Artifact #5 Reflection

The situation at the Mexico-U.S. border is hard for many people.  One of the reasons why it is made up of a lot of children is because their parents or older siblings might already be in The United States.  The children that make it across have sponsors already in the country to stay with during their court hearings. 

The situation where parents go first and then when they have money, send for their children has been happening for a while in the case of immigration.  I have two examples of this besides the example in the article.

The first is of Reyna and her family. Her father went first looking for a job so that he could build his dream house in Mexico.  After being in the United States for 2-3 years, he sent for her mother.  Juana, her mother left for the United States.  She stayed with her husband, Natalio, for 2 1/2 years. The children were there in Mexico without their parents for a very long time.  A year + after their mother came back, their father finally came back for them.  He had enough money to support them.  He left with three out of his four children.  

My other example is of my great-great-grandmother.  She sent her oldest son first.  He worked in the United States until he had enough money to send for another child.  This kept on happening throughout the years and children. Some children would go alone and others would go with one of their siblings.  Finally, when all of her children were in the United States, my great-great-grandmother came to the United States herself.  While it is backwards of Reyna’s situation, it still shows that individuals will go first, and eventually send for all or most of the people in the family. 

I have loved learning about immigration through news articles, The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande, and stories from my own ancestors.  This has been an eye opening experience, because I have never really thought into a lot of detail about the hardships of immigration outside of my family. 

The ship my great-great-grandmother came over on.