So, Ma was trying to explain something to me about Grandma and when they grew up,
有天，我妈试着向我解释关于外婆以及她们成长时代的事，
but I couldn't pay attention to her because I was five years old, and I was petrified.
但我无法专心听她说，因为我才五岁，而且吓坏了。
I had just seen The Green Lady. Now, about a week earlier, I'd watched that movie "Godzilla,"
我刚刚看了《绿衣女子》。大约一周前我才刚看了电影《哥斯拉》，
the one about that huge lizard-like beast storming a major city,
内容是一只像蜥蜴的巨兽猛攻大城市，
and the thought of a green monster coming for me was stuck in my mind.
一只绿色怪物前来抓我的想法定格在我脑海里。
And yet there I was, at the tip of Lower Manhattan with my mom, just staring at her:
当时我和妈妈在曼哈顿的下城区，我直直盯着她看：
her horns, her muscles -- all of it just frightened me.
她头上的角，她的肌肉--我被这一切给吓坏了。
And I didn't know whether she was a monster or a hero.
那时我不知道她是怪兽还是英雄。
So I decided to consult the Google of the day -- "Ma! Ma!"
所以我决定问当时的谷歌大神-- “妈！妈！”
My mother explained that The Green Lady is actually the Statue of Liberty and that she was waving immigrants in.
我妈妈解释说，绿衣女子其实是自由女神，她在挥手，欢迎移民入境。
Now, the part of her explanation that really messed with my young head was the fact that, according to Ma, long before us,
她的部分解释混淆了我年幼的脑袋，那部分就是，根据妈妈的说法，远在我们之前，
The Green Lady was actually brown, brown like me, and that she changed colors over the years, much like America.
绿衣女子其实是褐色的，像我一样的褐色。多年来她改变了颜色，就像美国一样。
Now, the part that really is intriguing about this is that when she changed colors, she made me think about myself.
这说法最发人深省的部分是：她变了颜色让我想到我自己。
It all made sense to me, because as a first-generation American, I was surrounded by immigrants.
那对我来说是合理的，因为身为第一代的美国人，我身边都是移民朋友。
In fact, within my immediate social circle of the people who support me, who enrich my life, at least two are foreign-born.
事实上，在我最接近的社交圈中，支持我、丰富我人生的人，至少有两人是在国外出生的。
My life as a US citizen is in many ways shaped by newcomers, and chances are, so is yours.
我的美国公民生活在许多方面是由新移民所形塑出来的；很有可能你也一样。
There are more than 40 million immigrants in the USA.
美国有超过四千万移民。
According to census data, a quarter of the nation's children have at least one foreign-born parent.
根据人口普查资料显示，四分之一的美国孩童至少有一位家长出生于国外。
I know all these statistics because I study global migration patterns.
会知道这些统计数据是因为我研究全球移民人口的迁移模式。
I'm a journalist, and for the last few years, I've been documenting the lives of US citizens who've lost people to deportation.
我是个记者，过去几年间，我一直在记录亲人被驱逐出境的美国公民生活，
And the numbers are enormous.
这类人的人数相当多。
From 2008 to 2016, more than three million people were "ordered removed" -- that's the technical term for being deported.
从2008年到2016年，超过三百万人被“强制移除”--那个技术名词的意思是驱逐出境。
There is an economic, a political, a psychological and an emotional cost to those deportations the moments when these circles are broken.
一旦这些人熟悉的生活圈遭到破坏，他们的经济圈、政治圈、心理状况及情绪上都得付出相当大的代价。
I once asked a US soldier, "Why did you volunteer to fight this war?"
我曾经问过一名美国大兵：“为什么你要自愿从军去打这场仗？”
And she told me, "Because I'm proud to defend my country."
她告诉我：“因为我很自豪能够防卫我的国家。”
But I pressed to know -- "Really, when you're on base, and you hear bombs exploding in the distance,
但我追问：“说真的，当你在基地里，听见远处有炸弹爆炸，
and you see soldiers coming back who are gravely injured, in that moment,
看到身受重伤的士兵回来，在那一刻，
when you know you could be next, what does 'my country' mean?"
当你知道下一个可能就是你的时候，“我的国家”的意义是什么？”
She looked at me. "My country is my wife, my family, my friends, my soldiers."
她看着我：“我的国家是我的妻子、我的家庭、我的朋友、我的士兵。”
What she was telling me is that "my country" is a collection of these strong relationships; these social circles.
她在告诉我的是，“我的国家”是所有这些坚固关系的总体；这些社交圈的总体。
When the social circles are weakened, a country itself is weaker.
当社交圈弱化的时候，国家本身也会变弱。
We're missing a crucial aspect in the debate about immigration policy.
在辩论移民政策的时候，我们都忽略了这个关键的方面。
Rather than focusing on individuals, we should focus on the circles around them,
别把焦点放在个人身上，而应该把焦点放在他们周围的圈子，
because these are the people who are left behind: the voters, the taxpayers, the ones who are suffering that loss.
因为这些是被留下来的人：这些选民、纳税人、这些饱受痛苦的人。
And it's not just the children of the deported who are impacted.
并不只有被驱逐者的孩子受到冲击。
You have brothers and sisters who are separated by borders.
还有兄弟姐妹被国界分开的。
You have classmates, teachers, law enforcement officers, technologists, scientists, doctors,
还有同学、老师、执法人员、技术专家、科学家和医生，
who are all scrambling to make sense of new realities when their social circles are broken.
当社交圈被打破时，他们都在仓促地在混乱中试着为新的现实找出意义。
These are the real lives behind all these statistics that dominate discussions about immigration policy.
这些人都是统计数据背后的真实生命，这些数据主导着我们的移民政策。

But we don't often think about them. And I'm trying to change that.
但我们通常不会想到他们。我在试着改变这一点。
Here's just one of the real-life stories that I've collected. And it still haunts me.
以下是我所收集到的真实人生故事当中的一个。它仍然萦绕在我心头。
I met Ramon and his son in 2016, the same year both of them were being ordered out of the country.
我在2016年见到拉蒙和他的儿子，同年，他们两人都被下令要离开美国。
Ramon was being deported to Latin America, while his son, who was a sergeant in the US military, was being deployed.
拉蒙被驱逐到拉丁美洲，他的儿子是美国陆军的中士，被部署到国外。
Deported ... deployed. If you just look at Ramon's case, it wouldn't be clear how deeply connected to the country he is.
一个被驱逐...一个被部署。如果你只看拉蒙的个案，不太容易知道他和这个国家的关联有多深。
But consider his son: a US citizen defending a country that's banished his father. The social circle is what's key here.
但想想他的儿子：一个美国公民在保卫这个驱逐他父亲的国家。这里的关键就是社交圈。
Here's another example that illustrates those critical bonds.
还有另外一个例子能描绘这关键的关联。
A group of citizens in Philadelphia were concerned about their jobs,
有一群费城的公民很关心他们的工作，
because the legal owner of the restaurant where they worked was an undocumented immigrant,
他们为一间餐厅工作，而餐厅的法定所有人是没有合法文件的移民，
and immigration officials had picked him up. They rallied behind him.
而移民局的官员已经来把他带走了。他们团结起来支持他。
An immigration lawyer argued he was too important to the local community to be deported.
移民律师的主张是，他对当地社区而言太重要，因此不能被驱逐。
At the hearing, they even submitted restaurant reviews -- restaurant reviews!
在听证会上，他们甚至呈上了餐厅的评价--餐厅的评价！
In the end, a judge exercised what's called "judicial discretion" and allowed him to stay in the country,
最终，法官行使所谓的“司法裁量权”，允许他留在美国，
but only because they considered the social circle.
只因为他们考量了社交圈。
There are 23 million noncitizens in the USA, according to verifiable federal data.
美国有2300万名非本国公民，数字来源是已被验证的联邦政府资料。
And that doesn't include the undocumented, because numbers for that population are at best complex estimates.
这还没包括没有证明文件的人，因为政府的复杂数字只是最保守的估计。
Let's just work with what we have.
我们就用手边有的资料来谈。
That's 23 million social circles -- about 100 million individuals whose lives could be impacted by deportation.
2300万个社交圈--大约一亿人的生活会受到驱逐的冲击。
And the stress of it all is trickling down through the population.
而它造成的压力在这个人群中慢慢向下移动着。
A 2017 poll by UCLA of LA County residents found that 30 percent of citizens in LA County are stressed about deportation,
加州大学洛杉矶分校在2017年针对洛杉矶居民进行了一项民调，发现有30%的洛杉矶公民对驱逐感到有压力，
not because they themselves could be removed, but rather, because members of their social circle were at risk.
并不是因为他们自己本身会被赶走，而是因为他们的社交圈成员会有危险。
I am not suggesting that no one should ever be deported; don't confuse me with that.
我并不是说没有人应该被驱逐；别误解我的意思。
But what I am saying is that we need to look at the bigger picture.
我的意思是，在看这类情况时要把眼光放得更远。
If you are within the sound of my voice, I want you to close your eyes for a moment and examine your own social circle.
如果你们听到我在说什么，我想请你们闭上眼睛一会儿，检视一下自己的社交圈。
Who are your foreign-born? What would it feel like if the circle were broken?
圈中谁是在国外出生的？如果这个圈子被打破，会是什么感觉？
Share your story. I'm building a global archive of first-person accounts and linking them with mapping technology,
分享你的故事。我在建立一个第一人称故事的全球资料库，并用地图模式技术来关联这些故事，
so that we can see exactly where these circles break, because this is not just an American issue.
让我们能清楚看见这些圈子是从何处破裂的，因为这不只是美国的议题。
There are a quarter-billion migrants around the world; people living, loving and learning in countries where they were not born.
全世界有2.5亿移民；他们在不是自己出生的国家居住、付出爱和学习。
And in my career, in my life, I've been one of them: in China, in Africa, in Europe.
在职业生涯、人生中，我也曾是其中一员：在中国、在非洲、在欧洲。
And each time I become one of these foreigners -- one of these strange-looking guys in a new land
每当我持着外国人的身份，是新地方里一个外表奇特的家伙时，
I can't help but think back to that day when I was in Lower Manhattan with my mom all those decades ago,
就忍不住会回想起我和妈妈在曼哈顿下城区的那一天，那是几十年前了，
when I was scared, and I had just spotted that green lady.
我很害怕，刚刚见识了自由女神。
And I guess the question that I keep on thinking about when I see her and all the younger replicas of her that are so obviously brown,
猜想在我见过她后一直在思考的问题：虽然早期她的复制品都是褐色的，
and even the paintings that showcase her in the beginning as not quite green
甚至一些展示柜里的图画作品也没那么绿，
when I look at all of that, the question that my research seeks to answer becomes, to me,
当我看着这一切，我寻求解答的问题变成了
the same one that confounded me all those years ago: Is she a monster or a hero? Thank you.
是多年前让我迷惘的同一问题：她是怪兽？还是英雄？谢谢。