It's 2016, woo! Another year and yet, another chance for people to employ those resolutions that they oh so hardly worked on to make their lifestyles better. Some of us are going back to work and school soon while others are off to study abroad. Spring semester is around the corner which means warmer weather, elections, philanthropy season and then summer time. 2016 should be a good year, right? It's only the beginning of the year and things should be in line to go smoothly for the rest of this new chapter in our lives.
Well, that may be true for some. However, for millions of others, they are starting their new year figuring out how to deal with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) should they ever approach their front doors, and that scares the hell out of me.
I am a U.S. born citizen; if ICE ever approached me I would, thankfully, have nothing to worry about. This isn't the case for some of my neighbors and my closest friends, though. If you haven't heard, deportation raids are supposed to increase in 2016 and are supposedly going to target those who have fled from violence in Central America. Now, you can have whatever opinion you want on immigration reform, deportations, undocumented immigrants, etc. It would be really cool, though if you'd just take a moment to read from the perspective of someone who has those near and dear to her living in this situation and how hearing this news feels.
It's not an easy thing to hear that deportation raids are being increased. It's not an easy thing to comprehend that those around you may have to take extra precaution when going to work, school, the store...taking extra precaution with everything. It's not easy to wait around for hours for someone in this situation to call/text you back without thinking that something happened to them. It's not easy to have the constant fear of not seeing a friend or loved one again. It's not easy to know that these people are living in fear. It's not easy to hear about family friends or community members being taken away from their families and leaving everything they fought for. It's not easy to see families educate themselves to know what to do if ICE ever comes to their door. It's not easy, and as long as the raids continue after whenever they start (and if they ever do), I will constantly be worried for those around me who are affected by this situation.
It's kind of hard to start off the new year on a good note when something meant to tear apart families and dreams are supposed to be starting so soon. I cannot even imagine how terrified some folks may be right now because of all this. Having to leave their homes and go to one of the nearby open churches to minimize their exposure to the outside world, to ICE. Take some time to educate yourselves on this issue and see if you can do anything to help out these families. I get that some people may not agree with this article and that's totally okay. But, all legality aspects aside, would you be okay with being removed from your family and sent back to a violent country because a judge told you-you needed to go back?
