José’s Story Continues (click here to read part 1)
Every day, all over this country, ICE is sweeping up thousands of hard-working men and women – and even children. Over and over again, we are seeing the same scenes of heavily armed men tearing down doors and dragging off scared and sobbing civilians. If you’re thinking this is looking more and more like an old Nazi movie, you’re right. That’s precisely what it’s supposed to be – but, thank God, it is not evoking the silence and fear and distrust aimed at our non-white, immigrant neighbors as it’s intended to do. Schools and businesses and local governments and sometimes even entire towns are stepping into and not away from these confrontations with ICE agents.
The victims targeted are seldom the “criminals” they are cast to be. Nor are they vermin or drug dealers or terrorists. And ICE, for all its brutality and drama, is failing to turn them into that. These are our neighbors. Law-abiding members of our communities. We know them – love and respect them! All over this country, we are rising to claim them!
Courage and integrity still abound, even in the darkest of nights, and so far, they are holding. Millions and millions of Americans are pouring out in the street to protest, showing up at Home Depots and detention centers and in targeted intersections, risking arrest by capturing the viciousness and unprovoked violence on their cell phones. Every day, people are speaking out. Demanding answers. Fighting to get their workers and their friends back.
The politics of resentment are not working as well as they used to. Still, the damage and danger are real. The cost, first to these families and then to all the rest of us, is heartbreaking.
When my new gardener, José, a young husband and father, was detained, everyone in his world was upended: his family, his clients, his colleagues, and friends. But something amazing began happening. His wife, Maria, dazed and heartbroken, almost immediately pulled herself together enough to find a second job. Her first job already allowed her to work from home, so she can care for their health-challenged son. Her second came from a nearby business, where the boss agreed she could take the shift from 6:00 at night ’til midnight. In the brief time in between, she’s able to feed her kids, listen to their reports of the day, and do all the things that good single parents do to try to keep their families intact and healthy. She has been blessed: both sets of employers stepped up and agreed to the hours needed for her to accomplish all the jobs that are suddenly required of her, as the sole parent and breadwinner.
Other people are stepping up, too, and that’s the miracle of this story being played out throughout the country. People, friends, and strangers alike are showing up to help. The first thing that this family needed was a lawyer. Where and how? They had no idea. Why would they?! A friend suggested someone, but they were concerned about it. “Could we look over the contract?” they asked. We called a neighbor who’s a lawyer. He dropped everything to research the attorney they had engaged and to understand the detainees’ legal needs. An hour later, he called back: the lawyer they had chosen looked legitimate. Then he began learning in earnest everything he could about what these families are facing. He decided to get involved.
Looking for additional help, I called a friend, who called a colleague in their area and asked how to get food to the family. Hearing of their distress, “Ellen” called the mother herself and offered to get the needed groceries – including the chips that the littlest one adores. She prayerfully considered her own budget and then committed to help with the groceries. She listened deeply, hoping to learn what else they needed, and then volunteered to take them all to church each week. In that simple act, she became a solid force of balance.
Many of our fellow Americans are doing exactly the same things. Reaching out. Listening. Offering help however they can. As others have learned of this family and many like it, they have stepped up in remarkable ways – some little and some significant. There are organizations that have been around a long, long time, with volunteers who faithfully do much of the technical work. CLUE, “Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice”, is one here in Southern California that is helping with the long wait in line to arrange for bail. Friends have taken off the morning or the whole day to stand in line downtown at the Federal Building to get a bail bond for a stranger. That’s the kind of people we are!
Countless churches and mosques and temples and gurdwaras and a myriad of other faith communities are quietly adding soup kitchens and legal advice and errands and rides. While none of us can do everything, but all of us can do something – and we are! And it is making a difference. Taking a stand for one another.
THAT is the true AMERICA.