Hey Everyone!
I've been thinking about the way ICE is rounding people up like the Gestapo and deporting them. Even when they've been in this country for years. Even if they don't even remember the country they came from or speak the language. And I've been thinking how would I feel if it were me.
I mean, it isn't and it won't be, since I and both my parents were born in the US, but I can't help putting myself in their shoes. Because I know how I've felt when I've moved across the country. The moves were my idea, done on my schedule, and I stayed in the country. I had every reason to expect that the people where I was going would speak the same language as me and that the laws regarding renting an apartment and getting a job would be the same so that I wouldn't have to worry about navigating a completely new legal system just to find a place to live and work.
I knew that the money that I had would be accepted and the credit cards that I carried would work. I had my car, so transportation wasn't an issue. I took food with me that was food I was used to and I knew that the same kind of food would be available where I was going. I had my cats and my clothes and some of my stuff. I had my phone so I could communicate with friends and the authorities if I needed help. And I had had the chance to arrange it so that the rest of my stuff would show up when I had a place to put it. So, most aspects of those moves were very different from being plucked out of my life and deposited with nothing in a foreign country. But they were still nerve-wrackingly stressful moves.
Two of my grandparents immigrated to the US from Italy, and so I think about what it would be like if storm-troopers came along and grabbed me off the street and took away the few belongings I carried with me, like my phone and wallet, and then shipped me off "back" to Italy with no warning or chance to prepare. I understand a tiny bit of Italian, if the people speaking don't speak too quickly and stick to topics that are commonly discussed among family in the home, but I don't speak Italian at all. And being able to understand if someone is asking if you're hungry or being able to identify some of the more common foods someone might eat or understand if someone wants to know if you're going to the store later won't really help you find a job. Especially, if you can't even answer any of those questions in the same language.
And I have no idea if any of my credit cards would work in a foreign country or how I would get replacements for them if ICE stole them from me. Nor do I know how I would access the money in my bank accounts from a foreign country. I assume there's some kind of process for arranging that, but figuring out that process from a foreign country where I don't speak the language without even knowing where to start would definitely take some time. And what would I do in the meantime to live?
I know I have family in Italy -- not something that every person who has been deported could necessarily be expected to be able to depend on -- and I know the general region where they live. But I don't have any contact information for them, and I know that most of them don't speak English. So, while I'm certain they would put me up for a few days, at least, until I could figure out my financial situation, because they've repeatedly invited my entire family to visit whenever we wanted, I'd first have to find them and explain who I am and convince them I was telling the truth.
I know some of my family in Italy is in law enforcement, so they might be expected to have some contacts within the Italian government who could help me figure out how to access my money and get the necessary IDs and paperwork to be able to get a job, but that still doesn't solve the language barrier. And, yes, I could learn Italian, especially if I was immersed in it every day, but it would still take time. And I would still have no clothes or a place to live or anything else without depending on the charity of relatives who I've never even met.
And Italy is a western European country with a relatively stable political system and a government that is set up to provide for its citizens. There are social safety nets in Italy that, while I might have trouble figuring out how to access them due to the language barrier, I could probably find a way to take advantage of, eventually. That's not something that all the people who are being deported can say about the places they're being sent to.
I just don't understand why more people aren't seeing what a huge, horrible thing this is to do to others. At the very least, it's an enormous disruption to their lives, tearing them away from families, jobs, and other connections they've built over years. The kind of community that most of us take for granted. And sending them to a country they may have no memory of, where they don't have any support system or means of caring for themselves, places that may or may not have the infrastructure in place to help them. And why? Because the Monster in the White House doesn't like brown or black people? It's reprehensible.
I've also been thinking about how quite a few people who claim to be Christian have been spewing a lot of hateful rhetoric about immigrants and refugees. These people seem to think it's a good thing to round people up like cattle and send them somewhere else or build walls to keep them out. In the 2016 election, Trump got 80% of the evangelical vote, though he made no secret of the fact that he intended to persecute immigrants. So, since so many of the people promoting these policies claim to be such good Christians, I thought I'd conclude this post by sharing a few Bible verses about how the Biblical God wants strangers and the oppressed to be treated by people who claim to follow him.
Peace!
“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets." - Matthew 7:12
“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God." - Leviticus 19:33-34
“You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt." - Exodus 22:21
“‘Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen'." - Deuteronomy 27:19
“Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.” - Zechariah 7:9-10
"Jesus replied, 'A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?' He said, 'The one who showed him mercy.' And Jesus said to him, 'You go, and do likewise'.” - Luke 10:30-37
"Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." - Hebrews 13:2
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” - John 13:34-35
"A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." - Proverbs 17:17
"Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me'. “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” - Matthew 25:34-46
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