That's a line from Cheech Marin's novelty song "Born in East L.A.". He took Bruce's "Born in the U.S.A" and turned it into a story about being deported from his barrio home to a country he'd never seen. Quiche is a region and a language in Guatemala.
Did someone say "history happens first as a farce and then as a tragedy"?
ICE Deports West Windsor (NJ) Resident to Wrong Country
As if the pain and fear of being swept up with his family by immigration agents at his home one morning, and then languish for two weeks in jail, were not enough, without prior notice to him or his family, yesterday morning, one of the Guatemalan immigrants who was arrested in West Windsor on November 30 was taken to the airpor at dawn, to be deported from the country he called home for over 13 years, and put on a flight destined not for his home country, but for Mexico City!
In spite of his vehement protestations that he was being sent to the wrong country, immigration agents ordered him on to the flight under threat of indefinite jail time, if he refused to leave the country
Later in the day, as the anguished relatives in West Windsor realized that the man had been deported, and put on a flight they assumed was bound for Guatemala City, they contacted relatives in their home town, 4 hours away from the Guatemalan capital, to go pick him up. When the man failed to arrive, the frantic relatives tried in vain all day to locate him around the airport, and finally went back home.
The deportee finally landed at 2 AM local time this morning on a flight from Mexico City, penniless, to find himself all alone in the darkened, empty Guatemala City airport terminal.. Thanks to the kindness of a stranger he was able to make a cell phone call to a relative who was able to eventually drive over to greet him.
The other three members of the family detained the same day, a couple and their 21-year old daughter, remain in custody at the Elizabeth detention center unable to qualify for bail while awaiting their deportation.
These pre-dawn raids on people's homes are something new here in Jersey. Back during the Central America Sanctuary movement, local INS officials resisted serving warrants on refugees in sanctuary. Their reasoning? If they busted workplaces, the "American" public supported them. If they broke into homes and churches, the public sympathized with the folks they were arresting.
There's plenty of talk about Latinos as swing voters, etc. etc. I hope to stand in Shanikka's corner when I say that Latino rights are human rights, and the movement that stands for those human rights will deserve the vote of the "fastest growing minority".
Big up to NJLatinoIssues for news of this tragic farce.