Why I Can't Just Go Back to Where I "Came From"

Update November 24, 2010: A number of organizations, and hundreds of Change.org members, filed petitions to California Senators Feinstein and Boxer demanding a deeper investigation into Li's case. On November 20 Senator Feinstein introduced a private bill delaying Li's deportation process and allowing for him to return home.  Although this is just a temporary fix, it demonstrates how legislation like the DREAM Act would be a step forward in immigration reform. Read the full story here.

Believe it or not, even in this day and age, there are still those who have a hard time grasping the concept that non-white people are born in America.  Those of us who are familiar with the “No, where are you really from?” question have figured out quick responses in order to avoid awkward silences or racial gameshow questions.  It typically goes something like this:

“So where are you from?”
“My parents are from Hong Kong.”
“Cool!”
(they don’t always say that last part)

The funny thing about growing up with people assuming that I’m from China is that I eventually became convinced that maybe I’m sort of from there.  After all, when people tell me to “Go back to where I came from” (yes, I’ve actually been told that before) I know they don’t mean California.  While in the past my reactions were something along the lines of “I AM from here, you racist jackass!” I was recently itching for a vacation – and so I changed my response to “Hell yeah! Wanna come?"

It took a five-week solo trip last month to show me that I am so not from China. Besides only being able to speak Mandarin with the skill of a caveman (and not even a Chinese caveman), spending my life in the United States left me completely at a loss when it came to the cultural nuances that are helpful to understand when you’re in a place where you know nothing and no one. I realized that if I were to actually go back to where I “came from,” I would be faced with a plethora of challenges building my life in a culture that is … foreign.

With all the recent hoopla from Arizona’s proposal of stripping citizenship from U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants, my time overseas gave me the chilling understanding that my sense of complete alienation is an unwelcome reality for many.  The idea of deportation is often thought of as some quick fix, like refunding a blender to Target. It’s assumed that since the deportee was from there anyway, returning would be as simple as going back to your old house, finding the key under the doormat, and getting back to whatever you were doing before you tried to trifle the flourishing American economy.

Of course, it’s much more complicated than that.  Take San Francisco college student Steve Li, who was recently arrested in an immigration raid and now sits detained in Arizona awaiting deportation to Peru, from where he and his family (originally from China) moved when he was twelve.   Spending the past decade highly involved in his schools and church and more recently earning a degree in nursing, he didn’t learn that his parents had been denied asylum years ago until the actual raid in September.  With no friends, family, or home in Peru, Li faces complete displacement – and he’s not the only one. Each year, thousands of people who have spent nearly their entire lives as Americans (sometimes arriving as early as age three) experience the nightmare of essentially being thrown away by their country, into another that doesn’t exactly welcome them with leis when they arrive.

As the immigration debate flames on, it’s important to note that immigrants come in all ages and experiences, and deportation is no more useful a solution than tossing an unwanted fork in the garbage disposal. Okay, that was a bad analogy – but you get the point.

Please take a moment to learn more about Steve Li and petition California Senators Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer to grant Steve a deferred action.

Photo Credit: Adriel Luis