“We tried to fix his status, and the system failed us. It’s a broken immigration system, and it needs to be fixed.”
Cindy Garcia is not taking Monday’s deportation of her husband, Jorge, sitting down. The Garcias, along with their daughter Soleil and their son Jorge Jr., appeared on ABC’s The View on Thursday, in a solemn interview with Whoopi Goldberg and Sonny Hostin. Find nine minutes to watch it from start to finish.
The family doesn’t want your sympathy: they want your rage. They want your action. They want you to call your elected representatives and tell them to find a path to citizenship that makes sure that this never happens to another family.
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Garcia’s wife and children are both US citizens. Garcia and his aunt joined his parents in the USA when he was just ten years old; with DACA only applying to those born before the arbitrary date of June 16, 1981, he was too old to be a DREAMer—by less than two years. According to Cindy, they’ve been fighting to change Jorge’s status since 2005, but were able to buy themselves extra time through a series of stays approved during the Obama administration.
But after Jorge showed up for a routine immigration check-in in November, he was abruptly scheduled for deportation on the day after Thanksgiving, because apparently, ICE is really into kicking people out of the country on federal holidays.
With the help of Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, he was given a final date of January 15, allowing him to have one last holiday season with his kids. But as Cindy explains, it was a painful countdown.
Thanksgiving was very sad. It was devastating because we knew that our nightmare was coming to life. Since 2005, we knew he may have to leave, but never wanted to face that fact. Christmas was even worse. No Christmas tree, no Christmas lights. It was more that we were grieving.
It was a death and we knew the death was coming. But we couldn't show how we felt because we wanted to be strong. We wanted to be healthy and when the day came, it was just devastating. We didn't want to let him go.
Ohio and Michigan’s regional ICE director, Rebecca Adducci, is known for a pointed lack of compassion when it comes to her chosen field, but the family had been working with immigration advocates from Michigan United for years. MU spokesperson Eric Shelley was at the airport for the family’s tearful farewell. He drove home the point that the family’s problems didn’t start when Trump became president—they just got much worse.
“It was touch-and-go throughout the Obama administration,” but Jorge Garcia had no chance when President Donald Trump started going for the “low-hanging fruit,” said Shelley.
While the entire View studio sniffled at the undeniable display of just how cruel Donald Trump and his immigration policies can be, Goldberg asked the Garcias for action items to help effect change, so that more families aren’t destroyed by ICE.
WHOOPI: So what do you think we can do? What can we tell people? Tell folks what you need them to know.
CINDY: We need them to know to call their congressmen, call their senators, and tell them that we need a DREAM act. A DREAM act that will help the people that are all here living in the shadows, that are worried that they may be deported next. It's very hard for the families, as you can see. Separating families is not the thing to do. It takes a toll on the children. And myself and my children are American citizens and people need to understand that.
WHOOPI: Jorge, what do you want the president to know? What is your message to him?
JORGE: Well, that we're supposed to only deport people that are criminals and that's not what's going on. They're only basically hurting the economy and separating families just like mine.
The thing is, most U.S citizens don’t want this to happen. A recent CBS poll indicates that almost 9 out of 10 Americans support relief for undocumented immigrants who were brought here as children, across party lines. Yet here we are, on the verge of a government shutdown, and Mitch McConnell insisted Thursday that there “isn’t any urgency” to address the DACA situation, since March is so far away. If that sounds familiar, it’s because he said something similar in late December.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Friday he’s committed to allowing a vote on a bill for so-called “Dreamers” in January, but sees no rush to resolve the deportation threat posed by President Trump’s decision to end (DACA).
“There isn’t that much of an emergency there,” he said. “There is no emergency until March. We’ll keep talking about it.”
Tell the Garcia family it’s “no emergency,” Mitch. We’ll wait.
Not everyone is heartless, though. Cindy told Goldberg that, in addition to her friends at Michigan United, the United Auto Workers are helping her as she transitions from her Ford Motor Company retirement into supporting not only herself and her children, but also her husband as he settles into a life without his family, in a land that is far from his true home. “Ridin’ Dirty” rapper turned venture capitalist Chamillionaire has also pledged to provide financial support.
That’s not all. In a defiant stance against Trump, Rep. Dingell, who helped advocate for the Garcias in November, is taking Cindy as her guest to his State of the Union on January 30, even as calls to boycott the event increase.
In the end, the Garcias are just one family, one deported person, out of hundreds of thousands whose status is in peril. Thanks to the privilege of their American citizenship, and their bravery, they’re able to speak out about the loss of their spouse and father in ways that others cannot.
And despite their sorrow, they’re fighting to make sure that one day soon, this system never destroys another family again.