Devils Highway
Perspectives on Immigration
Immigration in America has been a topic of intense debate through American history. Americans seem to always want to single “immigrants” out as being a bad guy per say, and the border patrol as good guys. Is it really fair to make that judgment based just on history? I sure do not think so. There’s more to immigrants then there history, there’s a reason why they come to America and it is not always intended for evil. Believe it or not, after reading The Devils Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea, immigrants are the good guys just asking for another chance at life. While the Border Patrol Officers are just wearing that uniform and taking advantage of it. Not coming to an agreement, Luis Alberto Urrea’s nonfiction novel would actually enrich the debate on illegal immigration due to the reasoning’s Urrea gives us on these walkers wanting to come to America. In the beginning of the novel, Urrea gives us background knowledge on the Devils Highway, the illegal immigrants crossing the border, and information on the Border Patrol Officers. Immigrants not having any income at all, they need to survive as well. In Mexico it was very hard to get a job, with that being said, woman with children, men with children, families in this case needed to survive. “Prices kept raising, and all families, mestizos, and Indian, Mexican and illegal, Protestant, Catholic, or heathen were able to afford less and less. Food was harder to come by. Families continued to grow” (44). These Mexicans needed money to survive; they needed better opportunities that Mexico was not offering them. Coming to America was their only choice. Not coming legally, these walkers took a chance at life down the “dangerous border”(8). It was a chance worth taking. “Good guys”, these immigrants were trying to better there future no matter what it took. Why couldn’t the Border Patrol accept that? The Devils Highway was a road leading to a rude awakening, wasn’t that bad enough. These
Immigration in America has been a topic of intense debate through American history. Americans seem to always want to single “immigrants” out as being a bad guy per say, and the border patrol as good guys. Is it really fair to make that judgment based just on history? I sure do not think so. There’s more to immigrants then there history, there’s a reason why they come to America and it is not always intended for evil. Believe it or not, after reading The Devils Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea, immigrants are the good guys just asking for another chance at life. While the Border Patrol Officers are just wearing that uniform and taking advantage of it. Not coming to an agreement, Luis Alberto Urrea’s nonfiction novel would actually enrich the debate on illegal immigration due to the reasoning’s Urrea gives us on these walkers wanting to come to America. In the beginning of the novel, Urrea gives us background knowledge on the Devils Highway, the illegal immigrants crossing the border, and information on the Border Patrol Officers. Immigrants not having any income at all, they need to survive as well. In Mexico it was very hard to get a job, with that being said, woman with children, men with children, families in this case needed to survive. “Prices kept raising, and all families, mestizos, and Indian, Mexican and illegal, Protestant, Catholic, or heathen were able to afford less and less. Food was harder to come by. Families continued to grow” (44). These Mexicans needed money to survive; they needed better opportunities that Mexico was not offering them. Coming to America was their only choice. Not coming legally, these walkers took a chance at life down the “dangerous border”(8). It was a chance worth taking. “Good guys”, these immigrants were trying to better there future no matter what it took. Why couldn’t the Border Patrol accept that? The Devils Highway was a road leading to a rude awakening, wasn’t that bad enough. These