Playing with Dynamite: The Human Cost of Immigration Policy
Guest blogger: Dallin Nielsen, law student, University of San Francisco
Immigration was one of the most important issues for voters in the 2024 presidential election, second only to the economy.[1] But despite being such a prominent issue, I wonder if those who favor increasing immigration controls ever consider the actual effects of their votes. It’s easy to blame problems – perceived or actual – on a nebulous group of “others” who “aren’t from here” or who “aren’t real Americans.” I have relatives who refer to “they” whenever we talk about certain issues. “They are shoving the gay agenda in my face.” Or “They are coming here and living off my tax dollars.”
I encourage these relatives, and people like them, to consider that we are not a country full of “theys.” We are a country, 340 million strong, of people. Individuals, just like you and me. In the spirit of this consideration, I will tell a story about two of my friends whose lives were upended by the results of November 5th, 2024.
(For confidentiality, names and locations have been altered and/or omitted.)
By November of 2024, James and Jessie were in love. They knew they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together. They lived in different cities, but they had already begun to lay out how their future would look. Within the next year, they would be living in the same city. Within two years, they would be engaged, and within three, happily married. James described how they looked forward to “all those fun details that you get to plan out” when preparing for a wedding. They were going to chart a course through life together.
That is, until Donald Trump was elected President.
When Jessie heard the news, her immediate reaction was, “My life is over. I need to go to Canada.”
Jessie was born in El Salvador but had been living in the United States since she was 6 or 7 years old. She was a DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipient, which Trump tried to end in 2017. Thankfully, this challenge was unsuccessful, but all that fear and uncertainty came rushing back once he was reelected in 2024. Jessie had family who, during Trump’s first term, fled from the U.S. to Canada. Jessie now thought she faced the same choice: run to Canada or risk being deported.
James and Jessie described how they felt after Trump was elected in 2024: “The [election] results chipped away at any sense of security we had.” James felt total disillusionment that Trump had won, again. “All of the plans we had been building were wiped off the table.”
But they didn’t give up. They talked about moving to Canada. It would be a huge sacrifice to abandon their homes, jobs, friends, and family, all so they could continue to live together.
They talked about getting married right away, but they didn’t know if it would make a difference, and there were no clear answers. After long hours scouring the internet, they discovered that since Jessie had first entered the country on a tourist visa, she had entered “with inspection” and might be eligible for adjustment of status via marriage.
So, they got married at the city hall. They condensed the next three years of their lives into three short weeks. Nevertheless, their wedding day was beautiful, mainly because these two are so in love. (If you could meet them, you would know what I mean.)
Even though they had a beautiful wedding, dark overtones remained. They were robbed of the chance to plan their wedding the way they wanted to. For them, getting married was a question of “when,” not “if.” The Trump administration thrust the “when” upon them. For Jessie, it was now or never. She could not afford any delay, because every day that went by was another day that devastation could strike and see her ripped away from her home, her family, and the love of her life.
At the same time, the couple was moving as quickly as they could to pursue adjustment of status for Jessie. James described immigration laws as “intentionally confusing.” He talked about how there was so much false and misleading information that it was hard to be sure about anything. Every decision felt like it had to be made immediately. There was zero room for error. They couldn’t afford to pay an immigration attorney to shepherd them through the entire process, but they connected with an immigration self-help service that provided guided, “DIY modules” for immigration filings. After consulting with this service and determining that Jessie was eligible to adjust her immigration status, they began the arduous process of completing and filing the necessary paperwork.
Even still, Jessie was reluctant to get her hopes up. She felt that no matter what they did, it wouldn’t make any difference. She described feeling “totally checked out” and “disheartened.” She was entirely drained – mentally, emotionally, and physically.
They worked together, drawing on Jessie’s prior DACA experience, the internet, and their immigration “modules.” James described how eye-opening it was to see how complicated the paperwork is. He talked about the complicated questions, double negatives, vague wording, and legal jargon that would lead anybody to make a mistake, no matter what their skill level. In fact, he made a mistake about Jessie’s birth date (which was already on file from previous forms) that set their application back for 3-4 months. He described doing the paperwork as “going to the DMV, except x100, and [if you mess up the forms] it’s not ‘oh, I might not get my license today,’ it’s ‘oh, I might get deported and die.’”
Each stroke of the pen and click of the keyboard felt heavy because their lives hung in the balance. One wrong move, and everything they wanted to build together could be ripped away. As James put it, “it felt like playing with dynamite.”
While her application was pending, Jessie felt like she couldn’t leave the house for fear of what might happen to her. That fear even extended to James – if something were to happen to him, she didn’t feel like she could leave and help him. ICE was detaining citizens and non-citizens alike in their city. If James got detained, there was nothing she could do. This ever-present fear and existential dread took an enormous toll on their mental well-being.
Finally, after all their sweat, tears, and money were spent, Jessie’s application for adjustment of status was approved. Miraculously, she received her Green Card only a week later.
I asked them if they feel safer now that Jessie has a Green Card.
Their answer was a resounding “no.”
Their sense of trust that the administration will respect the law has been completely eroded. “There are no rules now,” they said. Jessie, despite successfully adjusting her status, doesn’t feel hopeful about the future. She just feels lucky. She is still scared for herself and her husband, who is a U.S. citizen. Even though she has a Green Card, she fears that the government could take it away. At this point, all they feel they can do is hope for the best.
The deck was stacked against James and Jessie. Luckily, they were able to get married, even if it wasn’t under circumstances of their choosing, and Jessie successfully adjusted her status. All is well, for now. The fear that they experienced still lives in their minds, and surely it lives in the minds of millions of people and couples like them.
Immigration policy affects real people. It affects citizens and non-citizens alike. The way we vote has a real, direct impact, not just on you, but on millions of other people. People who love, who have hopes and dreams, careers, families, and businesses. People who make this country truly great.
So, the next time you vote, take a moment to think about people like James and Jessie.
bh
[1] https://www.as-coa.org/articles/poll-tracker-attitudes-immigration-2024-us-elections
