Her book, my underground american dream. Shell be talking about that and her experience as an undocumented immigrant. And after that, shell be taking your calls as well. Booktv now continues in tucson. Welcome to the tucson festival of books. We wish to thank Cox Communications for sponsoring this venue. Mr. Connolly is sponsored by [inaudible] the presentation will last one hour, including questions and answers. Please hold your questions to the end. Immediately following this session, the authors will be autographing books in the sales and signing area in the ua bookstore tent on the mall, booth 141. Books are available for purchase be at this location. Please note that ms. Arce will be 20 minutes late to the signing area due to a live interview with cspan. We invite you to become a friend of the festival by texting friend to 520214 book or 5202142665 as shown on the sign at the front of the room or visit the friends of the festival booth, number 110 on the mall. Your gift makes a difference in keeping festival programming free of charge and supporting critical literacy programs in the community. Also out of respect for the authors and your fellow audience members, please turn off your cell phone. Julissa arce is a writer and social justice advocate. She is the cofounder and board chair of the ascend educational fund, a college and Mentorship Program that assists immigrant students regardless of immigration status, ethnicity or national origin. Prior to her advocacy, she built a successful career on wall street while undocumented. She speaks all over the u. S. And writes for various publications including huffington post, cnn and univision. Julissa is originally from mexico and spent her childhood and College Years in san antonio and austin, texas. Daniel connolly is a writer and investigative journalist focusing on ingration, economics and globalization. He has worked all over the southeast including alabama, arkansas and memphis, tennessee, where he is from and currently lives and works. Daniels work focuses on true stories that require deep investigation for the purpose of sharing the lives of those impacted by farreaching, complex societal issues. Thank you to you both, welcome to the festival and to tucson. Could you both talk to us about who you think the audience for your book is and, julissa, why dont we start with you. Well, thanks for having me. Ive really enjoyed my stay in tucson, so thank you. I really believe that my book at the very core is an american story. Its a very quintessential american story of working hard and persevering. Its rags to riches type of story. So when people ask me about the audience for the book, i really think that the audience for the book are human beings who read and can find themselves in my story in different ways. You dont have to be an undocumented mexican woman to understand what struggle is. You dont have to be an undocumented mexican latina to know what prejudice is. So i really believe that my story and my book has rez anticipated with people from every resonated with people from every kind of background, whether theyre citizens or not citizens, and thats what im most proud of in the book, is that different kinds of audiences have been able to pick it up. And the Amazing Things about books and why i love books is because they help us to see the world through somebody elses perspective, and thats what ive hoped to do in this book, is to let people into my life and, hopefully, they find themselves this some aspect of my story. Go ahead. Yeah. So this book that i i wrote is about children of mexican immigrants growing up in memphis, tennessee, and im a journalist and followed this group of kids through senior year and into the years beyond. The, i guess the audience is primarily young people around 18, 19, 20, kids who are looking at going to college, kids who have just joined collegement and beyond that college and beyond that, its also for a general audience because to understand where america is today and where were going, we need to Pay Attention to children of immigrants, in particular the statistic is that one this four young people in America Today is a child of immigrants, and the decisions that they make about their futures, going to college or not, will affect all of us. Thank you. I think one of the things that struck me so much about both of your books is that while a central theme, of course, is immigration, theyre both also coming of age stories. Can you talk to us about the similarities and differences between youth who are documented and undocumented. Julissa . Yeah. In the, in the debate right now about immigration theres this really big rhetoric about the bad immigrant and the good immigrant and who is a good immigrant and who deserves to be here. And what i have found is that i graduated in the top 5 of my high school class, and i still didnt have any access to college because i was undocumented. And 20 years ago undocumented students couldnt go to college. Still today many undocumented students cannot go to college despite their act dem you can a academic achievements and accomplishments. But what i have found when people read my story, people will say, well, you did it, you made it, you went to college and you became a successful person. So if you did it, why cant everybody else do it . And ill tell you why. One of the big reasons i was able to go to college was because texas, in 2001, became the first state in the u. S. To allow undocumented students to go to college. I was very lucky because 2001 is the same year i graduated from high school. But if it hadnt been for that law, i wouldnt have been able to go to college. And so many students still dont have access to a colleging education. College education. We all know the cost rises every single year, and its become very unaffordable for many young people to go to college. For immigrants, the stakes tend to be a little bit hire because somehow if you dont go to college and if you dont have a College Education, then somehow you become the bad immigrant. And if you didnt go to college, then youre not successful and, therefore, you dont deserve to be part of this country. And i think other young people who are american citizens perhaps face a similar stigma, that if you dont go to college, that means youre not smart, youre not successful. And the reality is that there are many paths to success, and there are many paths to having a good life, and it doesnt always mean you go to a fouryear school. But, again with, i think for immigrants it becomes a little bit, a little bit more because not only are you viewed as not being smart and successful, but then youre also viewed as not being a good candidate for being an american citizen. I would echo everything that julissa said and then also point out that being a teenager is not a picnic for anybody. Think about your own teen years, what it was like. And what, what i would argue is that regardless of whether the young person has citizenship or not, they need support especially the if their parents didnt go to college in this country. So in hanging out with the kids at Kingsbury High School in memphis, what i found over and over was that many of them had parents who wanted the best for their children but didnt know how to help. And so without people in the school to motivate and guide them, they were largely on their own. And so i think its also important to point out that the main people i write about in my book had significant immigration problems. Theyd been brought here illegally from mexico, but if we look at the statistics nationwide, the vast majority of young hispanic kids in america are citizens. So thats why i say that its in everyones interest to support children of immigrants regardless of their immigration status. And i know some people are uncomfortable with the connection to the illegal immigration issue. However, i do points out that the vast point out that the vast majority of children of immigrants are u. S. Citizens themselves. Yeah. So talk to us both about the loss that this country experiences, the lost opportunities, economic, societal, etc. , by creating this caste system or by creating this narrative of who is worthy ask who is not. Yeah. So, you know, the first thing ill point out is that many times we, when we think about immigration, we make it a latinoonly issue. And the reality is that there are immigrants who have come from every part of the world. There are white immigrants and black immigrants and asian immigrants that are both documented and undocumented. There are 50,000 undocumented irish People Living in the u. S. And we dont, when we think about immigration, we dont often think about anyone else other than a latino person, someone that looks like me. But thats not the entire story when it comes to immigration. In my book i talk about the fact s that what our immigration system looks like is a caste system, right . And the reason i say that is because we have created a system where no matter what you do, no matter how much you accomplish, no matter how you lead your life, there still isnt a way for you to become a citizen. There isnt a way for you to get out of that box that we have put you in. I was undocumented for over a decade, and many times as i travel across the country people ask me why did you wait so long, why didnt you become legal, why dont undocumented immigrants who are in this country illegally, why dont they headache themselves legal . Make themselves legal . And the question is pretty loaded, and the simple answer is that there isnt a process. There is no line. This line that we talk about is really a mythical place, an excuse that we use to ignore the fact that we need Immigration Reform. So we create this system where no matter what you do, you have no upward mobility. And that, to me, is the definition of a caste system, right . And thats what i think weve created in the u. S. And what were really missing out on is, as you mentioned, theres a ton of Economic Activity that were missing out of. When, when we keep labor that should be legal, we keep it illegal. So there are many undocking united immigrants who work in undocumented immigrants who work in the restaurant industry, construction, farms, and we keep that labor illegal, and theres a very good reason, theres a good reason why people want to keep that labor illegal, because we get it really cheaply, right in finish and we all benefit from that really cheap labor. I actually had someone email me recently telling me this is a country of, a nation of laws, and i agree. And he tells me that he employs some undocumented immigrants, and he supports the 45th president of the country. So i was very confused by that because i reminded him that employing undocumented people is against the law. Right . And so, but thats, thats unfortunately the attitude that many people have. And as long as we keep that labor illegal, were missing out on payroll taxes, were missing out on fair wages for everyone, were missing out on really incredible contributions that immigrants can make to this country. And if we look back at our history, i often i look at 1920s photographs. I love studying that era. And i look at pictures of immigrants from the 1920s working in sweatshops and living in cramped tenement apartments in new york city, little kids working alongside their parents, and i think that, you know, as americans we are so proud of the statue of liberty and what it represents. But we treat immigrants from then and the immigrants of now so differently. Be the reason those immigrants came here and the reason immigrant withs continue to come here immigrants continue to come here is because we come here for a better life and in pursuit of that better life, we create Economic Activity, and we create incredible benefits to society. That are also cultural. So were missing out on a lot of things by keeping people in the shadows and afraid. Yeah, just to expand on what julissa said, theres another metaphor that i think is useful to understand immigration in this country, particularly illegal immigration, and thats the metaphor of the coconut. Its hard on the outside, soft on the inside. So here were a few miles from the border, the arizona borders very heavily fortified with guards, barriers, etc. , and its very difficult to cross. But in my hometown, memphis, tennessee, very, very little Immigration Enforcement. And theres a reason for that, as ewe julissa just said. Theres a demand for lowcost labor, and businesses push back if the government comes and arrests their workers. So you have the situation where very strict enforcement at the border, very light enforcement in much of the rest of the country. And so you have, yeah, a caste system of People Living here with limited rights. And not only do they have limited rights, theyre locked in. They cant return to their country of origin and come back to the united states. One of the things i write about in the book of isaiahs is i ended up attending a funeral in mexico of a relative of this student who had died of cancer in mexico. Her own sister in memphis could not go back to see her because if she did, shed be locked out of the country. So we do have an illegal immigration system in this country that causes a lot of harm, and i think the question now is in the new administration is if the government starts cracking down, whats going happen . Are we going to see pushback from businesses that value this labor force, or are we going to see expulsion of many, many people from this country . Sorry, can i just add manager . So you mentioned that here in and in oh border towns other border towns there is tons of, like, Immigration Enforcement and where youre from, there isnt. But i just want to highlight that. Im not sure that thats totally accurate, and thats because just a couple weeks ago this woman in, young woman, 22yearold was a arrested after giving a press conference where she was speaking out against her parents deportation in mississippi. And she is a daca holder, so shes supposed to be protected by law from deportation and be given a twoyear work permit. Thats whats called daca. Its not amnesty, its not a to citizenship, but it is supposed to protect young people from deportation and provide them with a work permit. And yet she was not protected by that law because she was arrested and detained , and it took a National Outcry for her to be released. And, you know, in the eight years prior to this administration, 2. 5 Million People were deported. And not all of those people were deported at the border, right . So Immigration Enforcement happens all over the country. Regardless of what state were in or what city were in. People get deported and torn away from their families from every part of the country. Gist wanted to highlight that. So, yeah, thank you for doing that. The Daniela Vargas case is one that, is one of the first very ugly cases in the new administration. I think the question is, are we going to see that at a mass level, you know . Are we going to see something that really, truly changes the economy . And that remains to be seen. Lets hope not. So along this thread, i have a question for you both. If you could be crafting immigration policy, considering the dialogue that is going around nationally and we have some very heated dialogue and have had for many years, if you were sitting at that policy table, what would you want to see . So, you know, one of biggest ironies of my life is that my mother brought me to this country because she wanted me to be an independent woman and not to have to depend on a man and to make my own money. And i worked really hard to be those things and to do those things. But yet the only way that i was able to become a permanent resident and eventually a citizen was to be married. So, you know, i had to wait for, like, my knight in shining armor to come and rescue me. And that is, as i said, one of the biggest ironies of my life. And so thats part of what the issue is, that undocumented people who are here whether they cross the border illegally or, like myself and 40 of the people who are here undocumented never crossed the border, we came here on some sort of visa and then we overstayed. But regardless of how we ended up undocumented in this country, there is no path, there is no way for us to become legalized, right . And so to me, there cannot be an Immigration Reform or immigration policy that doesnt include a path. Where it can be a tenyear path, but we cannot have a conversation about Immigration Reform without including a conversation about what do we do with the 11 Million People who are here undocumented, what do we do with them . We have to create a path for them to become legal. A lot of times, and i dont want to bore you with history, but immigration has been under different, different parts of our country. So, for example, immigration used to be under the department of labor. After 9 11 was the creation of homeland security, and so now immigration is part of homeland security. So when we view immigration now, we view it in the context of national security. Before yes we used to view it in the context of labor and economics, okay . And theres a good reason for for that. Listen, i live in this country, i want to be safe. But when we do that, were coupling all of these things and theyre very complicated issues, so were not going to solve the immigration debate in this panel. I wish we could with one conversation. Theres a lot of things to consider. But we have to stop talking about immigration in the context of we have to stop talking about immigration, meanwhile criminalizing and demonizing the immigrants who are here and who want to come here. And when we stop doing that, i think well be able to have a much better conversation about how do we create policies that do keep our country safe. And i can tell you that all of the immigrants that come here, we want to be safe. And, in fact, many immigrants and refugees come to this country because theyre escaping horrible, terrible conditions in their own country. So they dont want to come here to then be faced with the same challenges and the same issues. So we have to create a path for citizenship, and we have to create better, more efficient ways for people who want to come here. Because until we do that, people are going to continue to find a way to come here because theyre escaping terrible conditions or because they want to have a better life, and they simply, you know, i dont have any children, but i know t