At What Cost Deportation?
I
got a call last night.
I
was in the middle of working on a bi-lingual wedding service. The
call was from a former parishioner who had never become a member of
the church I served. It went something like this:
“Pastor,
a friend of mine just got picked up by ICE. He missed a hearing on
his immigration status. Now he has been detained for deportation. His
wife and twin babies are at a loss. Is there any support network for
them?”
“Where
do they live?”
“Cornelius.”
“Sorry,
I don't know of anything without calling Ada Jenkins and the Latin
American Coalition.”
“They
are staying with us right now. She can't handle the 3-month old twins
by herself. Without him working, they can't pay rent.”
Okay,
let's back up a little. He missed a hearing, not due to any criminal
activity. It was one of those hearings with Immigration for people
issued DACA papers. This young man had gone through all the screening
and reporting for the DACA program. He showed himself to have come
here as a child and stayed out of trouble. He was working legally and
supporting his young family. He is from Mexico, his wife is from
Guatemala. The twins were born here three months ago, and so are US
citizens.
“For the Lord your God is
God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who
is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the
orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them
food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were
strangers in the land of Egypt.” - Deuteronomy 10:17-19 (NRSV)
Many
immigrants have been hearing stories of ICE agents waiting to catch
and deport them for showing up at these hearings. Others, like him,
(we'll call him Carlos), are being rounded up for not going to their
hearings. Officially, ICE is going after high priority people to
deport, but the reality is another story. Anyone who happens to be
accused or has any kind of encounter with the law is subject to being
locked up and deported.
We'll
call her, Marta, the mother of the twins. She has just lost her
economic support. Marta was depending on Carlos to bring money home,
especially now that the twins have arrived and make it rather
difficult for her to work. If she were picked up by ICE, the twins
would go to DSS and into the foster care system. They would become
wards of the state. That means that our tax dollars would be
responsible to feed, clothe, and care for their medical and
educational needs.
Martha
would not qualify for most of the social assistance programs, even
while the children might. Carlos is being taken out of the picture,
meaning that these children will grow up without their father. We
know that tends to bring a host of problems upon children. He can't
send child support, as he is in detention with ICE. The private
prison system will charge the Federal Government about $120 per day
to detain him. Normally, he would be held for 6-9 months before being
deported. (That is $20,000-30,000 of taxpayer funds, likely more than
he would have earned, but this is not supporting his family. It takes
him out of the workforce.)
We
have a young man who was pulling his weight, contributing to the
economy, caring for his wife and babies. Now we have removed Carlos
from the workforce, placed his wife in a precarious economic
situation, forced her to use social services for her children's needs
(at taxpayer expense), and broke up a home, placing two babies on a
difficult trajectory.
What
is the point?
Why
is this the route to take?
Is
there a reason to break up a family at such a social and economic
cost?
Let's
say Marta gets deported as well, and the children enter the foster
care system. The costs rise for us in several ways. There are the
payments to foster care families to cover their care. There are the
costs for Medicaid. There is the added backlog for DSS. Then we rear
two children who come through with the full understanding that we
took their parents away from them over a political issues and some
generalized fear of immigrants and refugees.
What
do we gain from all this? We chuck a couple of “undesirables”
from the country. We create animosity toward the government in two of
our citizens. We release them into the society without a family
support network. We rear two children with a shaky family foundation.
Our
current system of enforcement has done nothing to address the needs
of the immigrant community. By stressing merciless enforcement, we
create a hostile environment. We plant the seeds of enmity toward our
government, officers of the law, and the people who have voted these
policies into power.
Is
it worth it? Is sticking it to the immigrant community worth the
economic and social costs? It is worth snubbing Jesus' command to
love our neighbors?
© Copyright 2017 Christopher B. Harbin
My latest books can be found here on amazon
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