The Undocumented Americans

These chapters move beyond New York, where the author grew up, to other cities where she investigates telling stories about undocumented immigrants. As the author introduces subsets of undocumented communities, she provides context for their mass immigration and particular conditions of living in the US. For example, many Cubans are in Florida because of policy dating back to the Clinton administration that allowed for “expedited routes to permanent resident status and citizenship” (90). Many Haitians are in Miami because of a policy that allowed for temporary residency following a devastating earthquake in Haiti, a policy called TPS (temporary protected status). Exploring these specific conditions and concerns for various immigrant groups reminds the reader that the broad category of undocumented immigrants, even if restricted to immigrants from Latin America, is extremely diverse. There is no united front within it. In fact, there are divisions and factions like there are in any other large community, whether or not community members have shared goals, experiences, and enemies.

Individual and public health are also major topics in this middle section of the book. The author visits Miami to explore the many ways that immigrant families regularly work around the expensive US healthcare system, which typically excludes them. Some alternative care is exploitative. Some is illegal, like the underground distribution of prescription drugs through pharmacies. The author sees what drugs some of these pharmacies manage to distribute and says, “I’m scared at the thought of people taking these meds without supervision” (71). Some choices are perhaps effective, like alternative medicine, but few options are available for undocumented people who face health issues.

The Flint chapter focuses on the current of the public health crisis felt in immigrant communities there. Because of her own experiences as an immigrant and the research she has undertaken all over the US, the author concludes that the state wants immigrants and people of color to die. She says, “The government wanted the people of Flint dead, or did not care if they died, which is the same thing” (115). Villavicencio argues that if the government wanted people to live, it would have accessible healthcare and the political will to immediately solve a public health crisis like a poisoned water supply. She also continues in these chapters to weave her and her family’s stories in parallel to the narratives of the people she meets and their various levels of vulnerability, loneliness, and sadness. The author uses one story to showcase the personal power, almost a feeling of invincibility, that comes with becoming documented.