Mexican Immigrants

Leah Amponsah

Professor Sanchez

English 151

April 7, 2017

Mexican Immigrants

        Illegal Immigration is one of the most controversial topics in the United States. Many people believe the U.S should limit immigrants from entering the country for vast reasoning. Despite this, America is known as the land of opportunity; it is where people come to escape the harsh realities of their homelands. Coming from a life of poverty and despair is enough motivation for anyone to search for a better life; a life in which one’s dreams and hopes can become a reality. Instead of the welcome they’ve earned, they are greeted with stereotypes and poor judgement. Mexicans are the largest group of “minorities” and the largest amount of people who come to America illegally. They are bashed the most. They are viewed poorly in the eyes of Americans because they are believed to be criminals, drug dealers, and opportunists, who uses American resources to their advantage without giving back. Americans should be accepting of all immigrants based on the history of the country.

Sam Quinones’ book “Dream Land” describes vividly what America may be perceived as then destroys it by speaking of crime and drugs surround immigrants. It dismisses the idea that America is a utopia and shows how Americans try to conceal reality by believing there is an American Dream. It then reveals how Mexican drug cartels introduced drugs such as black tar heroin, to cities and towns in American and caused many Americans to face addiction. The book gets into detail of how a drug that originated from a small county in Mexico called Xalisco, slowly found it way flooding in to the streets of towns across America. The more Mexicans that enter the country, the more Americans express distaste towards them. Americans control the circumstance that Mexican are in then label them by it.

 Many Mexicans revert to selling drugs as a source of income, although it is morally wrong and illegal, this has become their way of life. Upon arrival, Mexicans are faced with the difficulties of assimilating into American culture and society. Obtaining a job that is high paying is nearly impossible because many of these immigrants are in the country illegally or without the proper documentation. Therefore, they must settle for manual labor jobs and are payed off the books. Because they aren’t on a payroll, employers exploit workers and pay them less then minimum wage. Selling drugs, as indecent and wrong as it might be, provides many struggling immigrant a steady income so that they can support their families back home. In the book, Quinones describes the conditions in which some individuals lived in to save money for family. “Up north, they slept on floors of apartments, unwilling to invest even in a mattress, awaiting the day when they could go home bearing gifts.” Immigrants leave the comfort of their homelands in search of a better life and come to a land of bias judgment. Americans create the circumstance that immigrants live in to prevent them from prospering in this country, then create stereotypes about the way immigrant live. Selling drugs provided fast and plentiful cash, which was the means for the Xalisco boys who wanted to get rich fast. Once they became custom to the money, they become addicted making it harder to stop. Mexican like many other immigrants come to American in search of something, whether it’s in search of a better life or a quick way to get wealthy.