The DREAMers are the safe ones, right? It's okay to advocate for the DREAMers because they're the English-speaking, college-educated ones, right? It's so interesting that I set out to document DREAMers, but what I ended up doing was actually documenting the experience of, the reality and truth of, the moms and the parents.

I always felt like I had the word "illegal" tattooed on my forehead.

I'm not excusing the illegal act. I am here illegally. I'm here illegally, without authorization. That's a fact. That's nothing you can call the Orwellian cops about. But I am a human being, so therefore I am not illegal. That's also a fact.

A friend said to me I'm like a walking New Yorker article. It's true! That's how I write. That's how I think.

America is White and Black and Latino and Asian. America is mixed. America is immigrants.

Film, as any immigrant will tell you, television and movies is the way we make sense of America when we first got here.

I got here when I was 12, I found out I was undocumented when I was 16, I became a journalist when I was 17, and all I ever did was write other stories to run away from myself.