An Immigrant's Perspective

Over 12 million immigrants in the United States are out of status according to the Pew Hispanic Center and 75% of undocumented workers make their living in the formal economy. But as ICE cracks down with their immigration raids, more and more workers are forced into the informal economy like being a day laborer. This profile on Catalina (a pseudonym) offers a human face to the immigration debate. Catalina could not make a living in Mexico even though her family owned land. After suffering an injury at a garment factory, she turned to domestic work. The Mexican family she worked for was moving to the United States and offered her a work visa if she made a year commitment. Once in the US, she thought she could learn English and gain skills that could help her find better work on her return home. Instead, she says she was kept from leaving the house and the family illegally forced her to work 7 days a week. After a year this exploitation Catalina left the family but stayed in the US. Eventually, she found La Raza Centro Legal and joined the Women's Collective, a worker-run group that solicits domestic work from San Francisco's wealthier neighborhoods. She is learning English and labor rights. She's also running a self esteem workshop for her peers. Even through all this hardship, she never thought it's be better to stay in Mexico and she wants people to know that she's just in the US to try to survive.