According to the Pew Research Center, as of “January 2025, 53.3 million immigrants [live] in the United States.” Approximately 8 million immigrants in the USA have “neither legal status nor temporary protection from deportation.” Many migrate sacrificing their safety by secretly crossing borders, scaling fences, or contacting smugglers who ship them across bodies of water, deserts, and conflict zones. They risk violence, detention, exploitation, and death. They often leave their families and friends behind facing these dangers in isolation from their communities. Their journeys usually burden them with debt.
When they arrive in the USA, many of those who decide to legally apply for immigration relief are incarcerated in detention centers run by ICE , under cruel and inhumane conditions. There they face renewed pain and trauma, facing institutional racism. Migrants who are unauthorized do not have legal status nor protection from deportation. They are forced to live in the shadows, unable to get identification paperwork, legal protections, and other safeguards of legal status or citizenship. As a result, they often work in low-paying, exploitative jobs and have trouble finding shelter, support networks, and accessing other basic human rights.
“You abandon everything you’ve ever known, and come to a foreign land, only to be subjected to all types of discrimination and violations even when you try it the right way”, says Steven Tendo, president and founder of ELOI.
