Clamor
PBS special focuses on illegal aliens
February 1988
After years working as an illegal immigrant on an avocado ranch in Escondido, California, Victor Gamez found it increasingly difficult to spend time away from the ranch visiting his wife and five children in Mexico.
He decided to take his family to California and his wife, Felipa, was overjoyed. Now their children could get to know their father. They wouldn't cry as they had during Victor's infrequent visits south of the border, because they thought he was a stranger.
"In the Shadow of the Law," an hour-long documentary airing over PBS Wednesday, February 3 at 10 p.m. (check local listings), examines the lifestyle of four families representative of the millions of illegal immigrants in the U.S.
This way of life is frequently marked by a constant fear of apprehension, split families, and divided allegiances between countries. Often it is the children in these families who most keenly feel the hardships imposed by such a lifestyle.
Shortly after their arrival in California, the Gamez family was arrested by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Theresa, Victor's daughter, remembers, "They just came in and took us right there in the school. There wasn't time for anybody to ask us anything. They called us out of class, and we went, and that was it. It's embarrassing because you don't know what to do. You feel that everybody is just making fun of you because you're different."
Teresa's achievement in school has been one of the casualties of her illegal status. It's been difficult at times because we go to court, and we have to miss a lot of school. I used to get really low grades because of that, because we had to get out of school and go to San Diego all day long. So you miss classes and you just mess up."
Despite these setbacks, Teresa has ambitions of going to college. "If we get amnesty, that is going to help a lot. Because then I will be able to go to college. If we don't get amnesty we might have to leave."
A good education and the opportunity to get ahead is one of the reasons that immigrants from south of the border decide to stay in this country. As Ignacio Vasquez, a cook's helper in San Diego, puts it, "For the children, what we desire is everything. Because we are not educated, and if one is not educated you suffer a lot. In the situation we are in, one cannot progress. What we want is to give the children as much education as we can provide so that they won't follow our path."
Jesus and Isabel are another Mexican couple living in San Diego who are determined to give their children an American education. According to Jesus, "Both my sons are attending school here. They were born in this country. I think their behavior is 75% American. If I had to take them to Mexico, it would be difficult. They would have to begin all over again."
For illegal families in the US often the most poignant problems arise because they have not told their children about their immigration status. In an interview with "In The Shadow of the Law" producers Paul Espinosa and Leo Chavez, one father pointed to a flag in his living room that he bought for his seven-year-old son.
"My son asked me to buy it for him. It's his American flag. One day he said to me, 'Dad, I want an American flag. I want my flag.'"
The son does not know that his parents came here illegally, and his father still hasn't resolved how he is going to tell his son that he was not born in the United States.
Since the passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, the families profiles in "In the Shadow of the Law" hope to be able to come out of the shadows permanently. Many other families probably won't qualify for legalization, however, and life in the shadow of the law may continue to be a reality for millions of undocumented immigrants and their children.