An 11-year-old U.S. citizen discusses her parents’ illegal immigration status and the fears of those who live on America’s fringes.

By Jamie Reno
Newsweek

April 5, 2006 - Life can be hard for a kid in the inner city, where innocence can be taken away early and easily. But it’s especially tough when your mom and dad are undocumented immigrants. Itcel De Jesus, 11, is a perceptive, straight-talking San Diego middle-schooler who gets excellent grades and likes to tell you just how things should be in the world. She loves to play soccer and listen to hip-hop music, and holds her own in sports and just about everything else with her older brothers Daniel, 15, and Manuel Jr., 12. But at times she can also be quite shy, even fearful, especially of people she doesn’t know.

“I’m careful who I talk to because I’m always afraid my parents will be sent back to Mexico,” she says. “If they are, my brothers and I will go with them because we can't live without them. But it’s better here. It’s more organized here. The roads are paved, there aren’t as many rocks in the streets. When you fall down in Mexico, you cut yourself because of all the rocks. We want to stay here. I like my school.”

Twelve years ago the De Jesus family broke the law by illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border on foot through the desert just east of San Diego. At the time, Itcel’s brother Daniel was 4, her brother Manual Jr. just 3 months. “I’m the only one in my family who was born in the United States. I’m the only one who’s ‘legal’,” she says matter-of-factly. “That isn’t fair. I mean, my mom and dad and my brothers have all been here even longer than me.”

Itcel’s situation is hardly rare. A recent Pew Hispanic Center Study found that 64 percent of the children of the estimated 11 million to 12 million undocumented immigrants are U.S. born—and therefore American citizens. But the family’s situation may be better than most of the estimated 30,000 to 40,000 ‘illegals’ living in San Diego County. The De Jesus family lives in a small apartment a few miles east of the Downtown district of San Diego. It’s one of the newer, nicer buildings on the block; it’s gated and safe. Itcel’s father, Manuel Sr., works as a mechanic at a San Diego auto shop where all the employees are Mexican, and many are undocumented. He’s paid in cash, and has held the same job since he got here. Itcel’s mother, Monica, stays home and takes care of the kids, who are fluent in both English and Spanish and are excelling in school.

“We came across the border because I wanted a better job so I could take care of our kids and give them a good education,” says Manuel Sr., speaking in Spanish because his English is limited. “There were hardly any jobs [in Mexico], there were more jobs here. I mean, how can you expect to take care of your children when there are no jobs?”
 

Itcel says she and her brothers “worry a lot” about being deported. Last May, there was a family emergency back in Mexico and Itcel’s mother Monica had to return to Mexico. Monica did get back to the United States, but was forced to come back the same way she came the first time: walking across the desert. (An estimated 500,000 people cross the border illegally in this manner each year; a record 460 died trying to make the crossing in 2005.) “My mom was gone for a month. I was so worried. I cried for a long time,” says Itcel. “She just walked back across with a group of other people out in the desert, and she stuck with them and she made it all the way back.”

Itcel sees the news reports and TV commercials on which politicians talk about changing the immigration laws to make those like her parents subject to criminal prosecution. She and her teachers and friends talk about it at school. She knows that some people in this country want to make her parents go back. “My parents aren’t criminals. They’ve lived here a long time, they are Americans, too,” she says. “I have great parents, they are wonderful parents. They just want what’s best for their family. It's not fair that they can't even get a driver's license. My father has to drive very carefully."

A few years ago, Manuel Sr. was pulled over by San Diego police for having faulty headlights. The officer took his car away. Manuel went to court and eventually got it back. “I'm still a little bit afraid of getting deported, but I don’t think it will happen,” Manuel Sr. says. “There are too many Mexicans in the United States now, we’re a big part of this economy. I don’t think President Bush will do this to us, we are contributing too much to this country. They can't send us all back. I like it here, I like this country, but sometimes I get a little angry [at] the way they treat us. I would like to be a citizen. I would if I could."

As for all the immigration protests in recent days in California and across the nation, which have seen thousands of Latino kids ditching class and taking to the streets to protest the proposed legislation, Manuel Sr. says he’s actually against that. “It’s not fair to the other kids in the school,” he says. “These kids should not be allowed to just leave class like that. It just isn’t right. They need to stay in school.”

School is clearly very important to the De Jesus family, especially Itcel, who already seems to understand the importance of a good education. Sometimes while she sits in her classroom, Itcel says she dreams about what life will be like for her and her family in the future. In the dream, her parents and brothers are all U.S. citizens, she is all grown up—and teaching school. “I want to be a teacher more than anything,” she says. “I want to teach at an American school. I'd like to teach third grade.”

© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.