A discussion led by Lilia Soto, Suzan Pritchett and Jose Rivas titled “Immigrant Today” kicked off Days of Dialogue on Monday, bringing students and faculty alike together to discuss immigration reform.
The talk started with Soto, assistant professor of Latino studies and American studies, showing clips from the documentary, “Who is Dayani Cristal?” The clips covered the problem of rising immigrant deaths.
The clip said that in 2000, there were 19 migrant deaths a year and since 2001, there was an average of just fewer than 200 migrant deaths a year. The clip said that there have been so many migrant deaths that they could never possibly identify all the bodies. These bodies have no way of being identified because they were never in the system used to identify bodies in the first place.
The clip goes on to talk about the stigma of migrant workers in the states, saying that there is a large benefit from a blue-collar workforce being filled by these migrant workers. Soto said that many of these jobs are ones that non-migrant workers would not want in the first place.
“In the United States, we equate wages with identity, and that our wages should reflect our identity. We’re professors. We should receive a particular salary because we went to college or have a Ph.D or whatever,” Soto said. “Service industry work has a status that United States citizens don’t want, how are we supposed to get United States citizens to pick grapes?”
Suzan Pitchett, assistant professor of the UW College of Law, covered issues with immigration laws in America.
“There are all sorts of hurdles that Congress has set up to make it really difficult for people to come here, and only people who fit into these very specific classifications,” Pitchett said. “Out of these people they then have to be going to somewhere where there are visas available, and as I’ve described, for some of these groups, there may not be any visas available for 20 plus years.”
She said that Congress has attempted to put a new system in place called the Dream Act that didn’t pass.
“I think everybody agrees, this system is broken. Only a small number of people are benefiting from it. There are labor needs in the United States, there are family needs that are simply not being met by this system, but what has congress done? Absolutely nothing,” Pitchett said.
Jose Rivas, an immigrant UW student in M.E.Ch.A, an organization on campus that encourages cultural pride, told his story to conclude the panel. He left his home country at the age of six to move to California and eventually moved to Gillette. Rivas said that there were immigrant raids in Gillette when he was 11.
“What was the Latino population in Gillette doing wrong? Were we breaking the law for trying to live the American Dream? Was I a criminal at the age of 11 because of my undocumented status?” Rivas said. “As I grew older, barriers started to grow around me, I could not play sports because I had no medical insurance.”
Rivas was eventually accepted to Casper College and Gillette College, where he got his degree. He said that after graduation he was met with not being able to start a career with his degree because of his undocumented status. He said his life took a turn for the better when D.A.C.A (Differed Action for Childhood Arrival) gave him an opportunity to continue his education.
“This D.A.C.A program really does benefit us a lot, but there is more to be done,” Rivas said.
