This week, the 12th of
March, in the Time Magazine, there an article about how Trump's
Immigration Policy is spiltting families apart. The title is «
No one is safe ». First, it tells the story of Alejandro who
was on his way to work just before two vehicles pulled up behide him
at a stop sign. He saw plain-clothes
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents coming toward him .
There was the word POLICE written on their vests. Alejandro was a
little bit worried so he called his wife Maria to tell her what was
happening. Contrary to him, she wasn't really worried. She knew that
her husband had no criminal record and that he's been driving this
road for years in California. They arrested him as he was considered
as a « fugitive alien » by the ICE because since 2006,
he goes over his visa. Therefore he had to be deported in Mexico. A
few days later, they allowed him to return home with an ankle
bracelet to say goodbye to his family. He left two children and a
pregnant wife behind him.
However,
they aren't the only ones. A lot of other families in America
suffered from the same situation since the election of Donald Trump.
When Barack Obama was in power, he told ICE to focus on violent
delinquents but Trump didn't think the same way. He send decrets to
people in a powerful position which were saying that the 11 million
people who were living illegally in the country were a priority for
deportation. Thomas Homan, the director of Ice, even said : “If
you’re in the country illegally, we’re looking for you.”
This
is why there a increase of arrests of undocumented immigrants. There
are some examples : a 10 years old little girl who was disabled,
a sweet grandma of a Navy veteran 's family and a father who was
living in America since he was 10.
In
the article, there're a lot of people who defend immigrants. One of
them is Luis Zayas who's the dean of the Steve Hicks School of Social
Work at the University of Texas at Austin. He gives the example of
some agents of ICE who are arresting people when they leave church or
when they drop their children to school.
This
new policy also affects the family of undocumented people like the
kids. More than 4 million Americans children have at least one
undocumented parent.
To
return to the story of Alejandro, Maria, like her husband, is an
undocumented person. Their daughters are U.S citizens. She's afraid
to be deported too and to leave her children here alone or with
people she doesn't trust.
In
Maria and
Alejandro’s neighborhood, news of his arrest went viral. Their
facebook profile is used to warn people of the localization of ICE's
agents.
Alejandro
even said that his friends avoid to leave their home and that they
buy food at night when the ICE agents are less.
To
describe this situation, Maria doesn't use the word « fear »
anymore but « dread ».
The
CHIRLA, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, advise
undocumented parents to write a letter which say who will be in
charge of their children if they are deported.
This
article is also talking about the effect of the deportation of
parents on the behaviour of kids like how they become depressed.
According
to Laura St. John, legal director at the Florence Immigrant and
Refugee Rights Project, Maria could ask for a federal waiver but it's
a process which takes 10 years so it means that she has to wait in
Mexico before coming back to America. But Erin Quinn, an attorney at
the Immigrant Legal Resource Center in San Francisco, assure that it
was impossible for Maria to go to Mexico and come back here legally.
After
all, Maria stayed in the U.S and goes on with her life but when the
thought of raising her kids without their father comes to her head,
she has tears in her eyes.
