A common image that comes to mind of an “illegal” immigrant is someone from Mexico trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border on the top of a train or hidden in a car. Thanks to the seemingly unending discussion of immigration in modern politics, this is the image that the U.S. government has ingrained into our heads. Both the current administration and media have made it seem as if there are masses of Mexican immigrants trying to cross the border every day- the increasing and growing issue of Mexican immigrants.

Disclaimer: For the rest of this article, I will be using the term “unauthorized” instead of “illegal” since the latter is both inaccurate and dehumanizing.

In reality, however, there are actually more Mexican immigrants leaving the U.S. than coming in. Overall, there has been a decrease in the number of unauthorized immigrants according to the Pew Research Center. Quite the opposite of the story that is told by the Trump administration and the media.

Have I started to alter your image of “illegal” immigration yet?

Depending on what type of visas you are including in the data, anywhere from 35 to 50 percent of unauthorized immigrants are people who came into the U.S. legally and overstayed their visas. In fact, overstaying one’s visa is not a criminal offense. This brings more nuance to the perception of immigration and shows the inaccuracy of the moniker “illegal.” It is the trap of a monolith; we assume that unauthorized immigrants are a uniform mass while at the same time, dehumanizing them.

Here is the final correction to this image of “illegal” immigration. Asian immigrants have and continue to outnumber Hispanic immigrants. They are projected to become the largest immigrant group in the U.S. by 2055.

Why such the focus on Mexican immigrants then? Partly because of the model minority myth. According to this theory, Asian-Americans have long been touted as “model minorities” because they educate themselves and work hard to move up in society. Therefore, other people of color are disparaged and deprived of assistance because they “should just work hard.” Never mind the fact that privilege is not acknowledged in this point of view. This is problematic because it focuses on individual ability and largely ignores the structural factors that prevent other POC such as blacks and hispanics from economic and social mobility. People simply do not care about the influx of Asian immigrants because they are more positively viewed in the U.S.

Now when you think of an “illegal” immigrant, what image comes to mind? Hopefully it is not the same one that was mentioned at the beginning of this article. In shattering misheld perceptions, I hope that you are piecing back together an image of immigration that reflects the diversity and nuance of humankind, not the monolith that many would like you to believe. Let us not forget that in the end, no qualifier such as “illegal” or “alien” can take away the humanity of people in the hopes of a brighter future.