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So even though my experience yesterday with having to go into the states and back to Canada is nowhere near what most people experience I developed a new appreciation for being Canadian and what it must've been like for my grandparents when they arrived from Europe. Giving up everything in search of a new life based in a few stories and a gut feeling that might be wrong.
So those of you who are immigrants or children of them (particularly those wig arrived from Mexico, Central and South America) what was that like? To pretty much hope that you were going to somehow get across and figure it out from there? Did you ever get caught, and if you did, what was that like? Was some of your family here? Did you miss out on the birth or passing of someone you really loved? Did you have to sacrifice a lot because you knew it was too risky to go home again (because you'd have to try to get across yet again?).
Is life in your new country what you thought or hoped it would be, and if you have children, do they feel torn between the traditions you grew up with and the traditions that their friends celebrate as citizens of a new country versus one they never knew?
I guess one thing I really started to think about is, if you enter US/Canada and are 'undocumented', you can not go back unless you either want to get in trouble or have no interest in ever coming back again. That means if your parents get sick, you can't go back. You can't go see your younger siblings wedding or meet your nieces and nephews. You have to accept the way of life you once knew, no matter what we think of it here, is done. The bar of success here is measured in bachelors and masters degrees, and if you don't even have a high school diploma, I don't think people realize you'll be living pretty close to third world conditions in a first world nation.
Please, share your story with us. What was it like crossing that border. Did you get caught and have to try again? Did you have an emergency where you had to go back and then try it all over again? Looking back, was it worth it? I'd like to know...
the poster is asking for stories; each one on it's own merits;
i.e. I cannot return to the USA until my actual file is closed, surrendered,
or I prove I'm an American. If my dad passes, I'm not allowed to enter
the USA until the file is reconciled.
That has nothing to do with legal or illegal. Immigration laws are not a question of right and wrong,
and according to the site www.americansabroad.com, based out of Geneva, even immigration itself
is all over the map when applying it's own procedures. They are very good, however, at making it'
your problem to sort out!
That has nothing to do with legal or illegal. Immigration laws are not a question of right and wrong
Who said anything about right or wrong? I was not making a value judgement.
However, the OP did say:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Toronto416
if you enter US/Canada and are 'undocumented'...
and 'undocumented' does not refer to legal immigration.
There are also similar stories on the Illegal Immigration forum like the ones you say the OP is soliciting, so don't jump all over me for suggesting it.
True. Illegals have zero respect for this country and the laws -- but legal immigrants for the most part are a whole different type of people who are carefully abiding by the laws.
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The law is the law: NOT NECESSARILLY
