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A Time to Dream

Undocumented youth in the US are growing determined that their presence will be seen and their voices heard

Amitava Kumar

01 September 2012

Protestors in front of the White House in June this year rally in support of the DREAM Act, which protects illegal immigrants under the age of 30, without criminal records, from deportation.

DANIEL C. BRIT / THE WASHINGTON POST / GETY IMAGES

Protestors in front of the White House in June this year rally in support of the DREAM Act, which protects illegal immigrants under the age of 30, without criminal records, from deportation.

DANIEL C. BRIT / THE WASHINGTON POST / GETY IMAGES

WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?

Rather, what would Jesus do if he were without papers in the United States of America?

I asked myself this question after talking to a young man born in Mexico, with a fuzzy beard and a soft innocence about him. He had told me that his name was Jesus. He caught my attention because he was wearing a blue T-shirt with the following words imprinted in white across the chest: “I AM UN.DOC.U.MENT.ED.”

Amitava Kumar is a professor of English at Vassar College in upstate New York, USA. His latest book, The Lovers: A Novel, is forthcoming from Aleph Book Company.

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