If you follow this page, you may remember the stories I've posted about Monica and Jose, cousins and the children of twin brothers who came to the U. S. when their children were very young. No one in the family possessed the proper documentation when they crossed the border into this country, including the children.
To read more about Monica and Jose click here and here. You might also use this page's search feature to read other posts on this situation and about the need for immigration reform by entering "Monica."
Just yesterday, these wonderful young people received a notice to appear for deportation on Monday.
Both are model adults. Monica has continued on in college. Jose has never been in any trouble. And now, or so it seems, they will be taken into custody and sent back to Mexico where they have no real connections.
The past 24 hours have involved us in a campaign to move our political leaders to intervene on the behalf of these wonderful young people.
They are not the kind of people who need to be shipped away out of the country.
U. S. Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, one of our members of Congress here in Dallas, has been lobbying hard on behalf of Monica and Jose, for which we are most grateful. We've been on the phones working to gain support for the cause of these two amazing people.
But, it may not be enough.
It makes no sense whatsoever.
Since the DREAM Act stalled yet again in the Congress, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have adopted a much harsher enforcement policy toward all undocumented persons, including students who are an asset to their communities here in the U. S. The plight of Monica and Jose serves as a case in point.
All of us who know Monica and Jose have been very distraught by this latest development. My family has shed many tears for our dear friends, both the children and their parents.
Last night a bit of light broke, almost miraculously.
No, that's not right, the timing was beyond miraculous.
A report in The New York Times and published in today's editions of The Dallas Morning News described President Obama's executive order to ICE instructing the agency to end deportations of students who pose no threat to the safety of their communities or the nation. Further, ICE will now be reevaluating thousands of cases that involve children and youth like my dear friends, Monica and Jose.
While it may still not end well on Monday, the President's action gives us hope. I'm grateful for him.
What's needed in the case of people like my two young friends will not be supplied by law.
What's needed here is justice and mercy.
Please pray for both.
8 comments:
This change in immigration policy is a great way for the Demoncrats to gain a few votes to go with their ACORN phantom absentee voter program. How about Mercy and Justice for the legal citizens of the country?
It is truly distressing to think that we would behave this way. Whatever one may think about adults who choose to enter the country illegally, children brought here without a choice, and then raised here, who are law abiding and productive, should get a break. You are right, Larry, this is about justice and mercy.
Anon 8:26 - these kids might not grow up to vote Democratic if Republicans did not seem to be the party of anti-immigrant borderline racist dogma. If R's got behind reasonable changes to our harsh immigration laws, or even (as McCain did in one of his previous iterations) led the way, these kids might grow up voting Republican. However they vote, seeing this as a political calculation, as opposed to an issue of right and wrong, is part of the sicknes in American politics these days. (Thank you, Karl Rove.)
Obama said a couple of months ago that he couldn't stop deportations alone, "It's not the way our country works."
So why can he do it now? Could it be his poll numbers among Hispanics went down? Nawww
Chris, you underestimate the power of progressives to turn this President. Millions of us wrote him urging him to simply do the right thing. There is no justice in punishing a child for something adults in his/her life did.
Anon 826, I think the "legal citizens" of this country are doing very well compared to the children who are threatened with expulsion.
So how far do you go to bypass congress? What would prevent a president from just announcing a law on any number of situations?
Larry James, your statement is a non sequitur
"Anon 826, I think the "legal citizens" of this country are doing very well compared to the children who are threatened with expulsion."
Excuse my oversight on the last post. It should have began "Rev Larry James" and not "Larry James".
Ignoring immigration laws is analogous to raising blood alcohol levels to solving the drunken driving problem
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