You know a family that lives up the block. You aren’t personal friends but when you see each other you exchange pleasantries. They have small children and appear to be as normal as anyone else. They are dark skinned and you assume they are Mexicans but they could be another Latino nationality. It doesn’t really matter. Their yard is tidy. They appear to work hard. The children are well-behaved and play youth soccer, the father coaches. They already lived here when you moved in.
One day you see a lot of commotion near their house. There are police cars and a white panel truck with the letters I.C.E., Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The scene, reminiscent of a movie, shows large men dressed in full combat gear: helmets, armor, weapons drawn. I expect to hear helicopters overhead. Then this tiny dark skinned man, the soccer coach, is taken out of his house in handcuffs while his wife is pleading and two children remain on the porch, crouching in fear.
Now you realize what is happening. This is not a movie. This is all too real. This man who has lived in your neighborhood more than 20 years, raised his children here, runs his own successful business, he is being arrested for being undocumented. They say he will be deported.
When you see it happening, is your first reaction to go and try and stop it? But what can you do? You can’t rescue him, you can’t argue with the police. So, you do nothing. You say nothing. Do you start to rationalize? “Well, why didn’t he register? He’s been here long enough to become a citizen. We can’t let just anybody come into this country.”
Is this how non-Jewish Germans acted? Upset, but unwilling to do anything? It’s not the same. Is it?
I think most of us want an immigration program that is fair. We are a country of immigrants. But breaking up families, that doesn’t seem right. Why remove a mother from her family? Why close a successful business that employs people just because the owner was unable to pursue the necessary paperwork to become a citizen?
What about veterans? Geez, shouldn’t anyone who served in our armed forces be given a true path to citizenship if not outright citizenship? They risk their lives for our security and now we can arrest and deport them.
Rounding up people and deporting them is inhumane and simply disgusting. What type of people are we that we can treat others in this fashion? Do we as a culture have no decency?
Also, why is there a distinct racial tone to all these deportations? Why are only brown people being corralled? I have seen no stories of raids on Irish or Australian hangouts. Have there been any sweeps of the Russian neighbors? I can guarantee that there are more non-Mexican illegal immigrants in this country than illegal Mexican immigrants. Where are any of those arrests?
It’s all very unsettling. Watching people being herded and shipped off is disgusting and brings to mind the worst of human nature.
We as a nation should be ashamed, ashamed of where we have come, ashamed of who we have put in positions of power, ashamed that we are becoming — the silent acceptors of these evil deeds.
Gabriel A. Fraire has been a writer more than 45 years. He can be reached through his website at: www.gabrielfraire.com.
