As the title says. Do you know anyone with a target on their back?
We arrived at a station in life that we have two people come clean twice a month.
One is… Mexican? Speaks with a heavy accent. But speaks English.
The other is Ukrainian. 90% deaf. She uses an app on her phone to communicate. She knows no English as far as I can tell.
The next person is married to a good friend. I consider him my friend. He’s from Costa Rica, served in both the US Army and US Navy. Very interesting guy. Strong as an Ox 75 years old. Active duty in Nam. But, he is clearly from Latin America. His color and his speech. He should probably avoid Home Depot.
I have a close friend who has had a Hispanic woman do housework for him and has helped take care of his three boys, including one with Down syndrome, while both he and his wife worked for at least 30 years. Instead of paying her, he provides her free rent and utilities in a small house he owns a few miles from where he lives.
This is in California, and she has a driver’s license but no green card or citizenship. She apparently is not worried about being targeted for removal, although she is in the US illegally. My friend doesn’t know how she got into the US originally, but thinks that even though he lives in a blue state, at some point she will be picked up and put into detention prior to forced deportation back to Mexico. She had three children of her own in the US, and I think that makes them US citizens, at least for the time being.
I went to school in California, and several friends were undocumented, either themselves or their extended family. It was quite normal and expected back in the day. I am worried about them.
And not deportation, but similar: I am worried about detention camps for myself, like the ones they used in WW2. I don’t think citizenship alone would prevent that.
Not anyone I know well, but probably a plurality of my neighbors are from El Salvador or elsewhere in Central America. Yes, I’m concerned about them. ICE was set up outside one of our local middle schools last week.
My wife was born in Tehran. Her family escaped to the US during the 1979 Islamic revolution. Her mother and father are naturalized, but that doesn’t seem to matter to the blackshirts; they’re grabbing ethnic people with strong accents regardless of status. And of course there’s the nonzero chance naturalized citizenships for people from undesirable countries will be retracted.
(Edit to clarify: yes, my wife and I are in Europe and beyond the reach of the thugs. I’m talking about people still in the US.)
Beyond them, there’s the entire extended circle of family and friends in the Persian community, dozens and dozens of people. They are quite politically active (I attended a fundraiser for a Dem senator at one of their houses) and I’m confident they’re being actively scrutinized to see if there’s a green card resident or visa holder who can be quickly targeted.
I’m also sure they’re looking at my wife’s cousin (the eldest son of her mother’s brother). He was born in the US, but he got involved with an exceedingly stupid import-export fraud scheme and spent a couple years in federal prison. When the blackshirts get the go-ahead to deliberately target “unwanted” citizens, he’ll be near the top of the list.
We haven’t gotten news about anyone yet but we know the clock is ticking.
My MAGAt brother is trying to get his Filipina wife here. I feel like he’s wasting his time. Even if she’s approved to be here, “they” will find a reason to deport her.
OP here. With the deaf Ukrainian housekeeper (something I never thought I would say [house keeper that is]). We bought a Ukrainian flag and a Peace flag and put them in our garden. She wanted her picture taken there. We wanted her to know where we stand.
If this proceeds far enough, I don’t think citizenship will prevent much of anything. I’m not expecting to be imminently in danger; but in the somewhat longer run I think it’s quite possible (in which case the danger would include pretty much all my family members, some of whom probably voted for Trump.)
I had a good customer at market last year who was clearly from somewhere south of the US border. I didn’t ask her where she was from, and I certainly didn’t ask her what her legal status was. She hasn’t shown up this year. I don’t know why, but I wonder.
The obvious question is “What are the assumed standards for deportation?” If it’s any less than lilywhite person, regardless of citizenship, that’s WAG 40% of the USA. Good bet we all know somebody like that.
If it’s only people who are not currently in a legal immigration status, and have committed an unrelated serious crime in the USA, it’s 1 in 10 thousand, if that many. Good bet nearly none of us know one of those people.
My real point was “If the ‘standards’ are merely arbitrary and capricious, then everyone, including you, your spouse, your kids, and me & mine, are subject to deportation.”
Since it seems that’s exactly what the standards are, or are rapidly becoming, the answer is “everyone”.
I think anyone could get deported, but the people I worry about most are those who are neither white nor black.
I don’t worry about any white person who speaks fluent unaccented English and have proof of citizenship. Black people of course are always one traffic stop away from incarceration or worse, I don’t think anything’s changed there. I don’t believe deportation risk has increased for either of those groups. For now.
But for people who code as “foreigners”, I’m worried about them, no matter if they’re on a valid visa or not, no matter how long they’ve lived here, no matter how affluent they are.
I don’t know what minor traffic/drug/etc charges any of my neighbors have in their pasts. But the ones I worry about are the extended Hispanic family next door. I live in a very Red suburb (Charlie Kirk has been canonized by the local megachurch pastor) in CA and the neighborhood is mostly MAGA and very religious, lots of LDS. There is one guy who calls the cops whenever he thinks the mariachi music is too loud.
I have asked myself what I would do when the white vans with smoked windows pull up next door and the only thing I can think of is to get out my phone & start filming.
Of course, for all I know they are all citizens & voted for Trump.
I’ve been working with a Syrian refugee family. They are completely legal, but also, as refugees, the government knows exactly where they are. Yes, I’m worried.
My wife and I both came to the US completely legally (immigration visas issued before we ever set foot in the country) almost 40 years ago and have no criminal convictions (I’ve never even had a traffic ticket) but we are both worried about what might happen soon. Because we’ve certainly committed what the MAGAs consider thought crimes.
I live in greater Miami. If they deported all the brownish people with an accent who’d ever had the slightest brush with the law, even if they’re now naturalized citizens, the place would be a ghost town.
My BIL isn’t a US citizen, but a green card holder who has been here in the US and married to my sister for 35 years. I wouldn’t have had any concerns a few years ago, but now …