When you hear of an “illegal alien” you automatically receive a negative connotation as compared to an “undocumented immigrant”. When you break down the term “illegal alien” you reach the understanding of each word by itself. Something illegal is automatically defined to be wrong or immoral. As media is built on the definition of an alien, it is easy to imagine a life form that has no resemblance to a human being. You imagine something exiting the doors of a UFO, cannot speak an understandable language, and wants to meet your “leader”. No human being should be compared to an alien in the sense of immigration. From the beginning of America’s history, there had always been the idea of the “American Dream”; which should have been predicted to lead to immigration. Acts such as the Dream Act and programs which aid first-year college students of their families are pieces of America’s history that people hope to get a taste of. A lot of times, there is a good chance these incoming immigrants are running away from problems in their own home countries or looking for a chance at a better life for themselves and future generations. Jose Vargas convinced himself that hard-work would erase the chance of people asking what his ethnicity or citizenship status is. A lot of people who hold that title of being a “US Citizen” have the idea of incoming immigrants refuse to assimilate or causing society to fail. The reality is that these incoming immigrants “pick your strawberries or care for your children. Some are in high school or college. And some, it turns out, write news articles you might read”. (Pg 329 Paragraph 2) Immigrants are beyond the stereotype of coming into the US and bringing in “problems”. Naturally, growing up in the Bronx, I’ve never taken note of the citizenship of people I meet. I grew up knowing that anyone could be the face of any successful business. Your race couldn’t hold you back until your citizenship had become involved. For people such as Vargas who came here for a chance at success, I believe they should be referred to as nothing but “undocumented citizens”. Vargas stated, “I was paying state and federal taxes, but I was using an invalid Social Security card and writing false information on my employment forms.” (This helps to the understanding that these people still work to be parts of a community and earn their place within their cities, yet the reality is that they won’t entirely be accepted because of their citizenship status. I feel as though words such as “illegal” and “alien” should not be used for people who have family roots here or simply coming in search of a better way of life.

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