unreliable pay

Chapter 4: Flint

• As the city got blacker, browner, poorer, public utilities degraded quickly
• Undocumented people often didn’t even hear notice of water problems because they didn’t answer the door for officials coming around to warn them for fear of being deported
• Prevalence of churches in Latinx communities → bc their services are in such high demand, since state doesn’t provide them
• Deep distrust between people and govt, understandably— how to trust results of govt lead tests when they are the ones responsible for it?

Chapter 5: Cleaveland

• Immigrants can claim sanctuary in places of worship → avoid deportation
  • Has to be done carefully to avoid being called “harboring a fugitive”
  • Church will send message to ICE saying they’re taking the person in as part of their mission or something (right away), person wears ankle monitor the whole time
• Everything undocumented immigrants do is technically illegal... but the case against that?
  • MLK → laws that are not in harmony with moral law are unjust, and people should have the right to move if the place they experience hunger, violence, poverty, lack of opportunity where they are (esp. if caused by the US)

Chapter 6: New Haven

• Manual labor that most undocumented immigrants do ages them harshly → no safety net as they become unable to continue this kind of work
  • More than half of undocumented people pay into social security, but none receive benefits
• Stresses of undocumented life → anxiety, depression, chronic headaches, ulcers, etc.
  • Hard to talk about this issue without playing into stereotype that immigrants are a burden to the healthcare system; goes against the idea that they are machines that can withstand more pain/work than others
• Once kids grow up, older immigrants sometimes “retire” back to country of origin
• When child that’s an American citizen turns 21, can sponsor parents (but not siblings, other family members) for green card (disparagingly called “anchor babies”)
  • But recently cases of undocumented parents being deported during the process