Law Students' Corner - Ku
| Publication year | 2019 |
| Pages | 69 |
| Citation | Vol. 88 No. 10 Pg. 69 |
November, 2019
law students corner • The University of Kansas School of Law
Life on the Line
by Claudia Chavarria
Growing up in the sister cities of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, made commuting between both Mexico and the United States a normal day to day activity for most people living in the area. "Let's go shopping to El Paso!" "Let's go to Toy R Us to pick out your Christmas gift" "Let's go visit your cousins!" I always thought it was normal to go back and forth and everyone could do it. In the early 2000s I would simply cross by saying "American Citizen." At times the Customs Officer would ask for my birth certificate, but other than that, I never had a problem crossing, nor was I ever denied entry.
As a young child, I loved living in Ciudad Juarez. My mom would always take us to watch the latest movies, every Sunday we would go out to eat. We had the luxury of getting authentic Mexican food in a taco stand close to home, because believe me, everything is so much better when it comes from a food stand, and I was close to my other family members. My mom tried to keep us busy with activities she believed would benefit us in the future. From a young age my mom taught us the importance of education. She knew we were beginning to live in an era where being bilingual was important, so even though she did not fully speak English, she made sure we did. She enrolled us in bilingual schools and took us to English classes in the afternoons. Like any other parent, she wanted for my sisters and me to have better opportunities.
My family was a middle-class family who, like anyone else, struggled when our dad did not have a job and our mom had to help with the expenses. Yet, if there was something my parents taught us even through adversities, it was to work hard and never give up. Along with working hard, I grew up knowing that everyone was the same. Everyone was meant to be treated with the same respect. Skin color did not distinguish anyone, and being from a different country did not make anyone superior or inferior.
When violence spiked in Ciudad Juarez, my parents opted to migrate to the United States for our safety. Even though we never had firsthand experience with any kind of threats or violence, we knew we were not safe. When we came to the United States, we went to a community that was on the outskirts of El Paso and was beginning to expand. This was my first time attending a school in the United States and the school system was completely different from what I had been exposed to. This was also the first time I was exposed to the struggles many immigrants were facing.
For the first time in my life, I began understanding that not everyone could come in and out of the country the same way I did. Just like my family, many other families were migrating due to fear, the only difference was that they were not coming to the United States legally. Some came with a visa and overstayed, some parents did not have status but their kids did, and many others came with no...
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