As a child I remember primarily immigrant men living and working on the ranches where we lived. They were referred to as "wetbacks," and lived in barns and sheds. I don't know what they did for groceries or if they became sick and needed a doctor.
I don't remember women and children. I was never in school with any children. I believe the men came alone to work and send money back to their families in Mexico.
It's all very different these days. Portland loves a good protest. For the past week or so there have been protesters surrounding the ICE building. ICE sent the federal employees home and locked the doors but that has not satisfied the protesters. They say they are not leaving until ICE is gone permanently. They then built a barricade of anything they could find, old furniture, packing crates, anything.
Our son works in a building by the ICE building and had to cross the barricade one morning to get to work. Eviction notices have been served but nobody is making a move. Sunday a large rally was held in front of city hall.
I'm so far behind on this subject I don't know where to start to become informed. This week I read about a book that I think may help me.
I don't want extremely detailed or complicated information, just enough to have some idea of the subject. I think I may need Cliff Notes. It all sounds troubling but I can't seem to get a handle on it.
Any suggestions?
What you're describing from your youth were probably migrant works who came up to get money for their families, following the crops and harvests and they'd go home in the winter. Now, many/most of those at the border are presenting themselves at the check points are asking for asylum, fleeing violence in Central America. In the past they'd be fitted with ankle bracelets and allowed to hook up with friends or shelters while they waited for their hearings before an immigration judge to see if they could stay. Trump stopped that in favor of letting them bunch up under "house arrest" creating a "fake" crisis. Now he wants to do away with Due Process and just ship everyone back, no hearing as required by our constitution which is a very slippery slop. An foster care place where I live and where a relative works took in 200 of those children. Some babies with no paper trails back to their parents. One little girl remembered her phone number and found out her father was deported in May without the children he came with. This is a huge mess, costing us a bundle of wasted money and against international human rights to take these children away like this.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jean, that is helpful.
DeleteJean presents a fair picture of the immediate crisis. The whole immigration issue is more complicated, of course. There is an orderly way to apply for asylum, but the legal border ports are swamped, people are turned away, and then cross illegally. This immediately makes them criminals, subject to the ruthless handling of the "white extinction" fear that Trump and his followers are promoting.
ReplyDeleteWho do we allow in? How do we determine true refugee status? How can we be fair and humane and also practical?
I hear you. This is certainly not the only time in history we've faced immigration problems. Unfortunately, in the past we've usually made bad decisions. It is so complicated I don't know where to start to form an opinion. I understand there will always be pain when you deal with this subject. I just wish this bunch in the White House weren't having so much fun inflicting the pain.
DeleteThey do seem to be enjoying the mess they've created. That in itself if sickening.
ReplyDeleteOh please . . . smh!
DeleteI think the big picture is there are crummy terrible countries all over the world and the people there naturally want to flee to a better life for them and their families. Trump and his followers, in their white supremacy quest ( that he stoked from the beginning with his "they're rapists and murderers"), first tried separating children from their families at the borders. This brought such an uproar, he backed down, but now wants to hold them all in tent cities indefinitely or send them back to almost certain death with no due process. Children are still separated and, as Jean says, some will never be reunited. It is a mess and most of these people just want a better life.
ReplyDeleteThis wall he and his base so desperately want will solve nothing and make a lot of people rich (contractors etc.). I saw an interview with some drug cartel people in Mexico and they said they weren't in the least concerned about this wall. It would not effect their business, as it was mostly Americans that brought drugs into the country.
And now we have a Muslim band that I believe does not include Saudi Arabia, which is where the 9/11 terrorists came from. Oh and it excludes rich businessmen with business connections here.
He's alienated Canada and most of the European nations and cozied up to North Korea and Russia.
And I'll finish my rant here, with trump being now able to add a conservative judge to the bench which will give him total control and with a weak greedy Republican Party, we are so screwed as a Nation.
Sorry I got carried away..as all this really disturbs me.
Thanks Mary for your comment. All this is very troubling.
DeleteThis morning police in riot gear are moving in on the ICE facility to evict the protesters. I know we can’t have people taking over government buildings. Are there any reasonable people on either side in this struggle?
I just want to say ditto to what Mary and Linda wrote above. I am truly upset with what's going on and with Trump being able to get another Supreme Court justice in the fall. Roe vs Wade is going to get overturned, gay rights too and so on and so on.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jean, you pretty much said it for me.
ReplyDeleteLinda, I just saw you replying at Jean's blog, and came to yours and saw you are back with us. I am SO SO sorry for your loss, and all that you have been through. I feared that was likely the case.
ReplyDeleteRe politics, I'm currently in the mindset that it's just too much, emotionally, for me to handle, most days. I've spent the better part of 2 years all fraught over it, and I couldn't attend a protest (for any length of time) now if I wanted to, and frankly, it's just too much. I'm sure I'll rally and get back into it soon; I just need a mini break.
Again, welcome back. Just sorry for all that you've been through.
Glad to see you came over my way. After Bob died I was too emotionally spent to give anything to politics. I have removed from my digital devices every source I was following that might bring me news of politics. I’m down to our local TV station and it may be next.
DeleteI went with my children to hear Pete Souza and Dan Pfeiffer on book tour and enjoyed those events. Today there are protest marches all over Portland. I will definitely vote in the mid-terms but I’m not keeping up with any of the races.
It’s ridiculous to squander my tax money on a wall that will do little or nothing to resolve the real issues needing to be corrected IMHO. Monies need to be directed toward rehabilitating the asylum-seekers system, upgrading technology, increased staffing to monitor our borders devising ways to humanely treati these people. Nullifying attitudes of those all too anxious to scapegoat others different from themselves will be a major challenge.
ReplyDeleteMarry all the Asian women you want. They will be perfect for your patriarchal society you desire....for awhile. Sounds like you had a really challenging divorce...can't imagine why.
ReplyDelete