Pirate's Cove

Maybe they should be deported, as well

WA immigrant families urge lawmakers to push back against mass ICE deportations

Fathers arrested as they head to work. A young woman taken into custody at Sea-Tac International Airport. Patients being hospitalized after their caregiver was arrested by immigration agents.

These are just a few of the stories shared at a Tuesday press conference where immigrant families and advocate groups gathered to call on elected officials to slow down mass deportation efforts in Washington state and help families with the fallout of detained or deported family members.

“?In an instant, our family’s world was shattered,” said Alondra Miranda Garcia, whose father was arrested by ICE agents in Seattle on a Saturday in mid-October as he was headed to work. “My mom was left without her husband, my siblings and I were left without our dad by our side… My dad is so much more than an immigration case. He’s a hardworking, humble man who has spent over 23 years building a life centered around his family.”

Her father’s arrest and others have been taking place on the sides of roads, at worksites, in airports, and during scheduled Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-ins. In many cases, ICE agents have been assisted in locating immigrants by Washington state driver’s license information, which advocates want state officials to stop.

”We need meaningful protections for immigrant families, access to legal assistance and resources for families who are struggling through detention and separation. We need our legislators to listen to our communities and work with us to prevent more families from experiencing what ours is going through,” Garcia said.

Yeah, it’s a real shame when lawbreakers are detained. No one is complaining when an American citizen father who seriously assaulted another person is picked up by the cops at work and incarcerated. We need meaningful protections from that, right? Oh, wait, it’s The Law? How about that! The problem here is that the US government has been rather soft on illegals for most of this century, and kinda squishy during the latter Clinton years. And, the news media is going hardcore in their protection of illegals during the Trump years, along with the activists, who care more about illegals than American citizens. But, of course, those same activists, politicians, and news folks won’t welcome illegals into their own homes.

Many of the families and advocates at the press conference had mixed immigration status, but they were primarily U.S. citizens and green card holders. With breadwinners and crucial parts of families and communities taken away by mass deportation, they’re leaving the people left behind with legal fees, lost household income, and fear. That freezes a lot of the financial and social mobility for these families — as they fund their own legal deportation defense through personal savings, mutual-aid, online crowdfunding, and sometimes nonprofit help.

What about the breadwinner arrested for arson? Vehicular assault? Cooking meth? White collar crimes? Where are the complaints?

“?When our community members are kidnapped by ICE, we all suffer the consequences,” said Lucy Vazquez-Martinez, a field director of SEIU 775, a caregivers union.

One of their members who was recently detained by ICE had an around-the-clock client who went without care for several days and ended up hospitalized, she said.

“To our elected leaders, we need you to work with us to come up with solutions and act,” Vazquez-Martinez said.

The solution is to stop them at the border. To let them know to not attempt to come to the US illegally. To deport them quickly. To get rid of all the loopholes. To provide work visas that are tracked, and where they are not constantly renewed to the point that they feel like they’re entitled to be here.