Who is an "undocumented immigrant?"

An “undocumented” or “illegal” immigrant refers to ANY person who has entered the country without official authorization. Contrary to popular belief, undocumented immigrants encompass a wide variety of cultures and ethnicities. As of March 2005, the Current Population Survey (CPS) reported an estimated 9.6 to 9.8 million “illegal aliens;" take into account that these are only the survey participants. Though the majority of this population is of Mexican origin (5.9 million), immigrants may come from a variety of other countries. The following chart depicts both documented and undocumented immigrants, who were living in the U.S., at the time of the CPS.

My point being, that as a whole, we need to recognize the cultural diversity of both our "legal" and "illegal" residents. We need to STOP stereotyping people based on the color of their skin and notice how our actions and our biases affect not only those whom we discriminate against, but the greater society. In future posts, I will examine how discrimination acts as a barrier to health care (particularly prenatal care) and how this barrier, in turn, affects America as a whole.