Sidenote: This story/plot itself is fictional. Unfortunately, the background of this story is not.

I got the call at 9am one morning at work, and shortly after hanging up, I grabbed my coat and walked swiftly out the door. I drove my gray Nissan Altima over 700 miles, from San Diego to Southern Texas, I had to pick up one of my cousins.

When I finally arrived at the center, parked my car and entered the building, I was led through through the doors of the reception area and deeper into the building. The woman bringing me to my cousin even tried to give me a tour of the place, describing how the kids had three meals a day, watched tv, played video games, it was like a "summer camp" she said. The audacity for her to say it made me internally cringe, yet all of my anger towards them trying to justify their actions went away as I saw my cousin for the first time.

"Jorge" she called, "This is Michael, he's going to take you to your new home, ok?". Jorge just looked at her, and getting the sense that he didn't understand her, she said the same in Spanish. He nodded, looked at me, and got up; I could see the redness around and in his eyes, I understood him.

As I guided him to the car outside, he turned himself away from the sun; he hadn't been exposed to natural light in a long time. "It was a miracle that we found you" the woman said, "the boy doesn't have any other relatives in the states", I manually blocked what would've happened if they didn't find me out of my mind.

The car ride despite being long, was very quiet. I tried talking to the boy, asking if he was hungry or needed anything, but he didn't respond, and I didn't speak Spanish that well. After two hours of the 12 hour trip had passed, I turned on the radio, and listened to the news. " US politicians on both sides of the aisle are speaking out against the separation of families. And despite Attorney General Jeff Sessions' reference to the Bible and the President's seemingly unmoveable position on HIS Zero Tolerance policy, it looks like this immigration crisis might actually bring Congress together in years" the radio announcer had said; I turned it off shortly after. "Wow" I thought to myself. "The shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, the killings of 26 elementary school children at Sandy Hook, the killing of 9 people in a church in South Carolina, the killings of over 58 people and injuring of over 800 in Las Vegas, the killings of 48 people in a Orlando nightclub, and rising thousands of death tolls of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico didn't do it, but this did". "I'm happy that it's happening now and certainly in this case, but this unification or bipartisanship is way past due". After a couple minutes more of silence, I heard snoring, and looked in the back; Jorge was sleeping, and seeing this, I smiled, and then continued to drive.

I made it back to California 10 long hours later, and was way too hungry. I then stopped over to a Burger King that was nearby my house. Hey it was 2am in the morning and the kid and I were both hungry, don't judge my decisions.

I asked Jorge what he wanted in my best Spanish abilities, but he didn't say anything. I ordered a double cheeseburger and fries, and for him, some chicken strips and fries. As soon as I sat down with the food he started to engulf everything. I was only able to save my fries as he ate both the chicken strips and my burger in less than 5 minutes. I started to laugh at this when a stranger approached me.

"Hey, I just want to say that you're not alone, and their are services here to help you both" she said to me. "No, sorry I don't need a pamphlet, I'm Catholic, I already know that I need to repent" I replied. "No, that's not what I mean. I meant, if your kid was one of those children at those cold detention centers, my church can help. We're counted as a sensitive location and a sanctuary space in California anyway" she continued. "What?" I said.

"Yeah, don't you know? California recently passed a new law, which pretty much states that schools, hospitals, and places of worship are seen as sanctuary spaces, or sensitive locations. We can help you if you need anything" she continued. "Wow, I didn't even know that myself, thanks!" I said as she gave me her card. "Don't worry about it! Stop by and join us at some point!" she yelled, and went outside. As I turned, I saw Jorge pointing at the menu again. Let me just say that he had control of my wallet for the night.

When we got home to my one bedroom apartment, I had Jorge sleep in my bed, and I grabbed a pillow for the sofa. I listened to the radio one last time. "Well, Senator Dianne Feinstein's new bill on stopping this family separation policy is really getting traction. And with many Republicans now speaking out against this humanitarian crisis, maybe we can finally as a country find something that we could all agree on" the radio announcer said again, and this time, I turned it off because I was sleepy.

Almost forgetting, I grabbed a Spanish-English dictionary from my shelf, and placed it on the desk. I knew that I need to brush on it tomorrow, especially since I would be the one taking care of Jorge now. I checked to make sure he was asleep by looking into the bedroom; he was fast asleep again. I closed the door slowly, and just as the door shut, I realized at that moment, that I had just become a parent.