As she awakes at 6:15am every morning, gets dressed and heads out for another day of work, Alicia never thought that working at a Public Relations agency as an assistant account executive would be part of her life journey. As an undocumented student, she graduated magna cum laude from Lehman College in 2014 with a degree in Mass Communications Public Relations.
In every journey, there is a starting point and Alicia’s began as a child in her native home Guyana. The idea of traveling to a new place for Alicia and her little sister was something that they often anticipated. As kids lying in the grass in their backyard, they counted the planes as they passed overhead and imagined themselves on the plane flying to America, New York City to be exact. Alicia and her family eventually migrant to New York City in 2006, however, before arriving in the big apple they lived in Belize, Central America for nearly four years, where her mother was a nurse.
New York City has the largest foreign-born population with nearly 3.07 million immigrants. According to a report from the New York City Department of City Planning, the number of immigrants doubled from nearly 1.44 million to 2.87 million between the years of 1970 and 2000. Latin America has the largest number of immigrants at 32 percent followed by Asia at 24 percent, non-Hispanic Caribbean at 21 percent and Africans at 3 percent. The number of Guyanese in New York City is roughly 130,600.
Once she arrived at JFK international airport in the summer of 2006, the excitement had settled in and the reality would begin just a few months later. Alicia was now in a new environment and once again she had to adapt to a new way of living.
“I remember having my mom coming with me every day for the first two weeks of high school cause I was afraid to go by myself,” said Alicia, as she explained her experience in the New York City public school system. As she eased her way into her new school she opened up to new interests; she was the student announcer for two years, a tutor for incoming freshmen and the VP of her senior class on the Student Government committee. As all her worries and fears of starting a new school decreased however, they would arise again as she learned about her status here in New York.
Many children, like Alicia, come to this country not knowing about their immigration status. According to onlinecollege.org, nearly 2.5 million undocumented children under 18 were living in the U.S. as of 2000. The discovery of their undocumented status can create tremendous anxiety no matter what age it is discovered. Alicia discovered the harsh reality just after turning fourteen. Having to keep your status a secret and holding back your true identity can lead to a stressful life. According to the America Psychological Association, the anxiety of keeping a big secret such as this can lead to a number of negative emotional and behavioral outcomes including anxiety, fear, depression, anger, social isolation and lack of a sense of belonging. Over time these smaller issues can lead to more severe issues like post-traumatic stress disorder and difficulty forming relationships.
“I was afraid to tell anyone about my situation, mainly cause I didn’t understand it so I was careful of what I said around my friends” she said.
She didn’t understand how she was able to go to high school with her status and feared she wouldn’t be able to visit her friends in Belize or her family in Guyana again. Even traveling within the US became a stressful experience.
“ I was traveling on greyhound to Toledo during the summer of 2010 and we stopped in Albany, I think it was, when an officer came on the bus and began asking everyone if they were American citizens” Alicia said describing the trip to visit family. Those who said yes weren’t asked for any document of proof, so that would’ve been the answer to give. When it came to my turn, I couldn’t lie. I said I wasn’t a citizen. I traveled with my Guyana passport and showed it to the officer who then came off of the bus. I began to panic inside and thought this was it the day I dreaded since I found out I was undocumented. After a few minutes he came back on the bus, gave me my passport and said he would give me a pass this time but next time I would be in trouble. It was so scary that I began to cry. I’ve not traveled alone within the states since then.”
Despite the stress of school and learning about her immigration status, Alicia found a way to make it through. She graduated from high school in 2010 as valedictorian of her class and enjoyed spending the last few moments with her classmates on their senior trip, picnic, dinner and other activities.
College was the next step but getting there was going to be hard. A CollegeBoard.org report shows that about 65,000 undocumented students graduate from high school every year and only five to ten percent go on to college after graduating.
“ Even though I loved school, I wasn’t sure whether I would get into college due to my status and because of financial aid,” said Alicia. “ I wanted to dorm, go out of state, study abroad, but I knew none of this was an option. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t get any financial aid, but by God’s grace my parents and close family members came together to pay my tuition at Lehman.” Alicia successfully pushed to pay in-state tuition and was able to get into the scholars honors program at Lehman.
It was at Lehman that Alicia became more exposed to the immigration system as she came across the Lehman Dream Team, a group of students on campus who educate others on immigration, what it meant to be undocumented and how to access various opportunities.
The Dream Team was co-found by Melissa Garcia Velez who at that time was an undocumented student. She arrived in New York City at the age of eight, where she reunited with her mother who was living in Queens. Melissa learned about her status during her sophomore year of high school, despite everything she was accepted to Lehman College and had five scholarships to cover her tuition. While working with the New York State Youth Leadership Council, an undocumented youth leadership organization, she was able to organized and started the Dream Team at Lehman College. Melissa graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work.
“ I’d heard about the Dream Team during my junior year of college, as they were very active on campus, but I was too afraid to talk to anyone. The fear of being undocumented became a hindrance, for some reason I couldn’t let anyone know that I was different in this way,” she said. Alicia finally reached out to the Dream Team her last semester of senior year at Lehman. They were able to help her and her sister renew their work authorization, which allows her to work today.
Immigrants are responsible for $229 billion dollars in economic output in New York State, according to a study done by the Fiscal Policy Institution. On the other hand, undocumented immigrants in New York State paid $1.1 billion dollars in state and local taxes in 2012, which included $185.7 million in personal taxes, $566.1 million in sales taxes and $341.7 in property taxes, according data from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
Alicia shares that she didn’t really have a plan of how her career would look like after college but she continued to have hope and believed that things would get better. “At some point, I decided that I was going to be great and do great things despite my status,” she said. “I couldn’t and wouldn’t allow that to put my life on pause. I was going to live my life, because there was no option to not do so. If I didn’t push through and believe that I would overcome my status, I wouldn’t have completed five internships while in college, finished college and be doing what I love to do.”
Alicia’s family has apply for a Green Card (Form I-485) but due to the unfortunate death of her grandfather, who was the person that filled the papers, the process had to be put on hold and refilled again in her grandmothers names. Over the last several years Alicia and her family have been playing the waiting gaming to hear back from the immigration office. With the death of her mother a year ago, Alicia and her family had to send in the death certificate of her mother to the immigration office to let them know that its only three family members instead of four that will be in need of a Green Card.
Alicia is hoping to hear good news in the coming year, and then she will be able to travel for business, visit family and friends back home and fulfill her personal goal of going to graduate school debt free.