Thursday, October 20, 2005

Homeland Security

Here's a story about one of my students who the Department of Homeland Security is trying to deport. It's total bullshit. The students are worried about sending the family back to Mexico, where they have absolutely nothing. They should also be worried about no justice in America, or the bullshit that passes for justice. You'll notice the news uses words like "illegal" and "smuggle" when they should be using words like "undocumented," "crossing the border" and "paper work bullshit."

The good news, as you can see by the update, is that the deportation has been delayed by a judge. But keep the mom in your prayers. She's still in INS detention. She's a sweet, hard working lady, and her son is a good kid.

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Anyway, it reminds me of when Grandma Rosa asked me to take her to Immigration to renew her green card, which had been expired for THREE YEARS. She said we should be there at 10. So we showed up at Immigration at 10, and I thought, cool, we'll go to lunch, and then back home, and I can have the afternoon.

Of course, Immigration doesn't work that way, we showed up at 10 and at quarter to 4 they called grandma's number. The officer just wanted to get Grandma processed; but of course Grandma turned on the grandma charm. "Please don't deport me! John, do not let them deport me!" I was a little confused be her behavior, because the dude was just asking for info.

"Nobody is going to deport you, Rosa", says the officer.

"OH! Bless you! God bless you!" says grandma, laughing, smiling, and patting his hand.

I wonder why it was me that she asked to take her to INS. When I found out that her paperwork was so long expired, I wondered if they were going to take her into custody. I didn't know. Certainly one of her sons would have put up a bigger fight to keep her out of detention. I should have been more worried.

2 comments:

Micaela said...

American Grandson. They would have listened to your American English more and besides, even if you weren't worried, you would have put up a fight.

Grandma was thinking of the best way to work the puti.

bitchphd said...

That poor family, jesus that sucks. I'll be thinking of them and hoping they somehow manage to avoid deportation.