No matter what the administration says, immigration policies under Trump are clear-cut for men like Jorge Garcia.
Midway through Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the 39-year old Detroit native was bidding a tearful farewell to his family. Standing near the security gates at the region’s largest airport, Garcia hugged his teenage daughter. His wife stood nearby, sobbing loudly.
The Lincoln Park landscaper had arrived to the United States as a young boy. According to the Detroit Free Press, Garcia was only ten years old when he first came to America, brought into the country by another undocumented family member.
Decades later, Garcia had made a life for himself in Michigan. He was married, had children, and stayed out of trouble.
Although he’d been staring down deportation for the better part of ten years, judges were lenient, fending off the removal order since 2009.
And Garcia, claim his supporters, was an ordinary, hardworking member of the community. While the Trump administration has claimed its priority is to deport criminals rather than the common man, Jorge Garcia paid his taxes and never received so much as a traffic ticket.
Garcia was, unfortunately, too old to qualify for an Obama-era amnesty program, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Recently rescinded by President Trump, DACA let otherwise law-abiding illegal immigrants who’d arrived into the United States as children apply for renewable residency and employment permits.
The Detroit Free Press says DACA reform was an issue Garcia had been hoping to see resolved quickly. He’d asked ICE to allow him enough time for a legislative fix to pass, but was denied permission to continue staying in the United States and told he’d have to “return” to Mexico by the 15th of January.
“How do you do this on Martin Luther King Jr. Day?” asked Erik Shelley, a leader with immigration advocacy group Michigan United. “It’s another example of the tone-deafness of this administration […] if Jorge isn’t safe, no one is safe.”
Shelley told the Free Press he’s worried that minority immigrants are being targeted in ever-greater numbers, following a series of stranger remarks from President Trump last week. While controversial and not quite substantiated, the commander-in-chief purportedly said he wanted fewer migrants from “shithole” countries, preferring workers from comparably prosperous places like Norway.
“I feel kind of sad,” Garcia told the Free Press a day before his deportation. Hands pressed against his forehead, he said, “I got to leave my family behind, knowing that they’re probably going to have a hard time adjusting. Me not being there for them for who knows how long.”
“It’s just hard.”
Sources
After 30 years in U.S., metro Detroit immigrant deported to Mexico
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