This Little Card
Have you questioned yourself about how important a paper can get to be? And what doors it can open to you? The life and future of many immigrants are written in blue on a little card. The Social Security card is a door opener and a door closer at the same time. It closed me many doors of job opportunities when I came to America. And now it is closing the doors of financial help for my studies.
It’s amazing how this little card can be the symbol of discrimination to the people whom only sin is try to have a better life. Many of us were forced to get fake papers* in order to work. And what I think the government doesn’t see is that we pay the same taxes as the legal residents, and on top of that, we don’t get the help they are getting, as for health, food, retirement, etc. We are making money for this country and the government says thank you by giving you an order of deportation… It’s just amazing.
In education, this little card can put your name in the list of the people helped by the FAFSA and other financial aid suppliers, but it can also mark a big red “x” on your application if you don’t have one, and the money you hardly got from working goes to the expensive universities. This little card can make you have to pay double the price of education because you are not a legal resident. So, you have to pay more if you want to get a better career from where you can get more money for this country. There are many teens that graduate from high schools that don’t have enough money to pay for education and that’s why they try to find easier ways to get money, such as selling drugs, prostituting, stealing, etc.
Without this little card, the discrimination to the illegal resident increase more and more every day, now we can’t even drive legally. It’s like a big “stop” sign in front of you that doesn’t allow you get to work on time.
We are in times of war right now, and the Army needs more soldiers to fight in Iraq, and you want to give your life for this country that isn’t even yours, and the Army says “no” because you are not legally authorized to die for this country… because you don’t have this little card.
Now you see that this little card isn’t as little as it seems.
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