To whom it may concern,

I am a Brazilian citizen who immigrated to United States in 2006 when I was in my early 20's. At that time, i had an adventurous spirit of discovering a new world and looking for new opportunities for my future, aways focusing in having a better life than the one i had in Brazil. In fact, i never had a bad life in Brazil before I decided to go to US, but something inside was telling me that i needed to go somewhere else and try a better life, that was the time to do so. A lot of people, especially people from my family, were against my decision because I gave up on college, friends, family and everything else to go by myself to a new world. I started researching everything about the US and how to get a student visa so I could get in legally and start things the right way. Once i got there, i was amazed with how different things were when comparing it to Brazil. In the beginning, what caught my attention the most was the infra-structure of the cities and how well educated and kind american people were ( I grew up the idea that american people were rude and selfish, specially with foreign people). It was just a matter of time and I started to admire the american culture in many different aspects. When I left Brazil, I had a girlfriend and I kept in touch with her all the time. Initially, she thought that I wouldn't stay long in US, but after some time she realized that I was really enjoying my life there and wasn't coming back. Then, she decided to go to US to stay with me so I helped he getting her student visa and she joined me. At that time, my visa was already expired and i was just another illegal immigrant in the US. I worked in restaurants, cleaned houses during the day and restaurants at night. When my girlfriend got there, she started to work as a house cleaner and I started to work fixing computers and setting up and small networks. After some time, I found myself really into in the IT business and realized that i really liked it so I started to study a lot, i was improving day by day, focusing in Networking, Telephony, Databases, Etc... I was starting my career in the IT business without even noticing it. Something else that i noticed immediately, was that most immigrants(Brazilians, Mexicans, etc.. ) they aways wanted to be all the time around themselves

to work, to have fun end for everything else; and because of that they live their lives just like they would do it in their country. Most of them don't even speak english after many years of living in America. I aways tried to do things opposite way. We always lived in places around american people, i became fluent in english after about 1 and 1/2 years, my customers were most Americans, my girlfriend's customers were all american, I have been to New York, California, Philadelphia, Chicago, DC, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Miami, Fort Lauderdale and other cities in US. So We were literally living our life as American citizens. We were really happy and enjoying our lives at that time, and that was when the economy went bad, we were financially affected, but not a lot. The government started to put some pressure on immigrants with new laws, restricting policies for drivers licenses, and making things harder for illegal immigrants in some aspects. A lot of illegal immigrants started to go back to their country. Some because they couldn't handle that pressure and were constantly scared of the police, others because they were no longer making enough money to have a good life there and it would make more sense to go back "home". During that period, my girlfriend gave me some unexpected news... She was pregnant. It really motivated me in all aspects, I aways dreamed of being a father and I really wanted to be a good father and give my best to my family. After about 9 weeks pregnant, she was having severe cramp and the doctors said that she needed to rest otherwise she could loose the baby. I asked her to quit work and stay home and i would work and make money by myself. I was initially a little worried about it but I worked really hard and got some new clients and was able to make about 3000 to 4000 a month. That was enough for us to live in a nice place, have a good car and live our lives decently. Our baby was born in 2009 at the Broward Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale. And that was also something that amazed me about US... We were a couple, illegal immigrants, and the US gave us all assistance we needed during the pre-natal, delivery and medical assistance after our baby was born. Everything was new for us, we didn't have any family support... it was just three of us, but fortunately, everything we needed was provided by the US. We made a decision, that my girlfriend

wouldn't work at least during his first year, we wanted to give him as much attention as we could and didn't want to drop him of in a daycare so she could go to work. A that time I was able to handle all our living expenses by myself, and we thought that that was the right thing to do. There was when some problems started.... I started getting worried... The pressure that the immigration enforcement was putting on illegal immigrants started to affect me. I was worried all the time of getting caught and leave my girlfriend and baby unassisted. I wouldn't stop thinking about it and even had bad dreams of it. So I felt that I had to do something else to solve this problem so I started to think about going back to Brazil. That would solve that immigration problem plus my baby would have contact with his whole family, we would have support from family to stay with the baby while we would go for work and study. It sounded like the perfect solution. I started establishing contact with some company, and by influence of family I was invited to be the IT Coordinator of a middle size company in Brazil. I accepted the job offer, and we came back to Brazil. Today, I am being very successful at work, I have a nice salary, my girlfriend is back at college, she will graduate as a Nurse. My baby is doing excellent, close to family, friends, etc. He is a very smart and special boy, and I could say that we have a pretty good life in Brazil today. That was our 5 yeas journey to US. We will be thankful for everything that America has done to us for the rest of our lives. Maybe you didn't understand yet why I am writing all this but I will try to explain:I lived most part of my life in Brazil. As I said at the beginning, I grew up with the idea that American people are rude, selfish and other bad things (this wasn't my fault, It was influence by the Brazilian culture). I spent 5 years of my live living in America, and during that period, I aways had a feeling that I wasn't "home", I aways thought that I would only have that feeling the day when I get back in Brazil. I was totally wrong. After we came back, I realized how the US was important in my life, I was in Brazil, but wasn't feeling like "home"at all. Almost everything bothers me. Especially where I live, people are extremely rude to each other, everyone only think about themselves, the population in general is

extremely selfish. The streets are a mess...., we see people throwing trash out of the cars everywhere, all the time, population is extremely stressed. Corruption is everywhere, the only thing that you hear about in Brazil these days is about the World Cup 2014, the government is spending millions in infrastructure projects everywhere while people are dying everyday unassisted in public hospitals because there are no infra-structure and no enough doctors, the country is not worried about the people, but only about money and marketing. Thats the real life in Brazil, and it goes totally against what i was taught these 5 years in America. I was still a "kid" when i decided to go to US, and there was where I became a man. I want to keep for the rest of my life everything that I have learned in US. Brazil has a lot to learn before it can become a great country to live, I only hope that it changes because I feel really sorry for all brazilian people. I do not regret my decision of coming back, I think that professionally it will be better for my career and also for my wife, as she will became a Nurse in a few years. Those things wouldn't be possible in America as illegal immigrants. And I believe that life is made of different moments where in some of them you have to go against your wishes or thoughts to have a better life in the future, and our moment now is in Brazil. There are two things that I feel really bad being here in Brazil. The fist one is that my baby, an american born citizen, will grow up rounded by this poor Brazilian culture and in one way or another will have influences from it. I hope that someday, we can go back to US, and then my baby will be able to be in touch with his country and culture once again. I will try to get us new visas so we can take him to US at least once a year so he doesn't completely loose contact with his country. In the meantime, we we will do our best to teach him everything we have leaned in america and make him a good person, with principles. The second thing is that today, i find myself in the same situation about the "home"thing... Hoping to, one day, go back to US and feel like being "home" again. Thank you US you everything you have done to my family we will keep that in our hearts forever. Please do not forget how important US can be on life of illegal immigrants.

Thank you.

By A couple of illegal immigrants by law, but american citizens by heart.