In Catholic theology, limbo is the place non-Christians and
unbaptized babies go after death to wait until the second coming of Christ.
Purgatory, on the other hand, is where sinners go to expiate their sins before
being allowed in to paradise. Limbo is being stuck in jail before trial, and
purgatory is like doing your time.
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| Purgatory |
How long undocumented youth spend suspended in limbo or
purgatory is a matter of how governments allow youth to convert to a legal
status. I’ve spent the past five years researching how undocumented youth come
of age, in New York and Paris. The legal and bureaucratic systems in France and
other European countries build in flexibility that recognizes years of
residence as a condition of regularizing status, giving youth a release date
from the struggles of coming of age into exclusion. In the US, we do not
provide any transition to a legal status, punishing youth interminably in a
limbo.
Until 18 years of age, undocumented youth are more or less
included in most ways other kids are. For the the Mexican-origin youth that I
followed in New York, they came here at or before 12 years of age, their
parents found low-paying jobs, and they made their way through English as a
Second Language classes and high school.
Then they enter an ice bath of exclusion. When their
documented friends go on to college, even the most academically prepared
students face obstacles that filter them out of the educational system. Though
the City University of New York has been receptive to undocumented students,
nonetheless tuition and fees are over $5,500 for a four-year college. With no
access to federal or state financial aid and no guarantee of a return on their
degree, $22,000 in tuition is a very risky investment. It would also mean less
short-term family income. The political system, imbued with the ideal of equality, excludes these youth
from the means that nearly all students use to attend college.
The contradictions do not end there. In contrast to the
stereotype of young part-time workers using wages for party money or vacations,
the youth in my sample share rent, pay for younger siblings’ educational
endeavors, and save for family security. In order to do these noble
undertakings, however, they must work under the table or assume a false
identity. With both the virtuous paths to college and to a responsible job blocked,
the system nearly forces undocumented youth into low-wage, highly exploitable
work in factories, restaurant kitchens, and delis.
As
Professor Roberto Gonzales at the University of Chicago has written, the American system teaches these youth how to be “illegal”, distancing
them from the American Dream, everyone’s heaven. Because the goal of limbo or
purgatory is to inflict bodily harm until it affects the soul, some brave
undocumented youth have reaffirmed their bodily presence as deserving
residents, to show with their bodies that their souls are actually pure.
Over the past decade, undocumented youth have challenged
these unfair contradictions, knowing every day without reform is another day of
a less bright future. This past Thursday afternoon in one of the busiest spaces in
in Manhattan, Union Square, a group of Dreamers gathered and publicly
testified with their stories of promise and dreams deferred. They recounted
their dreams, described how it feels to be marginalized, cried, and received hugs
and support from others. With this action, they faced the danger of deportation
square in the face, they showed with their bodies they are people with dignity,
and with their words, that they are souls worthy of acceptance. With this
consummate act of participatory democracy, they lay bare the contradiction
between our broken immigration system and our democratic ideals. It makes me shrink
from what I was doing at age 18.
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| Limbo |
Just as limbo and purgatory were man-made concepts, so are
the obstacles these two million youth face. For all their support, the
universities and governments of our cities, immigrant communities, caring
teachers, and documented family members have not been able to bridge the gaps
between this ruinous limbo and spaces of ordinary struggles we all undergo as
youth. When they return from their Easter vacation, Congress has the ability to
do so. A Congressional bill for comprehensive immigration reform, one without a
series of clauses that exclude whole classes of immigrants, will bring these
youth America’s promise, and it will bring America the potential of these
motivated youth.
