Limbo and Purgatory : the Struggle for Citizen Bodies and Souls

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.

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. 

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.

Who Do We Think We Are?

This morning I woke up and read a motivating op-ed in the New York Times by Hirokazu Yoshikawa and Carola Suárez-Orozco on how terrible deportations are on the American-born children left behind.  I highly recommend it, not just if you’re into issues of immigration but also if you are interested in crafting a more benevolent country for you and your children.

Here’s my (first) letter to the editor:

Re: “Deporting Parents Hurts Kids” (Opinion, April 21, 2012):

Since the beginning of humanity, when meeting basic needs has proved difficult, families have migrated.

How our national government responds to this age-old affair symbolizes our sense of hospitality. With little regard for American-initiated engagements in foreign countries that spark migration, our system of authorizing entry creates the very categories of people that are unauthorized.

Then the same politicians that praise “family values” do little to protect the lawful American-born children. Only Somalia and the US have refused to ratify the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. Like the authors’ work, my research with undocumented youth in Paris and New York shows how crippling status is for kids that have grown up dreaming of giving back to their families and community.

Obama must forcefully restructure the agencies under his aegis to respond in a humane way to the millions of American families with at least one undocumented member.

Stephen Ruszczyk

And my second, I got carried away:

Re: “Deporting Parents Hurts Kids” (Opinion, April 21, 2012):

The authors write how deportation of parents needlessly places American children in danger. Why we have come to such desperation in the US as to need to tear apart families, leaving children without mothers and teenagers without fathers?

Obama’s immigration policy relies on the legitimacy of massive deportations. While this may respond to a perceived political need, being tough on the border, what it really does is pacify interest groups with nativist convictions. These groups are aligned with the Republican Party, whose support he needs to find a legislative compromise.  

But there is no compromise! And the coarse culture of meeting deportation quotas sweeps asunder the apparent good news of Obama’s new discretionary policy for deportation, supposedly based on immigrants’ security risk. The security risk seems to come from separating families, not from them living together.

We need to re-think solutions.  

Stephen Ruszczyk

Education Not Deportation

At UCLA, student protestors claim their right to be educated in the place where they have lived and live.

A Cauldron of Dreams Bubbling

The political activism of undocumented youth has started to gain the ear of American media. This week, an Atlantic writer who did a good job portraying the way status really drags people off their heretofore path as they finish high school. The Connecticut kids find themselves especially blocked. New York City kids actually have the advantage of a formidable, if chronically frustrating, public transportation system. I, for one, am a documented person that does not have a car. The car is often a key resource when looking for a job, or looking for a romantic partner. I still remember a woman I worked with at Marshall's in Buffalo who had to take three buses to get to work, and I remember her crying when she was fired for being late to work, when it took her an hour and a half to get there. But a driver's license is still the norm to buy alcohol or cigarettes in New York City.

The Huffington Post also has a blog series by 12 young writer-activists that tells personal stories and shows the resolve of young people in gaining their shot at the American Dream. The organization of activists seems strongest in California, where 10 of the 12 writers live (the other two seem to live in Florida according to the site). Illinois also has a strong organizational base. If these regional strengths were extended, and the moral standing of kids growing up without papers was deepened in local communities, we might finally start to see political shift. If they could talk more openly about their status, if schools addressed their needs straight-forwardly, and if church and other religious groups spoke out on the universal aspects of being a person, people who living, instead of fighting out battles on sexual practices, if, if, if...

Some Dream Act Protesters

What can you do? You can search out a local organization that helps undocumented immigrants or organizes protests. You can subscribe to groups on Facebook that keep you updated on stories: New York Immigration Coalition, Make the Road, New York State Youth Leadership Council, National Immigrant Youth Alliance, MALDEF, Define American and more. When you read the stories of how the US is treating kids, there is no other choice but to start to act. You can write a message about it on your Facebook, you can write your Senator, your Representatives, you can participate in marches, you can start an online petition, you can talk to your friends about it, you can write a letter to the Editor. Those things won't solve all the problems but will at least start to organize New York so it acts as a leader on undocumented issues like Los Angeles and Chicago do today. And when the kids who face the biggest risk can protest, so can we.