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Immigration has perhaps never been a more hot-button topic in America than it is now, amid the Trump Administration’s crackdown on immigrants, which has targeted even those here legally as well as those who are undocumented. Supporters with hardline immigration views have cheered what they see as the rightful response to a supposed flood of law-breakers who can’t be bothered to follow the rules.

But one man who has lived the undocumented immigrant experience for nearly his whole life is a perfect example of how this view is an utter fantasy. Our immigration system makes it nearly impossible to immigrate legally or to become “legal” afterward, and despite what politicians claim, there is little will to actually fix it.

An immigrant explained why he is still undocumented after 25 years in the United States.

“Miguel, 25 years is a long time. You should have gotten your papers already.” Miguel Contreras said in a TikTok that he hears this from people all the time, and he said it usually indicates a person has no real idea about the intricacies of the U.S.’s immigration system.

“A lot of people just have no clue how this thing works,” Contreras said, “and unfortunately, they’ll have an inch-deep opinion on an issue that’s a mile deep in complexity. If that’s you, I hope that you make an effort to listen.”

Contreras explained that in 2000, he was brought to the U.S. from Mexico by his parents as a 9-year-old undocumented immigrant. When former President Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program in 2012, Contreras fell within its parameters.

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He now has two American children and is a business owner, but has no clear path to full legal citizenship.

The DACA program means that while Contreras doesn’t have legal immigration status, he would not be subject to immigration enforcement actions while the government continues hashing out how to handle cases like his, who were brought to the U.S. against their will as kids and have lived most of their lives on American soil.

But our politicians have made no progress whatsoever on this issue since 2012, though they came very close in 2024 with a bipartisan immigration reform bill that included a pathway to citizenship for some DACA recipients. That legislation was tanked by Republican lawmakers at Donald Trump’s behesthowever, because he wanted to be able to run for President on immigration issues and feared the bill would help the Biden Administration’s reelection chances.

The 2024 bill is just the latest in a decades-long series of attempts to, solve the border crisis, figure out what to do with the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants already here, and to do so without destroying the economy that relies not only upon the cheap labor undocumented immigrants provide but the nearly $100 billion in taxes the undocumented pay every year, contrary to popular belief.

Deporting them all is not even logistically possible in the first place, nor is it economically viable, which is why Trump briefly backed off his own immigration actions after outcry from business owners in the agricultural, construction, and hospitality industries that heavily rely upon immigrant labor. He has since reversed that pause.

In any case, this decades-long immigration debate has created situations like Miguel’s. This is a man who has been here for 25 years, is married to an American, has two American children, owns two American businesses, employs six people and pays gobs of taxes because of it — all while being forced to watch over his shoulder because the path to citizenship is so incredibly narrow and takes years, if not decades, to complete.

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The immigrant has spent 8 years and $20,000 trying to become a citizen, a process he’s had to pause in order to stay safe.

When Contreras and his wife married in 2017, he began a different immigration process in which his wife could petition for him to have permanent residency and then eventually citizenship. Eight years and $20,000 in attorney and immigration fees later, they have essentially gotten nowhere, because citizenship via marriage requires immigration into the country via a legal point of entry. Contreras doesn’t have that, through no fault of his own.

The process requires him to basically immigrate again. That means going back to Mexico, requesting legal entry, then being interviewed at a U.S. consulate in Mexico. He had been waiting for that interview to be scheduled since 2017. He finally received a slot in April, but his wife is now pregnant with their third child.

Due to the Trump Administration’s immigration actions, he is afraid that if he leaves, he will never be allowed to come back, despite following the rules. That’s what happened earlier this year to Evenezer Cortez Martínezwho was granted legal authorization to leave the country and return, only to be deported when he arrived back at the U.S. border.

“I didn’t want to leave the country and get stuck in Mexico and leave my pregnant wife here with my two children, so we decided to postpone (the interview),” Contreras said. So now, once again, he continues to wait in limbo with no legal status.

He argued any parent would do what his parents did for him, whether it was legal or not.

“I think it’s super important for people to not dehumanize immigrants,” Contreras said. “We are human beings just like you. We have the same basic fundamental needs, which should help you have more compassion and empathy for these people.”

He went on to say what should be obvious: His parents may have broken the law 25 years ago, but any parent in their shoes would have done the same thing to protect their kids. “What would you do if your child was hungry, if your child was in danger, if you felt like you could not provide them a better life?” Contreras asked. Given the incredibly stringent and expensive requirements for legal immigration to the U.S., most don’t remotely qualify.

Jenari | Shutterstock

“Desperate people do what they have to do,” Contreras pointedly said, and so would you, if you were in their shoes. Part of the reason most of us don’t face that desperation is that the American economy is kept afloat by the extraordinarily cheap labor provided by immigrants.

The inconsistency of it all is nearly as astonishing as the cruelty, but if there’s one thing about America, it’s that we always have to learn everything the hard way.

If you’d like to help immigrant communities being impacted by deportation, you can do so here.

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John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.