It’s so important to remember that deportations not only upheave the lives of immigrants, they permanently damage the lives of their children and families as well. Earlier this week, Maribel Trujillo was torn from her family and deported to Mexico, despite the valiant efforts of her advocates. All four of Maribel’s kids are U.S. citizens. All four are now left without a mother and will be in the care of their now-single dad. These kids already have enough to worry about, but incredibly and unselfishly, Maribel’s eldest son, Oswaldo, is also concerned about the millions of other Maribels and their families:
[Alan Dicken] coordinates the Cincinnati Sanctuary Congregation Coalition, an Interfaith group in town that helps families seeking sanctuary. Dicken was with the Trujillo-Diaz family shortly after Maribel Trujillo-Diaz was taken. Amid the confusion of the day, Oswaldo expressed something extraordinary.
“His fear is that it’s not just their family, but that this is going to be happening to thousands of other mothers,” Dicken said.
“Insight and compassion,” notes columnist Byron McCauley, “from a boy who knows what it feels like to suddenly lose his mom.” And a boy with a bigger heart and understanding than any adult in the Trump administration.
Sadly, thousands of U.S. citizen children of undocumented immigrants end up in even more tragic circumstances than Oswaldo and his siblings. One 2011 study estimated that 5,000 U.S. citizen kids are in foster care due to the deportation of their immigrant parents, and that number is easily expected to rise under Donald Trump’s racist, mass deportation dragnet. Other studies “show that deportation can plunge children into deep poverty, homelessness, sickness and educational disparity.” No child, regardless of his or her own immigration status or the immigration status of their parent, deserves this.
Said Dicken: “When we are spending our time and energy and resources targeting a woman like Maribel, a working woman providing for her family, then we are not living our best selves.”
The Rev. Troy Jackson serves as executive director of the Amos Project, which is dedicated to building the Beloved Community, a pluralistic concept popularized by the late Rev. Martin Luther King. Jackson agrees with Dicken.
“This is to me one of those events, one of those stories where we must hold up a mirror to our society and look at what we are becoming,” Jackson said. “What many of us see in the mirror is not a pretty picture.”
I wonder what does Oswaldo see, when he holds that mirror up to his country?
As immigrant rights leader Frank Sharry recently said, “unfortunately, this will not be the last ‘Maribel’ case. But, just as we saw with the nationwide support for Maribel, Americans are standing united against deportations that target ordinary mothers and fathers, workers, and students, who now call America their home.” Advocates will keep fighting for Oswaldo (an official GoFundMe has been set up to help him and his siblings here) and millions of other children who deserve their chance to just be kids.