Photo: US Canada border, by Vmenkov, Wikimedia
by Liz Colvin, Writer, Advocate
I learned that an emigrant is not much different from an immigrant. The two words sound similar and define comparable things, with the key difference arising from whether you are talking about moving to a country or moving from a country. The general term migrant is described as people who have moved from one place to another, often to find work or seek improved living conditions.
Remember, the power struggle of migration for Indigenous groups were based on resettlement, environmental change, and starvation which birthed a crucial life element— perseverance. This year, the world has seen an influx of change, which has caused a high degree of emotional upheaval and civil awareness. From the borders of Mexico to the provinces of Canada, literacy has become a vital resource for perseverance. Why? There are several legislative bills being authored, proposed, or used to engage conflicts which affect lives on a permanent basis.
Immigration arrests are made to meet an alleged quota to satisfy a group by using hasty lists and/or surnames or physical characteristics. Unfortunately, physical identity can change due to factors like aging, injury, or marriage. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), H.R.1 was passed with Vice President JD Vance contributing the tie-breaking vote. It was then signed into law by President Trump on July 4, 2025. The OBBBA approved spending policies, including $170 billion dollars to ICE, ($45 billion for detention, and $30 billion for enforcement and removal, $46 billion on the border wall, $40 billion for contract obligations, and $10 billion to reimburse DHS).
Not since the Great Migration of Black families in the early 1900s has people-initiated movement occurred so bitterly. This time, it is happening among Hispanic (or Latino) groups. According to the Pew Research Center, over a million have left the US since June 2025, possibly to avoid the legal wrangle of new laws. Meanwhile, some have accepted government-offered travel and financial assistance to leave this country, especially given that OBBBA caps the number of immigration judges to 800, despite excessive backlogs.
Regardless, this movement produces a people desert in the goods and services industries across the country, similar to that of the Great Migration, which took place between 1910 and 1970. As a result, there are several countries extending billions of dollars in manufacturing contracts to Mexico and Brazil (i.e. Unilever, SL Mex, and Vale). Many of these companies will employee these additional migrants. It’s obvious, right?
Hopefully, the US will review their immigration policies before they further damage their workforce. In retrospect, the southern states did not enjoy losing 6 million Blacks to the Great Migration. Black Americans who fled oppression and lynching returned to retrieve family members or sent train tickets to them by the thousands. Poor wages and domestic work forced many Blacks to make a change for a new life. In response, white southerners passed ordinances that made it illegal for trains to accept pre-paid tickets.
These financial opportunities allowed Blacks to soar from sweeping the streets of Chicago to landing a job at an L.A. post office. One example is Richard Williams, the father of Venus and Serena Williams. Or Jesse Owens whose athleticism and courage delivered a symbolic blow to Hitler’s Aryan supremacy when he won four Olympic gold medals after migrating from Alabama to Ohio. And present-day Austin Gomez, the Michigan-born wrestler who decided to represent Mexico, his grandparents’ country of origin, at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Mr. Gomez is destined to do remarkable things with his freestyle spirit.
No one wants a century-old immigration system to be overhauled overnight. We want a system which is fair and equitable to that of the Germans, when six million immigrated to the US from 1840 to 1890. According to the 2022 US Census, there are 41 million German Americans in the US to date.
The most important job of ICE should not be detention, enforcement, and removal, it should be accuracy. Because there are too many multilingual Indigenous groups and people of color (BIPOC), in North America who can be detained by mistake. No one should be subject to the fear of going to “Alligator Alcatraz.” Please Know Your Rights. Por Favor Conozca Sus Derechos.
