leftist-linguaphile:

This is no secret, both of my parents were undocumented when I was born. I’ve talked about this several times here, and can honestly say that because they were undocumented, I grew up with the reality of how difficult this is, and am so proud of them and all immigrant parents. My parents were lucky enough to obtain their residency through the amnesty, but didn’t become official residents till the early 90’s. It wasn’t easy for my family. The odd jobs and the late hours are still 100% present in me. The fear and constant paranoia is still present in me. That’s why when I hear people talk badly about immigrants, I lose it. You have no idea what’s like to be an undocumented immigrant or the child of an undocumented immigrant, and you have no right to comment on the “legality” of what they did  to get into this country. You don’t know what it’s like to start from zero. You have no idea what it’s like to have your parents live in this country for 20 plus years, and still not speak the language or be able to read your own mail because since the day you got here, you were too busy working over 60 hours a week for scraps. For most immigrants, there is no magical line you wait at to migrate “legally”. This reality isn’t yours. I suggest you shut up, pick up a history book, read the news, and become informed. People don’t immigrate for fun.

(Source: political-linguaphile)