A New Jersey Rapper Shares his Immigration Status

By
Andy Mai
WNYC News | Mar 26, 2019

Alexis Torres Machado was only five when his family left Uruguay and moved to Newark. His parents told him he was undocumented when he was 11.

Machado, 23, is now a senior at Rutgers University-Newark on a full scholarship. He says he was inspired to go public about his immigration status this way because of negative rhetoric about immigrants coming from President Trump. But his parents initially didn't support the decision.

"They were concerned for themselves and they were concerned for me too because at that time when I was releasing things, there was talk about DREAMers being deported or DREAMers being detained," said Machado. "It was just a scary time."

He wears his identity proudly now, and wants immigrants to know they're not alone.

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Andy Mai

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