I take pride in my brown skin. Immigration is a topic that always strikes controversy; whether it be political, economical, or just as a general topic. All I see is how people skirt around this topic but never stop to listen to some of the true stories of triumph or success, when my people crawl out of the gutter. Javier, at age 8, was an orphan child from Honduras, one of the top crime filled countries in the world. His mother died right beside him. He didn’t get his first pair of shoes until he was 15, and as well as that he would sell fruit to help support his brothers. Imagine leaving your brothers, the only family you have in this world, to go to the United States for a better life. You leave not only for yourself but for your brothers, because 50 cents a day isn’t getting you or your them anywhere?

Javier finally made it to the United States after traveling thousands of miles, after spending 15 days and 14 nights in the unforgiving desert. Javier finally makes it to California and enrolls in school. He goes to work right after school to pay for a small studio apartment and sends money to his brothers every month. After a year of being in the United States, Javier is deported back his country. A few months later he’s murdered by the gangs in his neighborhood. The one reality he tried to escape was the double edged sword, the need to be in his own country and with his family, which tragically put him six feet underground. Let’s set aside the political agenda of this topic and focus on the agenda of humanity. We need selflessness and compassion towards one another. Men, women, and children are living in a country where they struggle to survive and create a community as a whole. A race is struggling to see if they will make it to the next morning to see the sun rise or never wake up.