I am in the U.S. on a legal visa, and I come from one of the countries often accused of having mostly undocumented immigrants in the U.S. Whatever I might think

I am in the U.S. on a legal visa, and I come from one of the countries often accused of having mostly undocumented immigrants in the U.S. Whatever I might think of the legal immigration process, I would never be able to put up with what an undocumented immigrant needs to put up with, even in S.F. Let's see: You can't work for any large employer, as e-verify will likely catch you or else you will have to resort to organized crime to borrow someone's identity, at a price. You will not be able to travel, let alone internationally, but not even out of the city, without putting yourself at risk. Even staying put and the city being a sanctuary city doesn't prevent you from looking over your shoulder your entire life, because an ICE agent might still decide to deport you with or without cooperation from the local police. If you are ever detained under suspicious of a crime, however minor (speeding, jaywalking), you could be deported, even in a sanctuary city. A speeding ticket is an inconvenience for most people I know, but for an undocumented worker it can mean losing a life that they have built over 20+ years. It is literally signing up for being a second class person in a place where your entire life can be upended without notice and where your ability to plan your life or move around is severely limited. People like me put up with the legal visa process, but I would never put up with what the undocumented population goes through. I have plenty of options that would be more attractive to me than doing that, both in my country of origin and elsewhere around the world. The reason they put up with that? In many cases they are running away from actual life-threatening violence and destitution caused by a drug of wars fought with American weapons over access to the American drug-consumers market (because, yeah, that whole narrative of "they have a lot of problems and they are bringing them here!" fails to account that a lot of those problems exist only due to proximity and relations with the U.S., even when they are not a matter of official U.S. policy).