Jorge I

Mexico City, Mexico
Jorge I
June 3, 2019

Interviewer: You can start by just telling your story about how you came to the United States, what were the circumstances that led to that, and your first impressions.

Jorge I: Okay. Well, first of all, when I had to get to the States, I didn’t take that decision. The decision was actually my mom’s decision. Well, my grandpa’s decision as well. Looks like my mom was having difficulties with my dad, and looks like they were going … Well, just too many fights with them, and my grandpa decided to send me and my mom and my sister to the United States, which we had to escape from Mexico because my dad was actually very violent. So my mom decided to take off with me. My sister stayed with my dad. So me and my sister… me and my mom we took off with one of my uncles, and then a couple years passed by, two years later, we came back and pick up my sister. Then we took back off to USA.

Jorge I: Well, we crossed the border. I remember a little bit of things crossing the border with my mom and my uncles. I remember my uncle carrying me on his shoulders crossing through the deserts and getting down, watching for the cops. I remember my mom would be like, “Be quiet. Be quiet. They’re going to catch us. They’re going to catch us.” And I remember every time we would stop, I’d be like, “Be quiet. Be quiet, everybody. We’re going to get caught… get catch up.”

Jorge I: Now, when we got to USA, my mom, she started working at agriculture. She started working with cherries and apples. We went all the way to Washington state, and that’s where my uncles had connections with other people, members that are from the same city where my mom’s at. So that’s where they got the contractor picking cherries and picking apples. That’s how my mom started to support us over there in the States. She got me and my sister into school. We started preschool, started going to preschool and then kindergarten all the way to, well, finishing high school.

Jorge I: In that time, my mom was single. She got with my step-dad now a couple years later. They had a new family. Well, we started having brothers. Got another brother, Javier, who was the next one after me, and then two twins. That’s how we started a new family over there.

Jorge I: At that point, when we went to school, I didn’t know we were… I was illegal, and I didn’t know my sister was illegal. We didn’t know nothing about the situation about the borders and anything about that until later when we grew up and I was older. This is like after I finished high school. That’s when my mom started telling me that I was illegal, and that we should start filling out paperwork.

Jorge I: I didn’t listen to my mom because of the situation. I was still going to school. I was still doing good things, and I really never thought I would actually need that until I started driving. So I started driving, and I drove without a license. That’s when everything started filling in. I just started filling out paperwork or doing anything regarding staying in the USA. I didn’t know it was that important you know until I got in the situation with the court laws and then having immigration getting you and letting you know that you’re not going to be going out. You’re going to be going out to a different country. So that’s when everything hits you. You start remembering everything that you’ve been through. It just feels like you’re going to throw everything away to the garbage. Your goals, your future, I mean, everything just gets torn away from you when you get that news that you’re going to be deported to a different country.

Jorge I: I understand it might be where I was actually born, but it’s not where I was raised in the same way. I mean, getting back … When I got deported into Mexico, it’s a hard decision. Sometimes maybe the feelings is the things that … maybe the feelings is what makes you sometimes take that decision. Maybe some people are not as hard as other people, and some people don’t get into much problems. They don’t want to be in jail, so they just want to get out and just want to continue back to life. You understand that you already did a mistake, and I mean it’s not even a big mistake. It’s a little thing.

Jorge I: The good things is … I don’t know I’m not sure how to explain to you, but being back into Mexico, and meeting … I mean, just once I crossed the border, it’s just a different lifestyle. It’s just … I was happy for one reason because it’s a different country and it’s different. It’s just like when I got to Mexico, it was just like everybody is in a rush, everybody was speaking Spanish. It was just insane the first days that I stepped into Mexico.

Jorge I: The food, I didn’t know what to order. I didn’t know what food to eat. I didn’t know what was my next step. I didn’t know where I was going to sleep at. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I was just thinking about my whole life. I was just thinking about… I mean, my job, even my job is just another thing I was thinking about. I have to go to work, but now I don’t have to go to work because I lost my job. Like who told my … All of those things, when I got deported, it was hard to jump into reality that you’re in Mexico now. There’s no way back for you. There is no way to go back on the next week. I’ll buy a ticket. I’m out.

Jorge I: It was just hard actually to get an understanding. Even paying at the store, it was so hard on how to actually process dollars into pesos. It was just it’s so different. I didn’t know how to do the economy thing. I didn’t knew what to buy. When I was living here, I got to Tijuana. Tijuana was the spot where they actually, well, jumped me to the border, and then from Tijuana, I mean they just get you out on the street, and you’re free and you’re out. But the thing is that there is no help. I wish there would have… could have been a little bit of help on the other side as well for people to be able to contact some people from Mexico as well to know where you’re going to be coming to. Or even some people don’t even have people and some support.

Jorge I: Now, they do. I know now they do have that support. They help immigrants on getting half of the ticket, paying half of your ticket to where you’re going to go and stuff like that. I mean, maybe they could have helped us as well on providing us ideas on where to go, on what to buy, on little things like that. I mean, I’m not sure. I’m just saying it was hard to even go buy groceries because I would be making a salary here. When I started working, I was making 850 pesos. This was a week, and there was some hard labor and things that I would be doing.

Jorge I: I would go shopping to Walmart because that’s the stores that I know, and I would be buying my groceries. And once I come and pay off my groceries, it’s not even that much of things, and I would be paying 600 pesos, and I still got 250 pesos to continue for the whole week. So my economy, every time I’d go buy, it was just like, “Got to buy one apple. Got to buy one …” So it was just that economy as well that I was still … I wasn’t know how to actually work my budget so I can actually keep it up. So that thing brought me down a lot.

Jorge I: Regarding the jobs as well, jobs will put me down. And I always thought about going back to USA and just jumping back the border, paying somebody to get me over there.

Jorge I: Another thing is just time with me. I think time is very valuable for me, so I never decided to actually do any type of paperwork because I would think that it was just … it wasn’t worth my time to actually just keep wasting some time. Now that the time has been passed by, I’m like, “How come you never did it in that time?”

Interviewer: Yeah.

Jorge I: Time is very valuable for me. I just had some hard situations here in Mexico and more than I had over there in the United States. I just feel like I never had that big support here like I had it over there. My friends and family that I had over there. I had a lot of friends. I had a lot of family. I had many, many people that I could come to and just speak out to them. They will give me ideas on how to actually go forward to that. Here in Mexico, it was so hard. It’s so hard to actually … meeting your family, even though it’s your family, but it’s hard for them to understand on the situation where you’re at when they’re actually raised here and born here. They don’t have that same goals.

Jorge I: I went to a place where it’s just cows and sheeps, and the work labors is just on the farms and the crops with corn and beans. That’s what they live out of. It’s just minimum wage. It’s just like very, very minimum wage, eating beans every day. You can’t even eat meat every day of the week. You got to eat like once meat in the week because it’s expensive. So, me coming from a city, from Seattle, Washington, coming from these places is just coming to a little town, a little small place is just harder for me.

Jorge I: At the beginning, you can seem as if it’s fun because you’re meeting everybody. You’re meeting new people, but eventually, even though by that time people want to see you doing good. People want to see you doing great, right? Especially your family members from the States. They’re always worried about you and always want to know what’s your next move.

Jorge I: When I was there, I was suffering because I never worked in some hard labor. I was working in some hard labor where you’ll be making that 850 a week. It was just very hard labor. I decided to actually still continue going to school. Where I was at, the schools where I was at, I didn’t think that was the greatest of schools. So I decided to go online. I went online. I researched for some schools, and I found the best schools here in Mexico City. Well, following with my career where I wanted to get, I found that this was the best place to actually come and study.

Jorge I: So I decided to get my bags and everything and pack and decided to go on my own and go to the city. I decided to come here to the city. I got my… I had one of my friends as well that told me to come down, and he’s going to hook me up with a room and I’ll be able to stay there with him. I decided to come here, and I’ve been here now in Mexico City. That’s where I’ve been learning a lot. A lot from … Well, especially when people that go from pueblos, little towns…

Interviewer: Right, right.

Jorge I: It’s very different going out to the city because I mean, there’s a lot of other things around that there is for you. But you have to search for it. You have to hunt for that dream. I have to hunt for what you want.

Jorge I: It’s very different going out to the city because there’s a lot of other things around that there is for you. But you have to search for it. You have to hunt for that dream. I have to hunt for what you want. What I think is just that you’ve just got to keep the same goals that you had in the States. Eventually what happens with the government and the fights that they have against the border – I’m not sure how to explain it to you. It’s just I go back in history, and it’s like, “Man, back in the history, there was no borders.” There was no borders and stuff like that. I don’t know. It’s just that I decided to stay here and focus on my future and the goals that I still had so I can someday go back to the States.

Jorge I: And as well, I want to go back, and as well my little brothers and the rest of the other young people as well that they are still immigrants. Open their eyes as well. Just try to … I mean, my message to them is just they have everything they need over there as well. Even though you think life is… because you have that people around you, so you think life is easy for you because you got your mom, you got your sisters, you got your brothers, you got your friends, you got a lot of people. You got your teachers. You got a lot of people, right, when you’re with them, so you feel comfortable. You feel good when you’re around them. But there are sometimes those little decisions or bad decisions that you make, and sometimes they can’t… they’re not going to be able to take you out from those decisions.

Jorge I: I just want people to just keep going to school. Just keep going to school. I think that’s the best way. If you don’t want to go to school, just keep that goal on what you want to do and just keep doing. Maybe you don’t need a career to actually be a soldier or to be a mechanic. I mean, you do need it, but you don’t need it, you can say. But I mean it’s possible. Wherever you’re at, you’re going to be able to come out from it.

Jorge I: Regarding what country you’re in, I think if you actually put your mindset to it, and you put your goals really where you want to be at, then you will actually accomplish them. No matter what economy, you just got to actually know and read about it.

Interviewer: So can we go back to the US a little bit? So your sister was she younger than you?

Jorge I: No, my sister’s older than me.

Interviewer: She’s older.

Jorge I: She’s now a citizen over there. Regarding to what happened to me, so she-

Interviewer: Started the paperwork.

Jorge I: … started doing the paperwork, and she got her paperwork. So she just recently visited me about two years ago after she got it. So, yeah.

Interviewer: How about your step-father?

Jorge I: See, my step-father is not. He’s actually illegal, too, as well. The situation is with my dad and my mom. I’m not sure why they’re not able to actually get their papers and be the citizenship. I’m not sure why yet. My step-dad’s been there for a long time with the same company for a long, long time, so I’m not sure why they’re not being eligible to actually do this. I think about it. I mean, my mom told me supposedly the lawyer told them because of the situation that I got to, and as well my little brother. My little brother actually got on a situation in a car wreck, and supposedly because of that car wreck as well.

Interviewer: He got deported?

Jorge I: No, he’s a citizen.

Interviewer: No, but he’s a citizen.

Jorge I: Yeah, he’s a citizen. But regarding what he did and to what I did, they were not able to process it. So I’m not sure why. I’m not over there either. I was always the one that was be helping my mom regarding to everything. And my dad, I was always the one that’s right behind him. Like, “Hey, Mom, did you do this? Hey, Mom, do you need this?” And she’d be like, “Hey, Jorge I. Come and help me. I see I’m getting into Spanish and the English now. Can you translate for us? Can you go with us so you can help us translate?” “Yes, I will go.”

Jorge I: My brothers are not like that. My brothers are like … Now, this generation, they’re like Google it. Now, this generation are very not-

Interviewer: So you were very helpful.

Jorge I: I was very helpful to my mom and my dad.

Interviewer: And do they both work?

Jorge I: Yeah, they both work. My dad is still with the same company. Well, now my mom is … she works at a Redline, so she’s managed for Redline after so many years as well. But, yeah, she’s there now. My sister, well, my sister is a teacher now. She’s a third-grade teacher. Yeah.

Interviewer: So education was important to you?

Jorge I: Yeah, education is definitely important for me.

Interviewer: And you did well in school?

Jorge I: I did super well, and when I was a freshman until sophomore, and then I started missing a little bit. So that’s why I went to College so I can actually get finished my diploma. So I did finish my diploma there in college, not in the high school. So I got my GED from college, and then college was going to set me up now for-

Interviewer: Did you do that at community college?

Jorge I: Yes, went actually community college. Yes.

Interviewer: So, what happened in your sophomore, junior year that-

Jorge I: Well, sophomore and junior, I started getting a little crazy with some girl, so I was just in love, I guess, with this girl. I don’t know. She didn’t like school, and she would be like, “Hey, let’s go.” (chuckle) So I think that was one of the situations. I do regret those times that I was actually getting off from school because I could have probably graduated sooner, and then I could have take another decision on helping my mom. I think everything I think about is my mom, my mom, my mom, my mom. Because I’m going through it, and my mom’s going through it. My mom should not deserve to actually go through it after all these years that she went through.

Jorge I: She tells me that it’s good because she says that maybe my other brothers would not be able to handle it like I handle it or my sister or any of them. She’s like, “I’m glad that it’s you that actually went through that situation instead of your other brothers.” Because my other brothers, they don’t have the same mentality as I do. They do have that goals, but they don’t have that mentality. I’m thinking because they’re younger, though, and they don’t have a family yet.

Jorge I: But, yeah, I always think about it every time, and I do it for my mom as well so she doesn’t have to feel bad that … She never told me that I was illegal until a certain age. I do tell her most of the times, “How come you never told me? You should have told me. You should have told me.” But that word, you should have, it’s just, it just passed by.

Interviewer: It’s hard to look backwards. Yeah. That’s really interesting. So, I have a question that you might have some thoughts about. A lot of the young men your age that I talk to who went to the US as children, they ended up getting into a lot of trouble, like gang-related stuff, and you didn’t.

Jorge I: I didn’t. I have a lot of friends. I have a lot of cousins, and they are gang-related. I would talk to them. I mean, I do have tattoos as well. I like tattoos, but I was never associated with them directly or do a gang signs or go fight somebody or nothing. I was just around them because that’s the people that were around me, my family, and my cousins and them. But I love them still because they’re the ones that actually they pressured me to keep going to school. They were like, “Jorge is the guy that has to keep us going to school.” That’s what actually keep me and keep my ego up because my cousins were like, “No, you got to keep going to school. You’re the one that got to be going to school.” And I like school, and I love school. And I was always… I like getting that, “Hey, can you help me with this? Hey, can you help me with that?”

Interviewer: So that’s what gave you the support structure?

Jorge I: That’s what gave me the support structure and as well the jobs that I had. Regarding to the jobs that I had, jobs help me a lot. That’s where I knew that I had to keep in school. I knew it. I knew there was a better life for me later on in the future if I just keep going to school. I just knew it because my managers all the time, they always keep telling me, “You got to keep going to school. You got to keep going to school. I don’t want to see you here. I want to see you somewhere else. And I know you can do it, Jorge I.” And I had some good conversations with a lot of managers, and I just… I don’t know.

Jorge I: I just feel like I have a good heart, and I’m not saying nobody does. I’m just saying I just have this heart that I’m not a person that’s going to go fight somebody. I’m not that person. I’m that person that’s going to tell you, “Nah, don’t do it. Why don’t you just tell them this other way so we can actually fix it” instead of … I’m not that person that’s going to go find a way on how to harm that person. I’m always that person that’s going to try to make that situation into a better situation.

Jorge I: I think at the moment, having this conversation, it’s actually working as well, because I’m still lonely. Even though I have my little family, I still feel sometimes lonely because, the only backup that I have is my girlfriend’s parents and grandparents and uncles and them. My other family is far away. It’s four miles away from here from a different city. Regarding to my family, my mom and that, they’re miles and miles away, away, away, away from here. I haven’t had a conversation with somebody in English about this. I never had.

Interviewer: Is your girlfriend from here?

Jorge I: Yeah, she is from here. She is. That’s actually my first Mexican girlfriend.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Jorge I: Yeah, she is from here, and I met her here at school as well. So, yeah, I never had … I have friends from work and everything, but it’s not the same situation on how to explain… how to get this out. I never had a chance to talk to somebody and hear me and my situation and my goals. I’ve gone to psychologists before just for me, just so I can do it for me, just so I can keep going, walking my same straight line. I do like that. I mean, I haven’t gone to any of them here in Mexico, but I feel like this is actually … I kind of feel it like that. I like to talk to people, and I would like to be on the same straight line. I want people to follow the same straight line because that’s the best way to actually live life.

Interviewer: And you have a child?

Jorge I: And I have a child. Yes.

Interviewer: Girl or a boy?

Jorge I: I have a little girl.

Interviewer: How old?

Jorge I: She’s going to be two years old. She’s a year and 10 months.

Interviewer: She’s very cute.

Jorge I: Yeah.

Interviewer: Could you tell us a little bit about … just talk a little bit about your mom never told you you were illegal or undocumented, and you figured it out when you couldn’t get a license? Is that sort of how you figured it out?

Jorge I: Well, the way how I got this was actually … I actually had a license. I actually had a license, ID. I didn’t have a social security number. I mean, I did have one, but I never knew it wasn’t my real social security number.

Interviewer: So how did you…

Jorge I: I had all the documents that I needed.

Interviewer: I see. So, had your parents gotten you the social security number?

Jorge I: Well, I have uncles.

Interviewer: So, they got it for you?

Jorge I: They got it for me. I learned this later on.

Interviewer: Right.

Jorge I: I didn’t knew nothing about it. I mean, I had ID. I had everything. I didn’t knew doing until the record to the police reports, maybe to the immigration system.

Interviewer: Oh, when you got stopped.

Jorge I: Yeah. When I got pulled over and anything, that didn’t happen. Okay. I got my license, and then I actually fixed cars, so I would be driving fast cars. I’d be driving fast cars, and I got pulled over. They took my license because I was driving-

Interviewer: How old were you?

Jorge I: I was 18 when I first … When I got my license, I was 17, and then at the age of 18, that’s when … Well, I got my permit when I was 17, and then when I got 18, I got my license. Seven months after I got my license, while I started racing cars and fixing these cars, that’s the situation that I got into my license getting taken away.

Jorge I: So, when my license got taken away, I wasn’t able to actually drive. Eventually, I had to go to work. I mean, I would just drive to work and then come back home. I’d be like, “Nothing’s going to happen between the times. I’ll just drive the limit and put your seatbelt on. Nothing’s going to happen.” Well, I got pulled over, and I had no license. I had my license suspended. So even the officer was very nice and everything. He just signed me a ticket. He’s like, “I’m going to give you a ticket. You have to present yourself to the court. I’m not going need from you to drive this car again.” You’re going to call somebody to come pick up the car. So he was very nice.

Interviewer: And you were 20?

Jorge I: I was 18. I was about to be 19. When this happened, I mean I still drove. I drove the next day. The next day I drove. The same officer saw me. So the same officer saw me. He already told me, he’s like, ” I let you go that day.” He’s like, “I could have took you that day. I could have took you that day. I could have called a tow truck and could have took your car, and it would have been in the impound. You would have had to pay the impound. You would have had to go to jail and go through all this situation. And I was being nice with you.” He did explain to me, and I understand. And I told him, “But I need to go to work. I need to go to work.” He’s like, “But you can’t drive. You can’t drive. Now I have to take you in and blah, blah.”

Jorge I: So, he took me in. He post me, he gave me a bail. He’s like, “You can bail out. I’m going to give you a bail, and you can bail out.” I was like, “Okay.” So once I got into jail, I called my mom. I was like, “Hey, I’m in jail. Blah, blah, blah.” She got mad. She went and posted the bail. She posted the bail, so I’m waiting in the jail. I’m already thinking I’m about to go in, and I was already like, “Oh, man. Don’t drive.” I was finding a way on how to get to work, like not to drive. I wasn’t thinking I was going to get hold at that moment forever, get stripped down. That was the least thing that would run into my mind at those times.

Jorge I: So, it was two hours later after my mom posted the bail, and I’m like getting already frustrated, like, “What’s going on? Why aren’t you guys letting me go out?” They’re like, “Well, what we were doing is running to see if you have no other warrants in other states.” I was like, “Okay.” I mean, obviously, I’m not going to have no warrants, right?

Interviewer: Yeah.

Jorge I: So, I call my mom. I’m like, “I don’t know. I guess they’re doing some reports and blah, blah.” My mom says on the phone that I’m illegal while I’m in jail.

Interviewer: What and you didn’t know? That was that?

Jorge I: No, this is happening at that moment. My mom is telling me on the phone line, in the jail’s phones, telling me, “You got to be quiet. You got to be calm.” And she’s telling me that I’m illegal so just be calm and hopefully we’ll be… I’ll be going out. So, this is while I’m there in jail, so when my mom tells me that I’m going through this situation, I don’t believe my mom. I’m going through my mind is going, “What’s going to happen? What’s going to happen? What’s going to happen?”

Jorge I: So, three hours later come by, while those three hours that we were waiting, immigration was coming because I was in Wenatchee. I was in this town called Wenatchee, and Seattle is about three and a half hours away. So, what had happened is that they had to contact immigration to come and pick me up. So, what happened is the immigration came, and that’s when I see the police officers with the ICE. He introduced himself. He’s like, “I’m a police with ICE.” I forgot what he said. Immigration, blah, blah, blah. He’s like, “You have an order detained with us. It looks like you’re not an American citizen. Are you an American citizen? Do you have proof of being an American citizen?” I told him yes. I told him I have my social security number. I provided my social security number. He told me to wait. I provided him … Well, all the information that he wanted, I was providing it to him.

Jorge I: So, he’s telling me to have my mom bring my social security number down to jail and bring my birth certificate. So, my mom, well I told my mom, and my mom freaks out. And so, my mom was like, “I can’t. I can’t present … I can’t.”

Interviewer: She couldn’t even come, right?

Jorge I: Yeah, so she was scared that she would come to jail and she’s going to get deported, too.

Interviewer: Yeah. Yeah.

Jorge I: So, I’m in the situation where I’m like how do I cover my mom? I don’t want my mom to get taken away. It’s like this is going to go all the way to my mom, my dad, my … you know? It’s a big line right behind me, so-

Interviewer: And they have all these kids that are US citizens, and they would just…

Jorge I: Take them out. I didn’t knew if CPS (Child Protective Services) was going to come and get them, come get my mom, come get my dad, and CPS was going to take my brothers. My mom was going crazy at this time. So, I just decided to take that situation on to me. I told them, “You know what? I’m illegal. I’m sorry. I’m lying to you at this moment, but I mean I’m scared. This is the first situation that’s going through this.” They told me, “Well, you have to sign this paper.” My mom was like, “Don’t sign anything.” So, I was like, “I’m not going to sign anything.”

Jorge I: They’re like, “Okay.” We’re going to have to be sending you to a court.” And then I was like, “Okay.” So, after that I had to wait for my court date, and then for my court date, I had to actually plead guilty to the driving without a license.

Interviewer: Right.

Jorge I: So, I did. I posted… I accepted the charges, and they gave me seven days in county jail. So I had to wait for the seven days county jail, and then I was going to have an officer where I had to go present myself. What’s it called? Parole.

Interviewer: Parole. Yeah.

Jorge I: Parole officer, so I was going to have a parole officer for a certain time, and I would have to go visit him for certain time to the parole officer. So, what happened is just that I finished those seven days, and immigration came and got me from the jail. Then they took me and shipped me. So that’s why I’m telling you I’m not sure if I have a warrant, or if those get dropped. I don’t have no idea what happened with that case.

Interviewer: It probably got dropped.

Jorge I: Dismissed or something. I really don’t know what happened.

Interviewer: I’m sure they don’t care about that.

Jorge I: Yeah. Okay.

Interviewer: It seems pretty small relative to everything else.

Jorge I: Yeah, when I got… I got to immigration. Immigration told me about if I wanted to sign voluntary or if I wanted to actually fight my … get a lawyer so I can actually fight my state. So I did decided to actually fight my state in that moment. They settled me a schedule for two week, so I was there waiting for my court date for about two weeks. When my court date came, well, when I went with the judge as well, he told me as well, “We have that option for you. There’s no problem. We can get you an attorney, so we can actually follow this … We’ll follow your case.” I kind of remember some things that the lawyer told me that I would be qualified for. That I would be qualified for to actually stay there, but I would take about seven months to a year and five months for me to actually get a solution. And then from there, it would be the decision from the judge if I would be actually to stay for citizenship. Oh, no it was-

Interviewer: Permanent resident. Yeah.

Jorge I: … permanent resident. But I didn’t decided to stay for that long because-

Interviewer: You would have had to be in detention for that long?

Jorge I: I would have had to be in detention for that long, and then I would have actually had to bring my mom involved into this. So my decision was like, “No, because I don’t want to get my mom involved in this.” I’m going through this, and it’s like just I don’t want to get nobody inside of jail. Because he was telling me as well that my mom might have a chance to get that same paperwork, but she has to come to jail and she has to do the same process. I mean, having my mom in jail is like, “No, I don’t want to do this.” So I decided to sign the voluntary departure because he’s explaining to me as well that with voluntary departure, I can actually ask for sorry here in Mexico with the American embassy, and ask for sorriness, forgiveness.

Interviewer: Yeah, forgiveness.

Jorge I: Ask for forgiveness, and it will take a process, and you will be able to fight for your citizenship to be in the States back again, you know?

Interviewer: Right.

Jorge I: So, I decided that I should get the voluntary, but since I’ve been here, I’m telling you I got to this place where it’s like a small, little town.

Interviewer: That was where… Did you go there because your mother was from there?

Jorge I: Yes, that’s because my mom was from there, and that’s where my grandpa’s at. So that’s the only way, the reason I got there. When that happened, I don’t know. It was that situation where there was no buildings or anything, any resources where I could go to. So, I decided just to wait out for a minute and try to live a little bit here and see how people live and things like that. So, I decided maybe later on in the future I would actually do it. I was thinking about it in a year. I was thinking maybe in a year, and maybe even less, I’ll go to the border, Tijuana, and then from there I’ll see if I can … I mean, that’s a border. That’s what I thought of the embassy, but I’m now knowing that there’s a lot of embassies around the States. But in that time, I didn’t knew, so my idea was going back to the border and then doing that in that moment.

Jorge I: But while I was here, I started working in those jobs, and that’s when I decided to actually just sign up for school and see if that school would actually help me on getting my … Well, it would be easier for me to get into the States if I actually have a school from here. I believe that would be the easiest way instead of not just showing up and be like, “Oh, I’m still here. I’m not doing nothing in my life, I’m just sitting here in one year, and I’m just waiting.” Well, I decided to actually come down to Mexico City so I can continue getting my career.

Jorge I: So, I came here to Mexico City. I started going to school, and that’s where I met my wife now, well, my girlfriend. I met her here. And then, well, then she ended up getting pregnant. Well, yeah, I decided to drop out to continue paying because my mom was the one that was helping me going to the school and paying for the schools and stuff. After she heard about what happened, she like, “No, I ain’t going to keep paying for it. You’re the one that has to now take a step up. You decided to do that.” She just told me, “You got to step up now, and you got to go and work. Because I was paying the school for you and everything, and you just fuck it up. You just fucked it up.” She just very literally kind of just told me that. It was like, “You decided to make that decision. Unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to help you with that. I mean, I’ll help you.” She does help me once there when my baby gets sick or something. I need something like that, then she will help me.

Interviewer: Yeah. So, how are you going to pay for school now? Because you said you just started.

Jorge I: Well, now I have a good job.

Interviewer: So, you can do both?

Jorge I: Yes, now I can do both.

Jorge I: Yes, I need to be busy, too. I like being busy. I love being busy, so now I do have the opportunity to actually … and my girlfriend now as well. She’s working, too, as well, so my economy now is labeled out.

Interviewer: Yeah. That’s good.

Jorge I: That’s why I returned back to school. Because I had to drop out. She had to finish school after we had the baby. So now that she finished her line, now it’s my turn to finish my line. So, yeah. That’s where I’m at right now.

Interviewer: So, what are your dreams?

Jorge I: Well, my dream is to, by the age of 60, don’t ever work again and have my mom here and have her with her home finished. My dream is to have my daughter in a good school here in Mexico. I don’t think my goals are thinking about going back to the States anymore at this moment. I remember a couple of years before I actually got with my girlfriend, I mean that was my goal is being back to States and have a good career over there. But, literally how things are going now, my goal is now here is actually finishing school and actually having my girl meet my mom. Now, legally, she would be able to get the visa, and she’s going to be applying for that pretty soon. So hopefully, by the time she does that as well and I finish my career as well, I’ll be applying back again so I can be able to go and visit my mom.

Jorge I: But I just want to show everybody over there in the States, everybody that supported me, I want to thank them because I’m actually … everything that I went through, even though … everything that I went through over there in the States, I believe I did some hard work, and I want everybody to see that that hard work actually did pay off. I want everybody to see Jorge back again and doing good. I don’t know. I just miss my friends and family. I do miss them, but I just want to go back and just be like… you know come back. Come visit Mexico, too. Come visit someday. That’s what I think now at this moment.

Interviewer: Seems like your dreams are very similar, but they’re just located now in Mexico.

Jorge I: Now located in Mexico. Yeah, they are, basically. Yes, they are located here.

Interviewer: You told me a little bit before when you were doing a survey about the assault that you told me about.

Jorge I: Yes, oh man. That happened. I mean, it’s hard to process that because it’s just something that randomly happened. I just got off from work. I got off from work, and I was calling my lady to get ready because I was going to take her out to eat. I was so happy because it was just like the third week that I was working. I was barely going to take my girl out to the evening, so I was very super excited that day. And it happened so quick. It happened so quick. I was at a light stop, and I was changing the song. I was changing the song on the radio when I heard a knock on my window. (sound of knock) There’s a lot of people here that ask for money or ask for help, or they sell things at the light stops, or they wash your windows and stuff like that. So, I thought it was somebody-

Interviewer: You were a taxi cab driver?

Jorge I: No, I was a Uber driver.

Interviewer: Uber, uber.

Jorge I: Yeah, I was an Uber driver, and I just recently got the car thanks to my family. They helped me out on getting this car, and Uber was actually working very good at that time. Well, I came to the stop, and I hear the knock on my window. I just looked real quick. The first thing that happened was just the shot. They didn’t even tell me to get out of the car. They didn’t tell me anything. They just shot through the window. I had my window rolled up, and I think that’s the thing as well that it wasn’t a big impact because the window was rolled up. I looked to the side, and when I looked, the first thing that went was just the shot.

Jorge I: And when they shot me, I had my foot on the clutch, and so I kind of stepped on it. So he shot again, since he was… had a hand almost inside the door, the window, so he shot another shot. I didn’t feel that one because my ears were buzzing like “zzzzz.” I ended up taking off with the car, and I thought he shot me on my side. I thought, because I had a line like this. I still have the pictures. And I had a line. It looked like the bullet went through my cheek into the other cheek, and I thought that’s what happened. But then I felt the teeth and I spit in the little cup, where you put the cup hole. So, spit in the cup hole, and I seen my teeth and then that bullet there. I was just like, “What just happened?” And I was just so mad because I was so happy at the beginning. I was going to take her, and I was so mad because I wasn’t going to be able to take her. I wasn’t even thinking about my injuries. I was just thinking about how this good day-

Interviewer: It just turned around.

Jorge I: Yes, it just turned around so quickly. I was a couple blocks away from my house, so I decided to drive to my house so I can get help because I didn’t thought that they shot me like this. I thought they shot me through my side. I didn’t thought it was a big injury because I could breathe, and I could think and everything.

Jorge I: The thing is that the glass went in through my eyes, so when they shot. It went through my eyes, so I couldn’t see that good. So, I had to drive out the window, and that would help me as well. The wind would help me to keep my eyes open. Because when I get that wind, my eyes will hurt because I can feel the glass in my eyes. So, I just got home, and I went banging on the door so they can help me, and nobody would open the door because I was banging so hard. And I was yelling, “They shot me. They shot me.” My girl’s family thought that … They heard that they were saying, “They’re shooting me. They’re shooting me,” so they wouldn’t do downstairs because they were hearing that I was getting shot.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Jorge I: Yeah. So, they ran down. Well, my girl is the one that went and opened the door, and then she saw me. So, I went over her real quick, and she just started crying and everybody started running down. And they got me, and they started taking my shirt off. Then they seen my wound over here, too. I didn’t even knew I got shot in this other side. I just felt warm. I just felt very warm. So, they started getting towels and everything and taking me in. I couldn’t even see it now at the moment. So, I just wanted to get to the hospital, and they still wanted to sit me down. I’m like, “No, I want to go to the hospital. I can’t see. I can’t see. I’m losing blood.” At the moment, I was just like, “I want to live. I made it. They seen me. Now I need to live.”

Jorge I: So, in that moment they still called … They’re like, “No, we need to call an ambulance.” I was like, “No, take me.” They’re like, “No, because here in Mexico if you die on the way of going into the hospital, they’re going to sue… yeah the debt is going to go through us.”

Interviewer: Oh.

Jorge I: So, that’s why they didn’t wanted to take me.

Interviewer: I see.

Jorge I: I was like, “I don’t care.” I was like, “You guys got to take me. You guys got to take me.” So, my mother-in-law and her husband, they’re the ones that took me. They’re like, “Let’s go.” Her husband’s like, “Let’s go. We got to take him. I’ll take the blame. If he dies in the car, I’ll take the blame.” They’re like, “God, please let’s go. Let’s go.”

Jorge I: So, we took off to the hospital. Then I was blindfolded for four days. In those four days, the doctors are like the worst doctors here because they would just keep talking about things in front of you. Like, “He’s not going to get his eyes back. Nope, he’s not going to get his eyes back.” Like go talk somewhere else.

Jorge I: I don’t want to hear this. I’m feeling like… inside of me, I was just feeling so bad because my girl was just barely pregnant a couple months. It’s just like, ‘Oh, man, what am I going to do?” I was telling my girl like, “When I get out, shoot me. Shoot me because what am I going to do for you? Why am I good for you if I can’t see? How am I going to maintain you? How am I gonna… I can’t work with being blind. What am I going to do?” I thought my life was going to be-

Interviewer: You just got deported and suddenly now you’re blind.

Jorge I: And now I’m blind. Yes, exactly. So I just decided … I was thinking about taking my life out. I was just like, “I’m not going to live no more.” I mean, I got deported and this just happened. Oh I think I got to back already to work. They are calling me already from work.

Interviewer: I want to thank you. You are a really strong person.

Jorge I: Thank you.

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