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 True Americans in Hiding:The Story of Undocumented Mexicans who immigrated to the United States as MinorsJennifer Condensa, UC San DiegoAfter examining public polls on illegal immigration from sources including USAToday, Time Magazine, Fox News, CNN, and The Wall Street Journal (Harmon 2009); itcan be found that these polls all share two main public opinions. The public has anegative view towards illegal immigration, and furthermore that the public oftenclassifies all undocumented Mexican immigrants as part of the same group. According tothe Pew Hispanic Report, as of March 2008, there are approximately 11.9 millionundocumented immigrants living in the United States with an estimated 58 percentcoming from Mexico (Passel 2008). Therefore, there are nearly 7 million illegal Mexicanimmigrants currently living in the United States. To say that these 7 million Mexicanshave all come to the United States with the same stereotypical story is unrealistic.Moreover, approximately one-sixth of this illegal Mexican population (Passel 2005),some 1.2 million people, can be grouped into minors that immigrated to the United Stateswho were not fully aware of the crime they were committing. For the purposes of thispaper, this group will be referred to as undocumented Mexicans immigrating as minors(UMIM). If UMIM cannot be considered responsible for the act of illegal immigration,why then has the state not recognized this group as deserving of naturalization? Inaddition, because the general public tends to lump all undocumented Mexican immigrantsinto one group, what are the UMIM currently doing to gain support and recognition frompolicy makers and the public to increase support for their cause?As a highly controversial topic, scholars are torn on this issue. Those supportingthe naturalization of the UMIM like Roberto Gonzales argue that UMIM are part of the
 
1.5 generation because they cannot be considered first generation due to their lack of choice at the time of immigration, and they cannot be considered second generationbecause of their birth place (Gonzalez 2007, 2). The general view in favor of naturalization argues that UMIM had no choice but to accompany their illegal-alienparents to American and grow up and attend school here (The Washington Times 2007).In contrast, the opposing side consists of scholars such as Kris Kobach who believe thatallowing this group the possibility to naturalize sends the message, “The longer you haveviolated federal law, the better (Kobach 2006).” Moreover, the general view againstUMIM is that allowing them to naturalize would be a reward for breaking the law andthat it would encourage others to do the same (Mehlman 2008).I believe that the controversy of this issue is rooted in whether individuals chooseto classify UMIM as “illegal immigrants” or “Americans.” According to a poll conductedby Fox News of nearly 900 voters, 75 percent of Americans are concerned that illegalimmigration will lead to an increase in crime, 65 percent think illegal immigrants costmore to the U.S. than any benefit they might add to the U.S., and 57 percent believe thatillegal immigrants have a greater alliance to their home countries than to the U.S(Opinion Dynamics Poll 2006). Although these are debatable concerns about thepopulation of illegal immigrants, the mindset of the public reflected in this poll revealsthat the general public groups together all illegal immigrants, including UMIM, with thesame stereotypical story. Through the information given in this paper, one will come tofind that these public concerns about illegal immigrants are not applicable to UMIMmainly due to their being raised in the United States. According to a public survey of around 2,500 Americans from different demographics, Americanism is defined as
 
knowing English, embracing American culture, and most importantly having acommitment to freedoms such as the freedoms of speech and opportunity (TheWashington Times 2008). Using this widely accepted view of American national identity,this paper will show that the majority of UMIM embody all of these Americancharacteristics. I believe that due to a lack of information, those who oppose grantingUMIM naturalization are lumping all undocumented Mexicans into one group andoverlooking how UMIM, with the exception of their birth place, can be easily identifiedas American. Overall, I argue that the state has not yet recognized UMIM because thepublic holds a negative view that all undocumented Mexicans are criminals, whichaffects the decisions of many policy makers unwilling to risk their political careers tosup! port the cause. Moreover, I believe that through the continued political participationof UMIM, they will soon be given an opportunity to receive political incorporation inUnited States through the DREAM Act.In this paper, political recognition will be used as a term to define people whohave been naturalized and therefore have obtained legal status and political rights withina country. Additionally, political participation will be defined in relation to people whooperate within the political sphere attempting to influence decisions and create changewithout necessarily having political recognition. Political incorporation will finally beused as a term to define successful political participation, which can be measured throughreceiving political recognition. Furthermore, in my paper I also assume that publicopinion controls the actions of policy makers. Although I do not discuss this point indepth, I believe that because so much of policy makers’ careers are spent in the publicsphere, it is a legitimate concern for them to fear losing their political status by going
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