El Nightmare Americano

As children, we are sold the idea that the American Dream exists because, as Americans, we can accomplish our wildest dreams because of our country’s democracy and ideals. The United States is “the land of the free and home of the brave,” where “liberty and justice for all” is a mantra taught to kids from their first days in school.That is, until one day, you realize those words were never true. Well, maybe that realization does not happen to everyone: some may never have to question the words “free” and “justice” because they, too, reap the benefits of oppressive institutions and practices. Others, on the other hand, face state violence and family disruption at the hands of their own country, a nation they are supposed to feel proud of and call home. 

The Oxford Dictionary defines the American Dream as “the ideal by which equality of opportunity is available to any American, allowing the highest aspirations and goals to be achieved.” While it is essential to acknowledge the privileges of growing up in America’s comparative affluence compared to other underdeveloped countries, it is also necessary to understand that the “equality of opportunity” does not exist for all Americans. The American dream was coined because the U.S. was seen as an immigrant’s ideal destination for building a new life and fulfilling desires. However, America’s harsh contemporary immigration laws and practices show that the American Dream is another social construct created to advance capitalist and nationalist values that only benefit the people for whom this country was built. 

Many people arrive to America by foot or by plane. The largest immigrant group today is Latinos, with the majority coming across the southern border from Mexico and Central America. Beginning anew in the North means escaping poverty for many despite leaving their entire lives behind. For some, leaving for America also means crossing borders and escaping death in pursuit of the American Dream; despite the difficulty in obtaining citizenship. The road towards legal citizenship is practically impossible for undocumented immigrants. Making the journey across the US-Mexico border is more common than we think. Last year, Border Patrol reported over 2.2 million people crossing the US-Mexico border in 2022. That’s nearly the entire population of Chicago. The treacherous journey across the Sonoran Desert, which is larger than Britain, has been a graveyard for immigrants for decades, which is no coincidence. The American government created this mainstream migrant passageway in 1994, naming this tactic “Prevention through Deterrence.” This government strategy was implemented by heavily increasing security in border cities to allow “mountains, deserts, lakes, rivers, and valleys form natural barriers to the passage,” further exploiting the natural environment to kill migrants. Once this plan was implemented, deaths increased, and crossing conditions worsened. Traversing the Sonoran Desert was already dangerous due to the human traffickers that prey on vulnerable migrant populations. Now, migrants must worry about the heat and geographical challenges that might kill them despite paying smugglers years of rent, and sometimes their own lives.

Prevention through Deterrence is proof of the devaluation and dehumanization of immigrant lives, especially those coming from Central America and Mexico. The United States wants to decrease immigration influx yet refuses to acknowledge its role in the political and social destabilization of many Latin American countries during the 1980s, which can be correlated with immigrant patterns. The path towards “legal” immigration is complex, and the CATO Institute finds that “Today, fewer than 1 percent of people who want to move permanently to the United States can do so legally.” Immigration laws that passed in the 1920s became increasingly restrictive, with caps that must be met and strict new eligibility requirements, such as having no immigration violations. However, immigration violations can quickly occur, such as missing court, as migrants often lack the resources to navigate inaccessible legal systems. Similarly, the right to asylum, a human right, has become difficult to obtain. Many Central Americans and Mexicans are denied the right to asylum because their struggles can be associated with the entire country, and their trauma is not sufficiently “individualized.” The Syracuse University Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse tracked asylum decisions by judge and found that judges in Southern states denied asylum more than 88% of the time. On top of denial rates, the asylum application alone is difficult for migrants to access as many may not have the financial resources to hire a lawyer, and legal non-profit law organizations tend to have limited space. 

Many Americans want immigrants to “do it the right way,” but legal immigration is nearly impossible, being restrictive by design. Immigration itself has become overly vilified in an era where people risk their lives and leave everything behind for the so-called American Dream, but most importantly stability whether economically or politically. The true American Dream, “equal opportunity for all,” does not exist for [undocumented] immigrants because of an insurmountable naturalization process that was designed to be exclusive for more economically privileged migrants. Many migrants settle down and build families, yet American children with undocumented parents do not have the same opportunities as their peers as they fear deportations and many of which are twice as likely to remain in poverty. In a nation marked by complex immigration issues, the call for more just immigration laws is crucial. We must condemn the unequal and dehumanizing practices the United States has historically upheld through oppressive immigration laws, and demand equity so that “equal opportunity for all,” may one day exist. 

Kelly Rojo Reyes ’25 College of Arts & Sciences, she/her, can be reached at krojoreyes@wustl.edu

*Photo courtesy of Voice of San Deigo