It’s Hard Out Here for a Latina Journalist in Trump’s America
I’ve personally witnessed the damage politicians’ anti-immigrant rhetoric can do
If I close my eyes whenever Donald Trump, one of his MAGA supporters, or spineless politicians talk, it’s as if I am transported back to the ’90s when then California Governor Pete Wilson terrorized the state for eight long years with his anti-immigrant rhetoric.
While California has since transformed into a blue state (23.57% of registered voters are Republicans), the rest of the country has taken a turn for the worse. Back when Pete Wilson reigned over the state, I wasn’t yet a journalist. I was a shy preteen learning about history, and seeing people on TV talk about “illegal aliens” taking jobs away from Americans. At the time, a large number of my family members were undocumented: my mom, stepdad, grandma, uncles, aunts, and cousins who came here as babies. They didn’t “cross the border illegally” like Trump and his pundits like to say to continue rallying for a useless wall. My family, like countless other families across the country, overstayed their tourist visas.
For years, many of them would save their hard-earned dollars to be able to buy a plane ticket before their six-month permit would expire. In order not to raise any red flags, they would…
