Stereotyping of undocumented immigrants takes center stage at Republicans’ convention

On the second day of the Republican National Convention this month, top Republicans, including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, took the stage and shamelessly used the cheapest of strategies. They continuously took isolated, horrific incidents perpetrated by a small number of people and applied them to all undocumented immigrants.

Through their rhetoric, Trump and his Republican colleagues ignored research that shows no link between immigrants and a surge in violent crime, instead choosing to breed fear, hatred and alienation of immigrant communities for these GOP leaders’ personal gain.

It’s ugly, it’s cruel and it’s dehumanizing.

I know because I am an undocumented immigrant and the recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

So what does a DACA recipient actually look like? Sound like? Live like?

While some elected officials paint a twisted picture of immigrants like me, I know my record as the first in my family to graduate from college and own a home and the first undocumented president of the Young Democrats of Nevada proves otherwise.

My family came to the United States before my second birthday and set roots on the east side of Las Vegas, consistently demonstrating hard work, resilience and a commitment to helping build a strong community.

This is my home, the only home I know. It’s jarring to be told by my government and neighbors that I don’t belong in the only place I’ve ever known.

I learned to speak two languages and took public transportation to doctor’s appointments and other businesses to serve as a translator for my mom.

I remember when my younger sister, who was born in the U.S., went to Mexico to visit our relatives, and I could not go with her. For me, it would have been a one-way trip, cut off from my loved ones until I could somehow find a way back. I was too young to understand that my sister had privileges conferred to her status as a U.S. citizen while I was completely deprived of them.

DACA was created in 2012 to help undocumented children — we quasi-Americans who grew up immersed in U.S. culture, who speak and write English well enough to serve as translators. In order to be eligible, I had to be enrolled in school or the military, and have a clean criminal background. It’s ironic that people like me are dismissed as criminals when the program specifically represents the opposite demographics.

Most undocumented immigrants are tax-paying contributors to the U.S. economy — 343,000 of us work in essential industries such as health care and education. More than 200,000 DACA recipients stood on the front lines of the COVID-19 response, working to educate our children, grow and prepare our food, and protect our health.

Neither I nor any of these other hard-working people would be here without progressive leaders, elected officials and undocumented organizers who continuously fight to protect immigrant rights and preserve DACA.

Being undocumented has led to who I am today — an advocate, community leader and activist. An overwhelming 74% of Americans support providing undocumented children with a pathway to legal status, yet DACA has been heavily attacked and is currently paused for new applicants. This means that no new applicants are being processed, and DACA recipients like me must apply for renewal every two years or face deportation.

I now live and plan my life in two-year increments, anxiously fearing what might happen if my renewal gets rejected, denied or is simply backlogged. I’ve known many people in my community who lost the ability to legally work, drive or go to school because their DACA expired while they were waiting for renewal. This is crippling for people trying to build a future for themselves.

Since 2015, I have renewed my DACA five times. That’s five times that I waited in limbo and had to consider the unthinkable: leaving my family and friends, giving up on my dreams and everything I’ve built here, and starting over in a country with which I am unfamiliar. It’s terrifying and bleak, but I do my best to live in the moment and practice gratitude.

The rhetoric used at the RNC that this country is a rats’ nest because of its immigrant population, and the generalizations that all immigrants are murderers and rapists, is false and dehumanizing. Immigrants do not deserve to be lumped together in such a horrific and negative light.

Maria Nieto is the first undocumented president of the Young Democrats of Nevada. She resides in Las Vegas with her family.