Because of ICE, I've Been in Hiding for Months. It Has Transformed Me.

[Nevilledog]

https://racketmn.com/because-of-ice-ive-been-in-hiding-for-months-it-has-transformed-me


I didn't ask to come to this country. My mother brought me here when I was six years old. Since then, this has been my life. I grew up here, I learned to navigate the world here, my memories are here, my relationships, my work, and my dreams. I don't know any other home in the same way.

From a very young age, I understood that even though it wasn't my decision to come here, it was my responsibility to do things right. That's why, since I was 15 years old, I've done everything possible to follow the legal channels. I had DACA, which allowed me to study and work, but it also meant living with the constant need to renew it every two years, paying fees, waiting, always with the uncertainty of whether I would be rejected this time. Living with that constant fear becomes part of your life, even if you try not to normalize it.

Today, I'm still in a legal process with a U visa. I have a work permit. I'm doing things correctly. Even so, l am trapped here. Not because I'm running from the law, but because I've seen how the system often doesn't even respect its own laws, deporting people who are in active legal processes and keeping entire families living in fear. That contradiction is very hard to bear.

These last few months have been especially difficult. The confinement isn't only physical; it's also emotional and mental. There are days of anxiety, of frustration, of feeling that everything is on hold while the world keeps moving forward outside. Even doing everything correctly, there's a real possibility that everything I've built with years of effort could be taken away from me. My stability, my projects, even my company.

*snip*

[MustLoveBeagles]

1. Doing this to people is just evil

[SheltieLover]

3. Absolutely awful!

[ClaudetteCC]

8. There must be more to the story if this person has U visa, which was created in Oct 2020

https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/victims-of-criminal-activity-u-nonimmigrant-status

The U nonimmigrant status (U visa) is set aside for victims of certain crimes who have suffered mental or physical abuse and are helpful to law enforcement or government officials in the investigation or prosecution of criminal activity. Congress created the U nonimmigrant visa with the passage of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (including the Battered Immigrant Women’s Protection Act) in October 2000. The legislation was intended to strengthen the ability of law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute cases of domestic violence, sexual assault, trafficking of aliens and other crimes, while also protecting victims of crimes who have suffered substantial mental or physical abuse due to the crime and are willing to help law enforcement authorities in the investigation or prosecution of the criminal activity. The legislation also helps law enforcement agencies to better serve victims of crimes.

[Initech]

10. It's insane that we have to live through Hitler 2.0.

[Easterncedar]

2. We are indeed the baddies

[SheltieLover]

4. "We" aren't, imo. Repukes & ICE are.

[raccoon]

5. It reminds me so much of Anne Frank's family.

[ClaudetteCC]

9. Anne Frank and her family were killed

Do you really want to reduce everything to a common denominator where death = deportation? Such equations degrade quickly in the public sphere.

[surfered]

6. I am so sorry you've had to endure this. Hang on, because this insanity will end, though not as soon as we want.

🙏

[William Seger]

7. "And some, I assume, are good people."

#rump is a shitty president because he is a shitty excuse for a human being.

One way we could instantly reduce the number of "illegal immigrants" is by making them legal, at least the ones who are peaceful and productive members of their communities, especially the ones who were legal before their status was ripped away without due process and without even a lame excuse. But then this shitty administration found that, if they only deported the "worst of the worst," they couldn't come anywhere near the deportation quotas they had promised #rump's bigoted cult after yammering incessantly about an imaginary "immigrant crime wave." So they created an army of sadistic goons to round up and deport as many people as possible, giving them license to commit assault on anyone Hispanic (citizen or not, they'll sort that out later), and on anyone who gets in their way (and if they have to kill anyone who doesn't properly respect their authority, sorry, it's their fault).

I'm deeply ashamed of what is being done by these turds, and I'm ashamed of what our descendants will read in the history books -- if we still have honest history books after this, but #rump is working on that, too.