Jazmin (a pseudonym) is a 16-year-old high school student navigating the world since recently learning about her documentation status. She entered the United States with her parents, without papers, when she was three months old. She met us for her interview in the corner office of the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council to talk about the struggles of being an undocumented teenager and maintaining hope. Before we begin to record, we ask her to draw her neighborhood, surrounding parks, her school, or any memorable places. But Jazmin sits motionless. She tells us that she doesn’t know where she grew up.
I always got treated differently. My parents always kind of talked about the idea, but never mentioned that I was undocumented.
I first knew I was when I heard my mom talking to this other family member. She didn’t even call me by my name; she called me by my middle name. That’s when I thought she was kind of talking about me—but even then, she said she wasn’t.
I never got told until I was in middle school, I think? Or maybe high school. I was trying to apply for a job and my parents told me that I was undocumented, so I wasn’t able to apply.
When being undocumented hit me, it was confusing because I had seen my siblings grow up documented. My sister is eight years older than me, and my brother is a year younger than me. My older sister was able to go to college for a bit and then get a job, so I thought that was normal.
She was able to be more involved in the community, like going to church or going on trips. She had a big group of friends—even just that, having a big group of friends and being able to go out and stuff like that, I wasn’t able to.
I always thought it was my parents being more protective of me because they were getting older. I just thought because my sister was the first they now had more experience, so maybe they felt like it was safer for me to stay at home.
The only person that went out was my dad because he worked. Other than that it was my mom and us at home. Always staying at home, always just going from work to home.
I didn’t really know where I was growing up.