Even more on Deportation letter

High: I had a really good forensics trip two weekends ago!

Low: I lowkey don’t have one because the weather is finally nice so, I’m kind of out of my winter slump.

So, I’ll apologize to begin with because you’ve already seen an entire presentation on “Deportation letter,” by Javier Zamora but, I still feel like I have more to say! Especially after I had an epiphany about my own biases yesterday.

The poem itself is a pretty raw and honest look at the experience of undocumented immigrants in America which really appealed to me as a reader. Also, now that we’ve been working on our poetry project for weeks, I often find myself thinking about different aspects of this poem all the time. It really got me thinking about the way we view immigrants, and I’ll be honest, I said something during a FaceTime call that made me realize how much I need to check my own perspective.

While our group and I were discussing the importance of the speaker’s purpose for writing the poem, I mentioned how immigrants are often seen as those “taking our jobs” or being villains in society. I said that in "Deportation Letter," the speaker was showing that, despite the negativity, immigrants still contribute to the economy, and they’re still part of the system here—so they kind of defy the stereotypes thus, they are beneficial to society.

But one of my group members pushed back on that idea (shoutout to Bismaad!). She said that the poem is about more than just showing how immigrants contribute—it’s about their inherent humanity. They deserve to be treated with respect simply because they’re people, not because of their work or what they can give back to society. And that hit me. As someone who likes to think of themselves as a pretty “woke” person, I never thought that I would actually harbor this way of flawed thinking as well.

I realized I’d been thinking about immigrants in this way that, honestly, feels kind of messed up now. I had internalized this idea that they need to “prove” their worth by contributing to the economy, by doing jobs that “benefit” society. I had this mindset where, in order to be valued, immigrants had to offer something tangible. I thought, if they’re helping the economy, then sure, they deserve to be here. But when I really think about it, that perspective is so flawed.

The truth is, immigrants don’t have to prove anything to anyone just to be treated like human beings. That’s something I didn’t fully grasp until my group member pointed it out. The poem made me realize that their worth isn’t tied to their economic output or their ability to “fit in.” Immigrants, whether they’re documented or not, deserve dignity because they are people, period.

I won’t lie, I felt kind of bad after realizing how narrow my thinking had been. I’ve always tried to be open-minded, but I have definitely absorbed some of the stereotypes that often surround immigration. And it’s easy to fall into that mindset when the media and society constantly tell you that immigrants have to be useful in a specific way. But honestly, that thinking is limiting, and it doesn’t consider the broader, more important truth: people deserve to be treated fairly because they are human, not because of what they contribute.