But I came across this piece. I know the immigration problem has many sides and it is complicated with many strong emotions, but this piece seems to narrow down some simple facts ... setting aside the fact we are historically an immigrant nation - unless you are Native American or were just lucky enough to be born here.
Thoughts worth thinking about.
”Post by Wyeth Ruthven
So, I did immigration casework for Senator Fritz Hollings, studied immigration law at law school under a former INS general counsel, and worked for a border Congressman in the district that included the Rio Grande Valley. So hear me out:
1. These people in detention have not committed a crime.
2. I don't mean that in a moral or a figurative sense. I mean literally. It is NOT a crime to ask for asylum.
3. These people didn't jump a fence, they didn't sneak into the back yard. They are knocking on the front door and saying "People are trying to kill me in my home country, will you let me in?"
4. Now, I didn't fall off the turnip truck. Some of these people are lying. That's why you have a hearing. And because they might wander off, these people are held in detention until the hearing.
5. This hearing is NOT in a criminal court. It's in an immigration court. Because these people have not committed a crime.
6. Immigration court is not like criminal court. You don't have a right to an attorney.
7. So these people are waiting around, separated from their children, with no attorney, until they get a hearing.
8. In 2015, the median wait for an immigration hearing was 404 days.
9. Here's where it gets even more twisted.
10. If people plead guilty to asylum fraud, they get their kids back and get deported.
11. So these people knock on the front door, which is perfectly legal, and we take their kids, and tell them the quickest way to get them back is to confess.
12. If someone committed a crime - shoplifting, armed robbery, murder - and you took their kids away to make them confess, that confession would be thrown out.
13. But these confessions are lawful, because this isn't criminal court.
14. Because these people haven't committed a crime.
15. Now some people think that if we make it so unpleasant for these people, they will stop trying to cross the border.
16. But the message this sends isn't "Go Home." The message it sends is "Sneak in."
17. If they go home, they think they will be murdered. If they request asylum, they are separated from their children.
18. If they sneak in successfully, they're safe. If they sneak in and get caught, they are no worse off than if they sought asylum legally.
19. And remember, these people haven't committed a crime.”
11 comments:
It's all so ridiculous. Made even more ridiculous by the President's own (current) wife's entry to America's...history. It infuriates me!
It is easy to forget where one’s family came from apparently.
I read that earlier this week on facebook and thought it a very good list of things to wake people up. This whole thing sickens and disgust me. We really should be better than that. As you said, all of us here, unless native born Americans are here because of immigration. It seems morally wrong to me now that we're here, we're not allowing others to come....we're making it harder for them, we're taking away their children.........with no good plan or record about how to get them rejoined. I've never been more ashamed of things the government has done. We've done things not honorable in the past, but......nowdays, when we are so much more educated, no one can say they didn't know better.
I'm a second generation American and am grateful to all my grandparents for coming to this country. These desperate people deserve the chance to come here and work their way into the American dream. This is a terrible time in this country and I for one am ashamed of it.
I listened to a program on immigration law history on public radio today and learned a lot. We didn't even HAVE a law on immigration until 100 years ago! And "quotas" came well after that. So most of our relatives (my grandparents and great-grandparents; Trump's grandparents) didn't have to go through ANY of this.
P.S. I love your political posts!
I agree wholeheartedly
Thanks, Michelle, I guess. I have never included politics on my blog for the same reason I don't include religion. Just too polarizing. This is only the second post labeled as 'government' since I started in 2010. I have no plans to continue the conversation either since it doesn't really resolve the problem. Only voting will resolve it. Just needed to do a brain dump somewhere.
One funny floated across Facebook:
GOD: "I just got a call from France. They want their statue back."
Funny but mostly sad.
Here's my 2 cents. Having these "conversations" can help the morale when too few of our elected officials and fellow citizens speak up and one wonders how these horrors can continue – and escalate. Compassion fatigue and its relative, outrage fatigue, are real risks; by the time the election arrives, some who are outraged now may be so demoralized but what our country has become that they stay home instead of voting. I can't focus on the problems all the time, but I do have to return to them, shine the spotlight on them, hoping people don't give up. And I have no doubt the French DO want their statue back!
You are a wise lady. Glad your are part of the conversation on this blog. Thanks for the lift.
I love this post. Full of information without being political. My heart breaks for all those children, mothers, fathers and siblings.
It just makes me madder every single day that so many people find this man to be a good leader!
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