Friday, March 03, 2017

Shit Is Fucked Up And Bullshit

Imagine spending every day being frightened that your parents or the co-parent of your children are going to be deported from the life they've had for decades.

There are holes in the immigration system that are easy to fall through. You'd think that marrying a noncitizen would give you some rights as an American citizen, to residency for that person. But it isn't that simple. Spouses being dragged from each other, parents from children, children from parents. Even if there's a way through the immigration system, in theory, it's complicated, costly, and time consuming. The fees alone are high, and good luck doing it without an attorney. In case you haven't noticed, a lot of people don't have any fucking money.

Jose Escobar lost his legal status in a paperwork gaffe more than a decade ago when he was still a teen in Houston.

That slip-up, the fault of his mother who thought her child would be automatically included in her own renewal application, has trailed him ever since. Thursday it led to his surprise deportation to El Salvador, a country he hasn't seen in 16 years.

The government's decision to remove the 31-year-old father, who has no criminal record and is married to an American citizen, is the latest indication that President Donald Trump's administration plans to deport practically any immigrant here illegally, even some like Escobar who were temporarily protected, who happens to fall into its cross hairs.