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Sometimes things can get so nutty! A couple of years ago our city council passed an ordinance that placed a Federal ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agent in our city jail. So now anyone who is picked up by the police is screened by an ICE agent. You don't have to be convicted or guilty of anything, just brought in for whatever reason and you are screened for documentation. A couple months back a friend of mine refused to sleep with her abusive ex-husband when he brought the rent over. He got angry. She got scared and threw a plate at him. When the police got there he was bleeding and she wasn't so they took her away as the agressor. It didn't seem to matter that he had a history of domestic violence. So my friend spent the night in jail. There were no charges brought against her and the case was dropped. Except then she was on an immigration hold after having been processed through our city jail. So now she is in the process of being deported, in which case her three American citizen children will be left in the custody of their abusive father or child protective services. That all seems pretty straight forward and some would even say it is fair. Technically, the law played out (whether or not it is a just law is another question). Here's where it gets nutty... While our team is trying to get an immigration lawyer on the case I get a phone call from one of our city council members who was a strong proponent of placing the ICE agent in the jail. She is calling to say that she would like to recognize our organization at the next city council meeting with a Proclamation of our valuable community work. The thing is that the woman in the process of being deported is the main force behind our "valuable community work." She rallied the neighbors to open the community center. She is the one who pulls people together to support a neighbor in need. She is the main idea woman behind our community seminars and programs. So I went to the city council meeting to receive an award for my friend's work in the community that she is simultaneously being removed from by the same council's policy. I don't know whether to laugh or scream my head off. Isn't it confusing to celebrate one's work on one hand and then condemn them on the other? It's too nutty. It's too real.
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Comments
Ugh, immigration. Ugh. My case is nothing on the story above, but I sympathize with the complexity and the frustration! I'm an Australian, been living and working here for a non profit for five years. Paying taxes in California and getting a non immigrant work visa renewed every year with much stress and maximal hassle. I recently married an American. That should solve my immigration issues, right? Except that he's been living and working overseas for non profits in places like Tajikistan for the last eight years. When we met, he was living in Papua New Guinea. He quit moved BACK to the US to be with me, and before we can get my "alien spouse" green card (what a lovely term that one is) he must now file an affadavit of support declaring that he can support me financially should I become a delinquent and a burden to the state. Except that, since he quit his job and my income doesn't count, he can't. So, ironically, when my next visa runs out I may get temporarily denied residency AFTER having married a US citizen. Ugh, immigration. Ugh.
I second Lisa's "Ugh immigration ugh!" I just married a non-resident and the road we have in front of us looks more like the thieves forest in The Princess Bridge than the smooth paved highway I had hoped it would be. So yes, "ugh immigration ugh!"
Crissy...you are doing a great work. Keep it up!
It is a confusing issue all around. I think that it's easy to make simplistic answers about immigration until these people become a part of your life, and you realize the humanity in the whole situation (and the lack of humanity in deportation).
Yes. Ugh.