We are seeing our first close up look at Trump’s deportations in Oakland and they are not making us safer or greater. On Tuesday the ICE plans to deport an oncology nurse working at Highland hospital, and her truck driver husband, who by all account have lived exemplary lives, in the US. This will leave behind three children including a junior in high school, who will have to make their way without their parents.
Let me repeat, she is an oncology nurse at Highland hospital.
Given all the issues we have, it’s hard to see how this is a priority use of resources and even harder to see how it is the “right” thing to do. No criminal issues or any issues whatsoever in 23 years, successful children who will contribute to society and both of them have worked, paid taxes and tried to find a path to legal residence, applying for asylum, and deliberately identifying themselves to the government in an effort to get legal.
It was 23 years ago Maria Mendoza-Sanchez, her husband Eusebio and daughter crossed the border. There has to be a way to make that right, without breaking up this family. And if this is the way it is going to go. If this is the immigration enforcement policy for the next several years, we need to resist. That starts with a protest on Monday (more info below).
Senator Feinstein, summed this up perfectly in an interview in the Chronicle, “These are the kind of people we should welcome into the United States with open arms,” the California Democrat said. “Tearing this family apart doesn’t make anyone safer, it only places incredible hardship on their three children who will remain behind, forced to navigate their lives without their parents.”
So please stand with me and others in the Bay Area against this injustice. The East Bay Democratic Socialists of America are organizing a protest on Monday August 13th at Highland from 12-3, and there are free shuttles from the Lake Merritt Bart, the details are here.
Please join us. Injustice festers, when people of conscience sit silently. It’s time to stand up.