Last summer while I was still in school I took the School Newspaper course and it just so happened to be around the time that my mother was beginning to go through her immigration litigation. My professor thought it would be a good idea to document her court hearings. Below is the piece I wrote the day she was given the order of deportation:
“I don’t want to do this. You look like an honest person and I see you are a hard worker. Unfortunately the law is the law, and under it you are a criminal”.
The clicking of the typewriter, the sound of the fresh ink kissing the paper that would mark a sad and unfair destiny became increasingly overwhelming as I turned back to see the little boy with tears rolling down his eyes. This boy was Abel, 13, son of “Angie”, who had just been given an order of deportation by the immigration lawyer.
On the morning of July 10, 2008 Angie became just another number added to the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have been deported back to their home countries, Abel, another American child whose future was now uncertain. The fact that “Angie” has been here for more than 20 years, working hard, paying taxes, and that she has children who are citizens didn’t stop her order of deportation.
“Angie” has until August 11, 2008 to file an appeal. If she chooses to file an appeal, she will join the thousands of illegal immigrants who are stuck in this messy battlefield that doesn’t seem to be ending any time soon. If she doesn’t, she will be returned to a country where she has not stability and where her future is uncertain.
The clicking of the typewriter, the sound of the fresh ink kissing the paper that would mark a sad and unfair destiny became increasingly overwhelming as I turned back to see the little boy with tears rolling down his eyes. This boy was Abel, 13, son of “Angie”, who had just been given an order of deportation by the immigration lawyer.
On the morning of July 10, 2008 Angie became just another number added to the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have been deported back to their home countries, Abel, another American child whose future was now uncertain. The fact that “Angie” has been here for more than 20 years, working hard, paying taxes, and that she has children who are citizens didn’t stop her order of deportation.
“Angie” has until August 11, 2008 to file an appeal. If she chooses to file an appeal, she will join the thousands of illegal immigrants who are stuck in this messy battlefield that doesn’t seem to be ending any time soon. If she doesn’t, she will be returned to a country where she has not stability and where her future is uncertain.
My mother chose to file an appeal and continues to fight in this cruel, cruel war for justice.
