Better to Ask Forgiveness than Permission

“It’s better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission.” At least, that’s what I was telling myself when I was on my way to the midnight movie premiere, despite my parents’ knowing. I knew they would have disapproved, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. The benefits outweighed the risks. I would be one of the first to see the new movie and I would be making great memories with my friends.

As the militarization of the border increased for undocumented migrants, the availability of jobs did not diminish, so many of the immigrants still felt inclined to make the dangerous trek across the border to fill these job positions. The promise of the job and a steady income was more appealing than the risk that came with migration, so even though militarization increased, people made the trek by finding different routes.

I was also able to have a way around my parents’ rules. Even though, I had a strict curfew, I found ways to get around it by sleeping over at my best friend’s house. I found another way to go see the movie premiere because my friend’s parents didn’t enforce a curfew quite as strict so I knew that we would be able to see the movie if we had a sleepover at her house instead of trying to sneak back into my house under the watchful eye of my parents.

The new immigration restrictions in fact backfired on the US government because the undocumented migrants ended up staying in the US permanently instead of sticking to the “long standing tradition of migratory circulation” (Massey, 1590). Similar to my fear of sneaking back into my parent’s house, migrants didn’t want to take another risk by migrating back to their home country after making the journey once successfully.