Your tired, your poor …

I attended a training for immigrants this evening. The training was about how they should deal with encounters with ICE, more properly the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. I watched the presentation in a room of over 100 people with an understanding that there was also a crowded overflow room with more people watching a video feed of the presentation.

I was a bystander in this room. The presentation was completely in Spanish, befitting the audience. My Spanish is poor, I rarely use the language and I have forgotten much of what I have learned. However, I was able to follow along very easily as I watched the presenter highlight the differences between a judicial warrant and ICE’s administrative warrants. I easily understood when the presenter explained the rights of people in the United States.

When I got home later in the evening my wife and I watched a couple of episodes of the Netflix series Mo. The second episode of season two is about the main character’s time in an ICE detention center. I don’t know how realistic the show’s depiction of a detention center is but it was disgusting enough. I have no doubt that this depiction was anywhere near as dehumanizing and torturous the actual experience is.

I know over the next four years there will be a lot of conflict in the area of immigration. I am not an immigrant. I do not face the same fears and dangers an immigrant currently living in the United States will face. I am a citizen born to citizen parents. I am a veteran. I am a consistent voter. I am also not free from many of the dangers my immigrants brothers and sisters face.

During both the Mexican Repatriation and Operation Wetback thousand of American Citizens were deported to Mexico on the basis of their looks. Activists against the terrors and evils of the United States tend not to fare well: see Bunchy Carter, Frank Clearwater, and numerous others you have heard about. I doubt the United States Government will be any less violent against dissenter under trump.

All of this gets me thinking about a quote attributed to Seneca, “All cruelty springs from weakness.” I do not imply that the government has turned cruel and repressive under trump; the United States federal government has long been a force for racism and repression. It is the weakness of white supremacy that spawns cruel and obviously counter-productive actions against immigrants.

Tonight I stood in a room full of immigrants who were taking steps to ensure their safety and security against a cruel and repressive government. I am not an immigrant and I cannot truly know their fears and concerns. What I can do is stand beside them and use what powers I possess to help them in their current struggles.

The presentation was sponsored by CHIRLA. Please support them if you are so inclined.