Significance Of Sonia Nazario's Work Enrique's Journey In The Current Discourse On Illegal Migration

Every year, a little more over a half a million immigrants from all over the world across the United States border, many of those migrants are small children and teenagers trying to reach their mothers.

In the narrative, Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario, Nazario explores the topic of illegal immigration and the journeys migrants have to take to reach the United States. Most migrants cross the border seeking a better life for not only themselves but for their families back at home as well. Although some migrants come to better their lives, many others are ruining the reputation for all migrants; committing crimes such as robberies, rape, child abduction, incarceration, etc. For this reason, American citizens view illegal immigrants as bad people. Many public figures claim that all immigrants are 'rapists' or 'killers'.

American citizens state that 'Immigrants are bringing diseases to the United States; Immigrants are overrunning our country, and most are here illegally.'(Myths and Facts About Immigrants and Immigration). But Nazario believes that some migrants are just trying to reach out to their families in the United States to get connected again.

Nazario is trying to find successful migrants who made it across the border alive and hear about the difficult experience, hardships, and obstacles the migrants go through just to get to North America for a better life. From walking for very long distances to jumping onto trains very dangerously, Nazario wanted to know it all. Migrants struggled tremendously with many difficulties including having nowhere to sleep, having no food, having no money, etc. Traveling for them was (and still is) walking for miles and jumping onto trains in secrecy to not be caught by border patrol agents roaming around checkpoints. Many migrants don't get to make it to be with their families. While they're very dangerously trying to sneak their way into America, migrants can fall off trains, starve, be dehydrated, etc. But they are willing to take all the risks in the world just to finally see their family.

'Studies have consistently found that immigrants are less likely to be incarcerated than native-born Americans…' (Myths and Facts About Immigrants and Immigration). Not all immigrants can raise their ranks in American society. This shows that most Americans disapprove of their coming to the United States. Immigrants don't always do the crimes that Americans suspect them to have done. Each of them has a mission to successfully cross the border without being incarcerated or transported back to their hometown. America for the migrants is a successful life and that's what the majority of them need other than trying to reach their relatives that they have lost contact with.

Ultimately, what Nazario is trying to convey through her narrative is that many people struggle dangerously to get across that border to reach their loved ones. They face many obstacles trying to cross over just for American citizens to criticize them and not treat them equally as any other individual in the United States. In the Daily Caller ‘Whitney Williams was an illegal immigrant – Now she's a trump supporter trying to unseat a Democrat in Michigan', the publisher discusses how an illegal immigrant, Whitney Williams, came from a 'poverty-ridden household' to the United States to lead the Dreamers who've come from all over the world to try to get Congressional Democrats to support them. She had a dream of achieving all the hardships she had to go through to enter the United States to be with her relatives and become a leader.

This work is significant today because the rate of illegal immigrants entering the United States has drastically increased from the year 1990 to 2010 (America's Immigration Policy Fiasco). It's important to know what migrants go through to try to better themselves and reach their families. American politicians only publicly show all the crimes and incarcerations caused by illegal immigrants and refuse to show all the good things they have been doing for the sake of getting Americans to side with government officials to take down the reputation of illegal immigrants (Criminal Immigrants in Texas: Illegal Immigrant Conviction and Arrest Rates for Homicide, Sex Crimes, Larceny, and Other Crimes). All migrants try to achieve is the success of being on the other side of the border, the United States side. Have taken all the risks, if they're successful, migrants can finally feel that relief of not trying to hide all the time and just worry about finding their loved ones.