I am the daughter of a birthright citizen, a designation that no longer may be losing its standing in this country, even though the 14th Amendment promises it. In the 1950s and 60s, my grandparents on my dad’s side left their home countries. They were both around 18. My grandfather, John, came here from Belize to attend UCLA. And my grandmother, Maria Elena, fled Nicaragua with her father, escaping an authoritarian regime.
My mom’s parents were a little different, my grandma, Rosa, is Mexican-American and was born in the U.S.. My grandpa, Jorge, on the other hand, came here illegally when he was 12 in 1961. He came to be with his father, who had been working in East L.A. to send remittances back home. In 1962, Jorge became a legal resident after his sister (my Tia Chuy) was born in the United States.
When I was 7 years old my, grandpa Jorge showed my younger brother and me the movie, Born in East L.A., a 1987 Cheech Marin satirical film on the horrors of the deportation system in the United States. I remember the night being full of laughs with my grandpa who finds everything funny, like any American dad does. I didn’t realize it then but this movie was more than just a comedy for my grandpa, it was his reality, a reflection of his own fears and experiences.
The main character, Rudy Robles is a U.S.-born Latino man who is mistakenly deported. He is Mexican and looks Mexican, so he must be illegal then right? No matter that the U.S. Constitution states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
Between 2015 and 2020 about 70 U.S. citizens were “mistakenly” deported, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office. About 675 U.S. citizens were arrested for being “illegal” and 120 were detained. The numbers may be even higher as ICE and U.S. Customs do not properly record these errors. Like Robles, these people were not given the proper due process. Instead, they were disrespected by their county. They were racially profiled.
In the movie, Rudy can’t prove he’s a legal-born citizen as he has left his documentation at home. Let me ask this question: who carries around their passport or birth certificate around 24/7? I certainly don’t, because I trust that the 14th Amendment protects my citizenship rights, even in the event of an unexpected ICE raid.
Just last week, ICE detained a U.S. Military veteran in Newark, NJ without producing a warrant. They even questioned the legitimacy of his military documentation, which violates the Constitution. Even if this man were undocumented, ICE would still not have the right to detain him without due process. Furthermore, as a veteran, he qualifies for naturalization.
He isn’t the only veteran this has happened to either, back in 2019, Jilmar Ramos-Gomez, a war veteran who served five years of his combat service in Afghanistan was detained for three days. Even though Ramos had clear evidence confirming his citizenship, his passport. There is a common theme here, even with documentation clearly showing they are U.S. Citizens, brown people are still being detained, raising serious questions about systemic failures, racial profiling, and the disregard for our constitutional rights.
The system is against us, like it was to Rudy. Once deported to Mexico, he can’t prove his citizenship because he still does not have his identification with him. Why is the burden of proving citizenship so heavily placed on individuals, instead of the agency responsible for upholding the principles of due process?
These systematic failures are dehumanizing to both U.S. Citizens and immigrants alike. Being detained or profiled by ICE strips people of their dignity. No one should be treated like a criminal just for what they look like. Born in East L.A. satirizes the blunt and often insensitive nature of immigration enforcement. Rudy gets deported largely because authorities fail to listen to him or investigate his claims of citizenship.
At the end of the movie Rudy, who had been in Mexico for a while by then, decides to take matters into his own hands and crosses the border by himself. His clever plan involves friends he made while staying in Mexico – they disguise themselves as a religious procession carrying a statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Rudy and his group manage to blend in, outsmarting border patrol and overcoming the obstacles on their way to get back to East L.A. where Rudy is reunited with his family and community.
Although this movie is a comedy, it reflects too many people’s stories. Whether they belong to fictional characters like Rudy Robles or real-life heroes like Jilmar Ramos-Gomez, these stories show us we cannot trust our system, politicians, or Constitution.
My immigrant grandparents are nothing to be afraid of. My grandfather John got his visa in the ’60s to become a tax attorney. My other grandfather, Jorge, became an army veteran and engineer. They hold jobs, they pay taxes, they go to school, they serve time in the military, and they follow the laws (at higher rates, actually, than native-born people do in this country). My grandparents are proof of the American Dream and that Donald Trump is destroying it.
The Rudy Robleses of this nation remind us that we need reform. Sadly, Born in East L.A. came out in 1987 and we’re still stuck in the system it satirizes. It’s been almost 38 years – and nothing has changed.