A potentially never-ending spring break

Illustration by Aleah Green

With spring break approaching, people are discussing plans involving water, sand and accents. My biggest concern is if I leave the states to celebrate this long-awaited senioritis fix, will I be able to get back in ?

What if I went to Mexico? Talks of borders, walls and checking passports is enough to make anyone, born in the states or not, nervous.

When people here on visas, even celebrities, can be targeted and detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and whole families can be separated, you start to wonder if anyone legally residing in the states without being born here is exempt from the risk of deportation.

Due to having a father who served in the military, I was born overseas in Lakenheath, England — a town just two hours from London, if you were looking for a reference point. This means that I have dual citizenship, one in the United Kingdom and one in the United States. However, since customs and immigration lines never ask for your full life story, no one instantly knows the specifics of my documentation.

I’m not comparing myself to someone who doesn’t have permanent citizenship in the U.S., had to file for it, or someone who may be here on a work or student visa or anything of that nature.

My concern is that I’m in a world with Agent Orange as the U.S. president.

If I decide to go to Mexico, for example, I worry I might not make it back. Will I get stuck on the other side of the imaginary wall?

Agents always look at my passport funny when my nationality says American but my birthplace reads the United Kingdom. And then come the questions, where I have to prove my American-ness.

Luckily, the one time I left the country, a passport, two forms of ID, my blood type, a map of my complete DNA makeup and a picture of my American family saved the day when TSA stared at my documents in the airport. Just kidding — well, kind of.

However, there are people who have to jump through more hoops than I do, whether that pertains to flying or driving out of the country. People are given a hard time based on documents, physical appearance, accents and a perceived notion of being intimidating or dangerous because they are foreign.

That’s why it is extremely important to know your rights. The American Civil Liberties Union works to preserve the rights in the U.S. For example, the American Civil Liberties Union site says if you’re crossing the border, border patrol must have reasonable cause to pull you over and ask about your immigration status.

Hunches and race presumption do not fall in the category of probable cause.

It’s not like border patrol or police officers stop people based on odd suspicion or race, right?

Should you get stopped, regardless of reasoning, be sure to get the agent’s information including name, badge number or any other info you can acquire.

With all of this being said, should you allow your nerves to get the best of you and keep you sedentary? Maybe. Everyone’s circumstances are always different, are always personal and should be weighed on a case-by-case basis.

Will I allow my fear to stop me from leaving the U.S.?

No. It hasn’t before and it won’t ever.

I don’t represent everyone who struggles with documentation and leaving and entering different countries. Our levels of difficulty are not on the same scale or even comparable, for that matter.

I’m someone who gets side-eyed and second-guessed at the airport and probably will receive the same treatment at the border as well. I am someone who, should I be halted from re-entering America, isn’t so sure I’d even want to come back.

No country works harder than the good ‘ole U.S. of A to keep people out.

This article was originally published in The Lumberjack Newspaper and on Jackcentral.org