Immigration in the USA: Myths, Stereotyps, Truths & My Experience

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Warning: This one's kinda long but it's important so please read! Thanks in advance! Now a days there is a big debate about immigration in the United States, or more specifically illegal immigrants. With that comes a lot of generalized finger pointing and "facts" running around that are untrue or just sterotypes. Despite what one's personal beliefs on immigration are, hate is hate and racism is racim and regardless of how a person got to where they are, they are still a person. I'm not going to go into right vs. wrong of coming here illegaly, that's not my point at all, my point is in the hate and the mistreatment of people just for the fact that they, like I, am human beings. I have worked in many different fields that have required I be in contact with many, many illegal immigrants and I noticed that most of what I'd been told about them wasn't true at all. There are a lot of misconceptions about immigrants. For instance that illegal immigrants eat up our health care system. I was a medical Spanish/English translator/interpreter and I can honestly say that most illegal immigrants that were patients I saw, were only there because it was a life/death situation or they were giving birth. Most are afraid to seek health care for fear that they will be turned in and deported or denied health care. Or that immigrants use up welfare, some do yes but just like some Americans do (like my American pregnant single neighboor that has the 12 kids who shoot off fireworks till 4 in the morning by cars and electric lines and burn their little hands while she's out being not very lady like) but the majority of immigrants are afraid to seek help and avoid anything that they think is a government branch for fear of deportation. There is also the though they they don't pay taxes. 98% of the illegal immigrants that I have worked with are working with false documentation and therefore get paid via check like we do and get taxes taken out like we do. However unlike the rest of the US, they don't claim their returns because 1) most don't know they can and 2) they're afraid to. So the government keeps those returns... which could be seen as a profit. Most, and yes not all but most, of the immigrants that come to this country (not just from Mexico) come here because they, like the founding people of this country, are looking for a better life for their families and want to live life happy and peaceful just like everyone else does. My last point is a big one too, illegal immigrants come to the USA from all over the world not just one country and it is unfair to blame the wrongs commited by a few on one single country. I'm not debating the fact of coming into the USA illegally but the treatment of people based on the assumption that they are here illegally. I have been turned down on many jobs despite being qualified, In the last 2-3 yrs I haven't been on an interview where I haven't been asked "so, how do I know you're here legally" and when I lost my ID it nearly took an act of congress and a heavenly miracle... not to mention 6 months and a ton of paperwork, before I was finally issued a simple ID again. And I am not an immigrant nor am I illegal, my parents are citizens that have lived here nearly all their lives. I was born and raised in Massachusetts and have only ever left this country to go to Canada on vacation. I speak English fine, in fact I started reading it when I was 3 and learned 2 more languages afterwards too. Yet because my skin is caramel and I've got an ethnic last name, I face attitudes and injustices I never knew before. Before this whole immigration thing got heated up, I never had a problem. And since then, I feel like I've stepped into 1960 when my only crime has been to be born blessed with a gorgeous tan and rich heratige. Knowing the injustices that I have faced and the treatments I have gotten because of people's assumptions that I'm a Mexican illegal immigrant (I'm actually American/Puerto Rican/Dominican), I have gotten to know the treatment that these people face in a small part and knowing the inner hell it's put me through, I feel it my duty to give that suffering a voice for those afraid to speak. Please feel free to comment or voice your opinion. Please remember this isn't about the right vs. wrong of being here illegally but about the treatment that we as humans put other humans through.