For those who are personally unfamiliar with the issue of undocumented immigration and view it from an outsider’s perspective, the concept of granting amnesty to such individuals can seem bizarre.

Which is understandable; who in their right mind wants to give rights to individuals who have purposely broken the law? Who wants to show mercy toward those who have illegally brought children against their will to another country and stolen the jobs and dreams of the American people? One question though, do these assumptions really justify the hatred and violence aimed at these alleged “illegal” immigrants?

From the perspective of those individuals who are affected by immigration reform in the U.S, not only does this hateful belief system seem inhumane but also contradictive to the prominent inscription on the Statue of Liberty stating, “give me you're tired, your poor, [and] your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”. Or wait, was this phrase only meant for the white, dominant social class of distinguished European countries?

Even those who are supposedly in favor of immigration reform often only view this topic trivially, not truly understanding the lives of undocumented immigrants and their families.

From my personal perspective of being the daughter of undocumented immigrants, we fight for our parents who have no rights, who are neither de aqui, ni de alla (from here nor from there); who are no longer welcomed in their home country and are blatantly told that they have no rights in this country.

These undocumented immigrants, no matter how much they are criminalized, are becoming the victims of their own search for freedom that is not being helped from either anti-immigration groups nor from politicians and the media who are supposedly unveiling the truth of immigrants.

For the discussion on immigration to become more meaningful, politicians and the media should refocus their storytelling on the impacted community instead of their superficial statements to better reflect the suffering of undocumented immigrants.

Some may claim that if certain immigrants are still getting media coverage, then what harm can come from superficially representing them if they are receiving recognition? It is the fact that these stories are not giving justice to the totality of these communities. Instead politicians and the media should tell stories that will actually fix the problem; report on how children have been stripped away from their parents by Border Patrol and imprisoning both parties, the economic and political reasons why undocumented immigrants go the U.S, the mental health consequences of instilling undocumented immigrants and their children fear of being violently persecuted, cover how the majority of undocumented immigrants charged of criminal offenses are most often violations that would get most white U.S. citizens a slap on the wrist.

Most importantly we need to represent these immigrants as respectful, with no use of derogatory sayings of “illegal” or “alien”, using these words in the media not only decreases the credibility of the source but continues to institutionalize the stereotype of immigrants being criminals.

For example, Trump’s continued rhetoric of classifying undocumented immigrants (stereotypically all from Mexico) as rapist and murderers fuel anti-immigrant organizations to vocalize their skewed xenophobic, nativist views in order to “Make American Great Again” when in fact they seem to express a desire for America to be more white again

Even immigrants do not understand the limited media coverage that they are being given. From their perspective, the media is covering their stories and relaying their hardships to the public. When in reality, only Spanish news stations are doing so. Spanish news networks understand the suffering that undocumented immigrants are going through because it is part of their community— displaying immigration in a positive light as well as sufficiently relaying stories of immigrant families who are attempting to live the American dream and mean no harm to the American public, they only want to be a part of it.

The only issue is that these stories are not being relayed to the right audience; most of the Hispanic community in the U.S. believe in rights for undocumented immigrants, it is U.S. citizens that need to be convinced.

Consequently, these biased and perfunctory narratives from liberal and conservative sources strike controversies between the American public and even from individuals directly related to immigrants. According to a personal interview that I conducted from an immigrant couple who wish to remain anonymous, anti-immigrant sentiments continue even in their country, referring to “Americanized” immigrants as mojados who supposedly think themselves better than their home community.

Due to the lack of media and politician coverage correctly relaying reasons for why many immigrants choose to come to the U.S and the suffering that this community faces of not belonging to a particular country is the reason as to why many stereotypes and discrimination arises among outside perspectives of this issue.