My Father the Alien

Growing up in Middle of Nowhere, PA a lot of people looked at my father differently. All of my friends' dads had blonde hair, blue eyes and had "normal names" like John or Mike. Whereas my dad was Aurelio Castilla, the guy with tan skin and a thick accent. I quickly became accustomed to explaining that he was from Colombia where everyone spoke Spanish and the sun shines all the time. One day a little boy who lived in my neighborhood overheard his parents discussing my father's "alien status" which led us to believe that my father was a Martian.As children we were completely unaccustomed to the ideas of green cards, and legal aliens.
It's apparent in today's society that a majority of American adults are foreign to these ideas as well. With the recent influx of illegal immigrants from Mexico and other countries, Americans often wonder why if these people claim to be so innocent and hardworking why they don't just come over here legally. Although there are a variety of ways for one to become "legal" through visas, citizenship, etc it is not as easy as many think. The process takes a lot of money and time, two things that people who are struggling to survive do not have.
This paper is not meant to condone illegal immigration. Its purpose is to make the average Joe understand a little bit more about the difficulties the immigration process entails.