Thirteen-year-old Angela Sorac said her dad, who lacks legal status, tried to prepare her for the worst. "We did have conversations about it,” she told journalist Maria Elena Salinas. “If police cars are close ... 'you know, if this happens ... we just, we just want you to know that we love you very much.'" On Aug. 7, the worst happened.
On that day, Angela’s dad, Nery, was one of the nearly 700 people swept up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in mass raids that targeted a number of Mississippi food processing plants. But what makes Nery’s detention different from many of the others’ is that he wasn’t even a plant employee: He had just been there to drop his sister off at work.
"Nery's arrest ended up being a case of collateral damage,” Salinas reported from outside one of the plants. “He did not work at this plant, one of seven raided by ICE, but he was here in this parking lot dropping off his sister when agents arrived and detained 243 workers. Being at the wrong place at the wrong time has had a devastating effect on his family."
Salinas reports that Nery was the family’s sole breadwinner, and now his wife, Ingrid, is struggling to figure out how to provide for a home that has suddenly grown in size, now that her sister-in-law’s three children are also living with her after their mom’s arrest in the raids. “You know that there’s a chance your husband could be deported?” Salinas asks her. “Yeah,” Ingrid replies. “What would you do if that happens?” Salinas asks. A heartbroken Ingrid responds, “I don’t know.”
Groups on the ground in Mississippi have mobilized to help these children and their families. Please chip in whatever you can to help them rebuild their lives.
The Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services told USA Today that a number of young children are still separated from their parents due to the raids, and "are being cared for by extended family members and neighbors.” The administration released about half of workers with young kids on "humanitarian grounds”—not detaining hardworking parents in the first place would be the actual humanitarian thing to do—but Nery’s family said he’s not one of them. "Every day, I look at my kids crying," Ingrid said.
Angela is just 13, but she’s “been thrust into an adult role,” Salinas continued. Her dad looked after her 7-year-old brother, who has autism, but with her mom now trying to figure out how to provide for the family, she’s now burdened with responsibilities that are supposed to belong to the adults. “My dad not being here is very different,” she said. “Now that his dad’s gone, he’s now frustrated, aggressive. He’s very angry, and we don’t know how to handle it. I still want my dad, I really do.”
There’s been a lot of talk recently about how deporting these workers is detrimental to our economy, and how legalizing them instead would be the commonsense thing to do—and that’s all true—but what can’t be overlooked are the human costs of these raids. It’s part of the reason why Salinas has been a legend in the Latino community, because she’s been a voice for it and has told the stories that need to be told. We’re living in a news era when some stupid tweet from the president now sucks up an entire news cycle for days, leaving this family’s story to be forgotten. Don’t let it be forgotten.