My parents\u00a0have sacrificed a lot for my family and me, from trying to put food on the table to making sure I get enough sleep for school the next day. Growing up, I haven\u2019t really been\u00a0separated\u00a0from them\u2014unless, I would have a trip for one week or three days somewhere but other than that, no. One week, cannot compare to months. <\/p>\n
One time I was left behind here on\u00a0Saipan\u00a0while both of my parents left for the Philippines to get their papers fixed. We weren\u2019t sure when they would come back or how long it will take. I was left behind with my older sister. Usually when I\u2019m home or get home, she isn\u2019t around because either she is at work or school, or I\u2019m either at dance practice or school. It wasn\u2019t easy. Trying to stay positive on my own and wondering if your parents are okay over there. <\/p>\n
Which brings me to the issue that I truly dislike and wish more people of the\u00a0CNMI would pay more attention and open their hearts to\u2014the CW situation. To others it may not be much but for me, it takes away all I have. <\/p>\n
Growing up, my mom and dad had jobs. We never really worried about anything. But now we fear being taken away from each other, what we would eat the\u00a0next day, what are we going to do, etc.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My parents aren\u2019t U.S citizens but I am. It is difficult for them to get jobs unless this piece of paper approves it so. It has transformed the life we had, filled\u00a0with peace and freedom, to one filled with fear and stress. It sucks that we cannot just allow \u201cimmigrants\u201d to freely work for a better life for their family. It sucks that people forget sometimes they\u2019re human too and that they\u2019re just trying to help their family. It sucks that many don\u2019t realize how blessed they are to be called \u201cU.S. citizens\u201d; they take everything\u00a0for granted. <\/p>\n
Not only does this issue affect my family but so many of my friends\u2019 families. We wish we could give our parents, siblings, or other people \u201cU.S citizenship\u201d for a gift. I truly just wish we could all just leave contract workers as they are and live their life. They haven\u2019t done anything wrong but lived and served. Yet people treat them like dirt just because they are \u201cimmigrants.\u201d <\/p>\n
I\u2019m tired of having my parents worry about this when they shouldn\u2019t be. I\u2019m tired of seeing my parents act like it\u2019s okay all the time when it\u2019s not.\u00a0I\u2019m tired of people focusing on marijuana or pot when there are families out there worrying about this situation.\u00a0Yes, they could just make their children follow them to their home countries but it will not be easy for us. And that they want what is best for us even if\u00a0it means leaving us behind.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Raina Avelino<\/strong> My parents\u00a0have sacrificed a lot for my family and me, from trying to put food…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[26,21,67,63],"class_list":["post-285371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters-to-the-editor","tag-cnmi","tag-life","tag-people","tag-philippines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285371\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nChinatown<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"