Undocumented - illegal immigration in NYC

Mimi does Manhattan

Blogger by day, stripper by night, Mimi Feo struggles to make it big in New York without a visa.

Melanie Brooks

Mimi Feo could very well be New York’s most famous illegal immigrant. She is svelte with blond hair and big blue eyes. She gives off the impression of warmth and friendliness along with the feeling that she could rip you to shreds with her quick tongue and killer vocabulary. She is adventurous and independent, which makes for an intoxicating cocktail.

Since her arrival onto American soil in February 2005, Mimi has been keeping a blog to chronicle her adventures in New York called Mimi in New York. Along with raunchy tales of blowjobs, strip clubs, and drunken nights with friends, Mimi in New York is also home to a long list of immigration issues activist groups ranging from The ACLU to the UCSIS. This sassy British chick offers readers hilarious stories about her nightlife and roommates, but she also offers a light in the dark for other illegal immigrants trying to make it in New York City.

Mimi in New York has earned Mimi fame in the New York blogger world as well as a proposition to appear on the O’Reilly Factor and an August 7th story in The New York Times. Blogs are all the buzz and Mimi works hard to push her name through the World Wide Web to gain readers and fans. Mimi has capitalized on her unique situation and has over 1000 readers on her site everyday.

“Freelance journalist Mimi Feo is in serious danger of becoming New York's Next Big Thing,” reports Jemima Kiss on journalism.co.uk, “The Essential Site for Journalists.”

As an undocumented worker with the wrong kind of visa, Mimi constantly looks over her shoulder in fear. If she gets deported she will be unable to return to the U.S. for 10 years.

Luckily her managers at the upscale Manhattan strip club where she works four to five shifts a week haven’t looked too closely at her fake social security card and botched work papers.

Mimi fell into stripping by accident. Looking for a story idea to pitch to a paper, Mimi applied for a job as a cocktail waitress to collect information for a story. With money tight, Mimi started dancing.

“Blog and Grind” written by New York Times journalist Paul Berger follows Mimi around Flash Dancers – a gentleman’s club in Times Square. Capturing the essence of Mimi, Berger writes, “Mimi is still a writer at heart, but her body is now devoted to the dance. She is dressed in a body-hugging, full-length stripper gown and armed with an acid retort for every smart-aleck remark.”

Because of this article, Mimi’s cover was blown and she was fired from Flash Dancers.

According to Mimi it’s easier for non-documented citizens to work in a strip club than in a really good restaurant, like Pastis and Balthazar, where wait staff earn big tips, too. Strip clubs are more worried that the girls are over the age of 18 than they are if they have legal papers, so Mimi serves up lap dances so she can pay the rent and buy groceries.

“Some might say I've earned my just rewards. Impending deportation for being cheeky enough to go undercover and find out exactly how hard it is to become an illegal in New York. My oh-so-glamorous existence,” Mimi writes.

After graduating from England’s Cambridge University in 2000, Mimi decided against moving to London a finding a job like most of her classmates. She spent the next five years working and traveling through places like Argentina, Prague, Germany, France, Spain, Costa Rica, Oregon, and the Caribbean Islands.

“Traveling is hard. It's addictive. You go to one place, make new friends, start learning a new language and culture, you thirst for more. You give up your friends and family and support system, and live on your wits alone. It's an adrenalin rush. You answer to nobody. You suffer the bliss of permanent nostalgia, memories and tinges of places you've been, places you've yet to go,” writes Mimi.

After a job fell through in a Guatemala avocado farm, Mimi headed back to London to get over her “quarter-life-crisis” and get serious about settling down and finding stable work. But Mimi bailed on an interview and instead packed her bags for New York.

Getting a work visa proved to be too difficult and a Fulbright scholarship failed to materialize. She saved enough money to prove to the INS that she could support herself in the U.S. on a 6-month travel visa, and hopped on a plane.

Within weeks of her arrival she sold two stories to the Village Voice: “How to be an Illegal Alien” and “London Snog.” However, because of her un-documented status, she is still awaiting payment - seven months later. Desperate she used a fake social security card to land a job at an ad agency – but her illegal status didn’t go over well and she didn’t last long.

She started working at Flash Dancers and earned $1,000 to $1,500 a week. After being fired over the Times article, Mimi was forced to find a new club that would take her fake papers. Her new job is at a very upscale club in Manhattan. The vibe is different, however, and she earns about half as much as she used to.

But Mimi has something most other illegal immigrants don’t.

“As soon as you have a British accent no one thinks you’re illegal,” Mimi says. “They think you’re educated.”

Even when Mimi hears a coworker in the club with a labored accent she automatically thinks, “she doesn’t have her papers.” It’s a bias that is all too true in America today.

To help make ends meet she networks with other bloggers and relies on friends from back home. A graphic designer friend fashioned her fake social security card and occasionally takes her out to eat. He even bought her the sweatshirt she has on.

Mimi also comes from a supportive background. She grew up in Wales with her parents and four siblings. Her brother married an American and works in Oregon as a nurse. Her father is a retired doctor living with her mother in rural Spain. She has a degree from one of the most prestigious colleges in the world. But she’s never been spoiled. She says that though she is happy with the way her parents raised her, she longs for the kind of financial security, and sometimes parent pampering, like her British friends have here in the states.

“New York is the place where you go and get what you need. I don’t want to grow old here.”

Mimi has the luxury of only having to worry and support herself while in the U.S. Unlike many immigrants, she doesn’t have to send money back home or save money to bring over other family members. She’s not escaping oppression or seeking asylum in America, she’s only looking to write and share her experiences with others. If she gets sick, she can call her brother for medical advice.

Mimi took September off from stripping to work on a book proposal built from her blog. It’s an arduous process and she doesn’t know when a decision will be made. If her book proposal doesn’t come through, Mimi doubts she’ll stay in the U.S. much longer.

At the end of September Mimi was approved for a media visa. She now has a bit of security and can come and go from the U.S. as she pleases for the next five years. The hitch is that during that time she isn’t allowed to earn money from a full time job at an American company. Although she is no longer living illegally in the U.S., her financial situation keeps her on her toes.

Her only goal, besides writing, is to achieve some sort of financial security so she can stop working in the strip club and depending on her fake papers to get her by. She doesn’t need much to live off of; everything she has here in the states could fit into a large suitcase.

“In New York, you don't travel, the traveling comes to you in the huge breadth of people and cultures living on top of one another in uneasy co-existence. And it feels like somewhere I can say something in a more useful way than anywhere else,” she writes.