On the subject of deportation, here's something I posted on social media this morning:
***
I haven’t posted anything remotely political on social media in over four years, and I don’t plan on making a habit of it. I’ve long since given up on the idea of social media saving the world but maybe posting this will make me feel a little better.
On the subject of deportation, here's something I posted on social media this morning:
***
I haven’t posted anything remotely political on social media in over four years, and I don’t plan on making a habit of it. I’ve long since given up on the idea of social media saving the world but maybe posting this will make me feel a little better.
I’m going to tell you about some recent events. The parts I did not witness were recounted to me by highly credible sources.
I’m not going to tell you how to think of these events, or who is to blame, but if you think any part of it is okay, keep it to yourself. I’m not going to debate with you.
The person identified as “V” in these stories is my housekeeper. She’s not a secret agent, but I don’t know whether she wants her name all over Facebook so I’m not giving her name.
Feel free to repost.
STORY #1
V has two cousins in Vista, California. One of them is married and has a baby. They are all native-born American citizens with papers to prove it.
All four were rounded up by ICE and brought to a detention camp in Laredo, Texas. After a few days they were brought before a judge (I’m not sure whether it was a federal judge or an administrative law judge), released, and sent back to California.
V’s cousins have retained lawyers and have filed suit. I have no details on the basis of the suit or any opinion regarding the merits or likely outcome.
STORY #2
I recently received an email from a law school classmate, who passed on an email from her friend in Los Angeles. The friend requested help on behalf of a family of undocumented Venezuelan migrants. The mother and father are in their twenties. Their son is 5 years old. I agreed to help and enlisted V.
The family had been in LA for around 3 months. Given the current political situation, they decided (sensibly) to self-deport to Venezuela.
The family crossed the border to Tijuana, along with another family consisting of a mother and father in their twenties, a boy aged 5, and a girl aged 10.
One of the men worked in law enforcement in Venezuela and fell afoul of the Maduro regime.
One of the women suffered an attempted rape, or an actual rape, in Tijuana. (It was initially described to me as an attempted rape, but later I heard mention of a pregnancy test, so I’m not sure.)
The families took a bus from Tijuana to Mexico City. V met them at Terminal Norte, the bus station that handles buses from Mexico City to points north. V reported that there were many people getting off buses that appeared to be in similar situations.
V took the families to my apartment. We got some food into them, they took showers, did some laundry, and relaxed for a few hours. They were all grateful for the help. The kids were friendly and precocious. One of the 5-year-old boys told me all the countries he had passed through, and recounted the nationalities of everyone in the room.
(The families spent time in Colombia after fleeing Venezuela. Two of the kids were born in Colombia and are therefore Colombian citizens.)
The initial plan was for the families to stay in Mexico City for a while and get passports at the Venezuelan consulate. They only have photocopies. I do not know what happened to the originals; I suspect they were lost on the trip north. V, who is one of the most kind and resourceful people I have ever met, took the following steps:
1. She made some phone calls and found a short-term rental apartment.
2. She investigated getting the men jobs at Mercado La Merced so that they could earn some money for the trip south.
3. She spoke with a friend at the Mexican Foreign Ministry, to see whether (a) the friend had any contacts at the Venezuelan consulate who could expedite the papers; and/or (b) there was any prospect of being granted asylum in Mexico. The answer in both cases was “no.”
4. She got a doctor to examine one of the boys, who had an abscess on one leg. The doctor drained the abscess, gave the parents some antibiotic ointment, and put a surgical bandage over the wound to keep it clean.
5. She got more food into them, including a cake for the kids, who enjoyed it.
One of V’s sons is a Mexican federal prosecutor who handles narcotics cases and knows a thing or two about interviewing witnesses. He talked to the families and was convinced that they were telling the truth about their situation.
The families decided to continue south the next day rather than stay in Mexico City. People are fleeing north from their home countries and south from the US, and Mexico is caught in the middle. There are now several encampments in Mexico City. I hear that at one of them, in Plaza La Soledad near La Merced, has around 4,000 people in tents. One newspaper article stated that half of them are from Africa. The Mexican authorities have launched their own deportation campaign. The families are afraid (again, with good reason) that the kids who are Colombian citizens will be separated from their parents if they are deported.
V got them on a southbound bus the next day, which wasn’t easy because most of the major bus lines won’t sell you a ticket without proper identification. The destination was Tapachula, the major border crossing between Mexico and Guatemala.
The bus was stopped and searched by the authorities at Tuxtla Gutierrez, in the southern state of Chiapas, about 200 miles from the border. The authorities (presumably the Mexican National Guard, but I’m not sure) were prepared to deport them separately to Venezuela and Colombia.
Somehow, they managed to contact V. V’s ex-husband owns businesses in La Merced that employ a lot of people in Chiapas, and he has contacts there. Somehow, he pulled strings and got the families released. I don’t know or want to know the details.
The families continued on to Tapachula and crossed to Guatemala, where they have no legal status. The boy with the abscess wasn’t getting any better, and they were sleeping in a park somewhere.
V got them some money somehow and convinced them to take the kid to the doctor. He’s taking antibiotics and apparently, he’s on the mend.
V tried to get them help via the Catholic Church, and her son, the federal prosecutor, tried to work the contacts his office has with their counterparts in Guatemala. But as of the last report, they had left Guatemala for Honduras, and from there to Nicaragua. The next stop is Costa Rica.
They have three options for getting back to Venezuela:
1. By sea. The people with the boats are charging $320 USD per head, and it’s unlikely the boats are seaworthy.
2. By land, via the Darien Gap – the southern part of Panamá that borders Colombia. There are no roads through the Darien Gap, so the trip entails walking for five days through the jungle, with all the dangers that entails.
3. Deportation, which as previously noted, would likely entail separation of the two Colombian kids from their families. In the best case, someone would take charge of the kids and get them over the border to Venezuela.
V is attempting to convince them that deportation is their least bad option.
On the subject of deportation, here's something I posted on social media this morning:
***
I haven’t posted anything remotely political on social media in over four years, and I don’t plan on making a habit of it. I’ve long since given up on the idea of social media saving the world but maybe posting this will make me feel a little better.
I’m going to tell you about some recent events. The parts I did not witness were recounted to me by highly credible sources.
I’m not going to tell you how to think of these events, or who is to blame, but if you think any part of it is okay, keep it to yourself. I’m not going to debate with you.
The person identified as “V” in these stories is my housekeeper. She’s not a secret agent, but I don’t know whether she wants her name all over Facebook so I’m not giving her name.
Feel free to repost.
STORY #1
V has two cousins in Vista, California. One of them is married and has a baby. They are all native-born American citizens with papers to prove it.
All four were rounded up by ICE and brought to a detention camp in Laredo, Texas. After a few days they were brought before a judge (I’m not sure whether it was a federal judge or an administrative law judge), released, and sent back to California.
V’s cousins have retained lawyers and have filed suit. I have no details on the basis of the suit or any opinion regarding the merits or likely outcome.
STORY #2
I recently received an email from a law school classmate, who passed on an email from her friend in Los Angeles. The friend requested help on behalf of a family of undocumented Venezuelan migrants. The mother and father are in their twenties. Their son is 5 years old. I agreed to help and enlisted V.
The family had been in LA for around 3 months. Given the current political situation, they decided (sensibly) to self-deport to Venezuela.
The family crossed the border to Tijuana, along with another family consisting of a mother and father in their twenties, a boy aged 5, and a girl aged 10.
One of the men worked in law enforcement in Venezuela and fell afoul of the Maduro regime.
One of the women suffered an attempted rape, or an actual rape, in Tijuana. (It was initially described to me as an attempted rape, but later I heard mention of a pregnancy test, so I’m not sure.)
The families took a bus from Tijuana to Mexico City. V met them at Terminal Norte, the bus station that handles buses from Mexico City to points north. V reported that there were many people getting off buses that appeared to be in similar situations.
V took the families to my apartment. We got some food into them, they took showers, did some laundry, and relaxed for a few hours. They were all grateful for the help. The kids were friendly and precocious. One of the 5-year-old boys told me all the countries he had passed through, and recounted the nationalities of everyone in the room.
(The families spent time in Colombia after fleeing Venezuela. Two of the kids were born in Colombia and are therefore Colombian citizens.)
The initial plan was for the families to stay in Mexico City for a while and get passports at the Venezuelan consulate. They only have photocopies. I do not know what happened to the originals; I suspect they were lost on the trip north. V, who is one of the most kind and resourceful people I have ever met, took the following steps:
1. She made some phone calls and found a short-term rental apartment.
2. She investigated getting the men jobs at Mercado La Merced so that they could earn some money for the trip south.
3. She spoke with a friend at the Mexican Foreign Ministry, to see whether (a) the friend had any contacts at the Venezuelan consulate who could expedite the papers; and/or (b) there was any prospect of being granted asylum in Mexico. The answer in both cases was “no.”
4. She got a doctor to examine one of the boys, who had an abscess on one leg. The doctor drained the abscess, gave the parents some antibiotic ointment, and put a surgical bandage over the wound to keep it clean.
5. She got more food into them, including a cake for the kids, who enjoyed it.
One of V’s sons is a Mexican federal prosecutor who handles narcotics cases and knows a thing or two about interviewing witnesses. He talked to the families and was convinced that they were telling the truth about their situation.
The families decided to continue south the next day rather than stay in Mexico City. People are fleeing north from their home countries and south from the US, and Mexico is caught in the middle. There are now several encampments in Mexico City. I hear that at one of them, in Plaza La Soledad near La Merced, has around 4,000 people in tents. One newspaper article stated that half of them are from Africa. The Mexican authorities have launched their own deportation campaign. The families are afraid (again, with good reason) that the kids who are Colombian citizens will be separated from their parents if they are deported.
V got them on a southbound bus the next day, which wasn’t easy because most of the major bus lines won’t sell you a ticket without proper identification. The destination was Tapachula, the major border crossing between Mexico and Guatemala.
The bus was stopped and searched by the authorities at Tuxtla Gutierrez, in the southern state of Chiapas, about 200 miles from the border. The authorities (presumably the Mexican National Guard, but I’m not sure) were prepared to deport them separately to Venezuela and Colombia.
Somehow, they managed to contact V. V’s ex-husband owns businesses in La Merced that employ a lot of people in Chiapas, and he has contacts there. Somehow, he pulled strings and got the families released. I don’t know or want to know the details.
The families continued on to Tapachula and crossed to Guatemala, where they have no legal status. The boy with the abscess wasn’t getting any better, and they were sleeping in a park somewhere.
V got them some money somehow and convinced them to take the kid to the doctor. He’s taking antibiotics and apparently, he’s on the mend.
V tried to get them help via the Catholic Church, and her son, the federal prosecutor, tried to work the contacts his office has with their counterparts in Guatemala. But as of the last report, they had left Guatemala for Honduras, and from there to Nicaragua. The next stop is Costa Rica.
They have three options for getting back to Venezuela:
1. By sea. The people with the boats are charging $320 USD per head, and it’s unlikely the boats are seaworthy.
2. By land, via the Darien Gap – the southern part of Panamá that borders Colombia. There are no roads through the Darien Gap, so the trip entails walking for five days through the jungle, with all the dangers that entails.
3. Deportation, which as previously noted, would likely entail separation of the two Colombian kids from their families. In the best case, someone would take charge of the kids and get them over the border to Venezuela.
V is attempting to convince them that deportation is their least bad option.