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You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Racial Justice / This Week In Blackness / This Is What Deportation Does To A Family

This Is What Deportation Does To A Family

by Elon James White|  November 18, 20141:35 pm| 33 Comments

This post is in: This Week In Blackness

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It’s always more powerful to put a face to an epidemic. Like Piper Chapman has put a face on women in the prison system, Diane Guerrero, best known for playing the spunky Maritza on Orange Is the New Black, recently revealed on CNN the heartbreaking story of her parents being deported back to their native Columbia:

“I got home, and their cars were there and dinner was started and the lights were on, but I couldn’t find them,” she said, choking up. “It was really hard.” When Pereira asked about her relationship with her parents now, the actress lost her composure. … “But I love them so much,” she continued. “And I just hate that they have gone through this. And I know I’ve been by myself, but I feel like they have lived a very lonely existence.”

 

Frankly, we’re not sure what’s worse–Guerrero’s family being ripped apart or that no government officials ever informed her of what happened or checked on her despite the fact that she is a US citizen and only 14 at the time.

Team Blackness also discussed the train wreck that was the new Aaliyah movie, another Cosby rape allegation, and a rape by a Ferguson police officer of a pregnant woman while she was detained.

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Reader Interactions

33Comments

  1. 1.

    Villago Delenda Est

    November 18, 2014 at 2:38 pm

    I am afraid that putting a face on a problem only works with Rethugs if the face is a member of their tribe and a close family member.

    Outside of those two groups, they have no empathy for anyone else.

  2. 2.

    Belafon

    November 18, 2014 at 2:42 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Yep. Plenty of Republicans will wonder why she wasn’t deported with her parents.

  3. 3.

    askew

    November 18, 2014 at 2:43 pm

    I think it is horrifying that social services doesn’t get involved in these situations.

    I also think this is why Obama should have already released his EO. Every day he waits another family is ripped apart like this for no reason. Yet, he waits.

  4. 4.

    gene108

    November 18, 2014 at 2:45 pm

    I’ve heard it speculated by a couple of immigration attorneys I know that Obama ramped up deportations and made getting visas harder, because he had hoped to appeal to anti-immigration folks that the immigration system could enforce the laws to the letter of the law and this would be the last time “amnesty” would be brought to the table.

    I think Obama’s too much of an optimist and has too much regard for the goodness of human nature to think people are going to do something to reciprocate what you feel are good actions towards them.

  5. 5.

    Villago Delenda Est

    November 18, 2014 at 2:47 pm

    @gene108:

    I think Obama’s too much of an optimist and has too much regard for the goodness of human nature to think people are going to do something to reciprocate what you feel are good actions towards them.

    When dealing with Rethugs, this is a vain hope.

    They’re monsters.

  6. 6.

    gene108

    November 18, 2014 at 2:50 pm

    @Belafon:

    Yep. Plenty of Republicans will wonder why she wasn’t deported with her parents.

    I do wonder, if and when the states rights, anti-immigration far right nut jobs are going to start agitating for the repeal of the 14th Amendment, as the 14th Amendment is the only thing that has stood in the way of getting rid of “anchor babies” and allowing states to discriminate at will against people for various reasons, including religious beliefs.

    I know Ron Paul has talked about repealing it, with regards to his states rights position.

    It is pretty fringe at the moment, but I do not see how modern conservativism can reconcile itself with the changes to our government from the late 19th through late 20th Century, since if you take their ideas to their logical conclusions you would have to do away with all the legal protections “other” people have received because of those changes and hope things won’t backslide too much.

  7. 7.

    Villago Delenda Est

    November 18, 2014 at 2:54 pm

    @gene108:

    only thing that has stood in the way of getting rid of “anchor babies”

    You mean like the Malkin harpy?

    If that’s on the table (stripping the vile harridan of her citizenship and shipping her out of the country) I may have to reconsider my stance.

  8. 8.

    cokane

    November 18, 2014 at 3:19 pm

    *Colombia

  9. 9.

    Zifnab25

    November 18, 2014 at 3:30 pm

    @askew: Getting his ducks in a row. An EO that’s tossed out in court, or a rebellious department head that bucks Obama’s mandate, or a “You’re letting murder-rapists run free in the streets!” loophole would set back immigration reform more than another week of consideration.

    There is also always the outside chance that Republicans decide obstructing immigration reform hurts them more in the long run than it hurts Obama, and they come to the table with legislation. Obama’s not an idiot. He’s playing the best game he’s able, given the hand he’s been dealt.

  10. 10.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    November 18, 2014 at 3:31 pm

    I’ve heard it speculated by a couple of immigration attorneys I know that Obama ramped up deportations and made getting visas harder, because he had hoped to appeal to anti-immigration folks that the immigration system could enforce the laws to the letter of the law and this would be the last time “amnesty” would be brought to the table.

    @gene108: And that was fucking stupid, a belief unbacked by facts, based on a fundamental misunderstanding of what “anti-immigration” folks want. They don’t want the law enforced. They want America purged of Hispanics, period.

    Obama keeps listening to what people say instead of what they do. A lot of people do this. Stop listening, people lie all the time. Start observing. The truth lies there.

  11. 11.

    Southern Beale

    November 18, 2014 at 3:31 pm

    Colombia.

    Not Columbia.

  12. 12.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    November 18, 2014 at 3:43 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: putting a face on a problem only works with Rethugs if the face is a member of their tribe and a close family member.

    Which is why all manner of legal, natural, financial and medical disasters should be rendered onto GOPers, so that they might grow into full members of humanity.

    The survivors, that is.

  13. 13.

    Davis X. Machina

    November 18, 2014 at 3:54 pm

    If you can’t make my life better, can you at least let me watch you make someone else’s worse?

    The devil offers to grant one wish to a peasant. The peasant can have anything he wants. The only catch is that his neighbor will be given twice as much of it. The peasant thinks and thinks, and then smiles as he says, “I would like you to blind me in one eye!”

  14. 14.

    SatanicPanic

    November 18, 2014 at 4:07 pm

    @gene108: For intellectually honest people, that might undercut their claim that Democrats are the real racists because Republicans were on the right side during the Civil War. Lucky for them they’re not honest people in general.

  15. 15.

    SatanicPanic

    November 18, 2014 at 4:13 pm

    @gene108: I think there’s a non-trivial number of people who aren’t hardened anti-immigrationists but believe the law should be followed that he’s probably hoping to appeal to.

  16. 16.

    Mnemosyne

    November 18, 2014 at 4:27 pm

    @askew:

    I think it is horrifying that social services doesn’t get involved in these situations.

    I’m assuming it’s a lack of coordination between the feds and local authorities but, yeah, it’s pretty horrifying that a 14-year-old would be left alone with no resources because ICE couldn’t be bothered to let the city or county know that maybe a social worker should stop by and check up on her.

  17. 17.

    Corner Stone

    November 18, 2014 at 4:28 pm

    Here’s a thought. Stop deporting people who haven’t committed an ancillary crime.

  18. 18.

    Corner Stone

    November 18, 2014 at 4:28 pm

    “spunky” ?

  19. 19.

    Ripley

    November 18, 2014 at 4:29 pm

    I’ve heard it speculated

    Thanks for the hard data.

  20. 20.

    japa21

    November 18, 2014 at 4:30 pm

    @gene108: The problem is that he didn’t really “ramp up” deportations. What they did was change how they counted deportations. In the past, if someone was caught close to the border and sent back, that didn’t count as a deportation. This administration counts it as such. Actual deportations that went through the whole process have actually declined.

    I understand why they did it this way, basically for the reason SatanicPanic just pointed out, but the Latino community apparently was not let in on the secret.

  21. 21.

    askew

    November 18, 2014 at 4:33 pm

    Corner Stone:

    Obama instructed ICE to prioritize criminal deportations without much change in ICE behavior. This is one area where a ball has been dropped by Obama admin. ICE pretty much does what they want without any real oversight.

  22. 22.

    Citizen_X

    November 18, 2014 at 4:39 pm

    and a rape by a Ferguson police officer of a pregnant woman while she was detained

    Jesus Hieronymus Christ! Is there anything at which the Ferguson PD is not consistently horrible?

    We must have some napalm left over somewhere, right? I suggest it be dropped on the FPD. Start all over.

  23. 23.

    askew

    November 18, 2014 at 4:55 pm

    Sorry to go OT – but do we have any idea what the whip count is on Keystone. I keep hearing Landrieu saying she has the votes but others are saying we are at 59. Any idea?

  24. 24.

    Matt McIrvin

    November 18, 2014 at 4:58 pm

    @gene108: The anti-immigration people have been agitating for a repeal of the 14th Amendment’s birthright-citizenship guarantee for many years.

  25. 25.

    Mnemosyne

    November 18, 2014 at 5:09 pm

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I’m guessing those arguments gained additional steam right around the time the Civil Rights Movement started making gains in the 1950s.

  26. 26.

    Mandalay

    November 18, 2014 at 5:09 pm

    Al Sharpton is dead to me, and always will be until he comes clean over what he did to Steven Pagones. But even I can see that today the “liberal” NYT did a vicious hatchet job on him. Sharpton must have a very powerful enemy for that non-story smear job to have been published.

  27. 27.

    Mnemosyne

    November 18, 2014 at 5:12 pm

    Also, I would swear that I once saw an essay that posited that the reason that extremist fundamentalist Islam gained a toehold in Europe and not in the US is because many European countries do not have birthright citizenship, so you have large communities of disaffected people who have lived in, say, Germany their entire lives without being citizens. The theory was that fundamentalist Islam has had a harder time gaining a hold in the US because we have birthright citizenship, which makes it easier to integrate people into mainstream society.

  28. 28.

    elmo

    November 18, 2014 at 5:38 pm

    @Mnemosyne:
    I can’t point to a single essay to that effect, but I know I’ve seen that argument made more than once. And it makes sense. Tell a young man that he has no home, that he doesn’t belong where he lives, and give him no opportunity in his native land, and don’t be surprised when he looks around for an outlet to express his rage and alienation.

  29. 29.

    gene108

    November 18, 2014 at 5:42 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    Got me curious about what European immigration laws are like.

    Here’s the Wiki for British nationality law. They only grant birthright citizenship, if at least one parent is a British citizen.

  30. 30.

    docg

    November 18, 2014 at 7:24 pm

    Should we just do away with immigration laws altogether? Is not deportation a known risk of illegal entry into the United States? In my work I see families devastated by having a provider sent to prison for illegal activities. Should robbers not be punished because their family suffers when they are sent away?

    I don’t see easy answers, but providing a “path to citizenship” every decade or two encourages continued behavior that leads to new heartbreaking family situations.

  31. 31.

    Apsalar

    November 18, 2014 at 7:27 pm

    Too many of the Republicans I know certainly do have empathy – but only for the comfortable, not for the afflicted. A little OT, but I saw a thread on Facebook today where some were talking about minimum wage laws. One person argued that minimum wage laws are just so unfair, and if all someone’s doing for their job is mopping the floors, why should they make more than $3/hour? Insisting they earn $7 (or whatever) is just horrible for the poor business owner who has to pay this outrageous amount of money. And if the mopper wants to make more, they should learn new skills, or something.

    The only concern is for the guy paying the wages, not for the guy with the mop who has to somehow live on $3/hour. My thought, that if $7/hour is too expensive to pay a janitor, maybe the business owner could consider, I dunno, doing that work himself. But I’m sure we’re supposed to have an underclass of people living on nothing at all to do those chores. Feature not a bug.

  32. 32.

    Villago Delenda Est

    November 18, 2014 at 8:48 pm

    @Apsalar:

    But I’m sure we’re supposed to have an underclass of people living on nothing at all to do those chores.

    These vile “people” really were pissed about the Emancipation Proclamation.

  33. 33.

    dance around in your bones

    November 19, 2014 at 1:42 pm

    Well, I know this post is from yesterday, but it pissed me the hell off.

    I lived in Mexico for many years, and ‘Muricans could come and go as they pleased to their vacation condos and campos.

    One of my Mexican friends who had a tiny little store on the free road? Couldn’t get across the border to the US to buy cheap shit for her store. I got really pissed off when she told me about it, especially when she said she went to the US Embassy in TJ to apply for a “I’ll only go 30 miles from the border” visa so she could shop at the dollar stores for her tiny shop.

    She paid a few hundred dollars to get denied for no plausible reason and it still makes me ANGRY!!!!! WTF??!! I told her it was wrong, just wrong.

    Our imiigration system is just SO fucked up.

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