Eleven days ago, this:
His arms wrapped around his wife and two teenage children, Jorge Garcia's eyes welled up Monday morning as he looked into their eyes one last time near the entrance to the airport security gate at Detroit Metro Airport.
His wife, Cindy Garcia, cried out while his daughter, Soleil, 15, sobbed into Garcia's shoulder as they hugged. Two U.S. immigration agents kept a close watch nearby.
After 30 years of living in the U.S, Garcia, a 39-year-old Lincoln Park landscaper, was deported on the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday from metro Detroit to Mexico, a move supporters say was another example of immigrants being unfairly targeted under the Trump administration.
Detroit Free Press
As Detroit Free Press columnist Rochelle Riley wrote:
America, the land of the free and home of the brave, the country that has welcomed immigrants since its inception, told Jorge Garcia, who came as a child, who has lived in America for three decades, who has worked and paid taxes and spent more than $125,000 trying to gain citizenship as his wife and children have, that he must go to Mexico, the land of his birth, but not the land of his life.
He stood at Detroit Metro Airport on the holiday that honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., watched over by ICE guards and angry supporters, and said goodbye as his 15-year-old daughter sobbed on his shoulder and his wife cried out his name. His son had few words. He wasn't going home. He was being sentenced to prison in a foreign country away from family and friends. I couldn’t read Niraj Warikoo’s story without shedding tears.
(snip)
Garcia, a 39-year-old landscaper, who hasn’t lived in Mexico since he was 10, and who was brought to this country by an undocumented relative, was deported simply because he was a target of bigoted policies hastily drawn. Now, his family will suffer while some people will cheer.
(snip)
Except the word isn’t deported. The word is exiled. No, the word is sentenced.
Garcia may be barred from entering the U.S. for at least 10 years, his wife told the Free Press.
That is the same as a prison sentence. And Jorge Garcia was Trumped to make a point.
Rochelle Riley
The Detroit Free Press reporter who was at the airport at 6 a.m. that sad day, and wrote that story and took that picture, Niraj Warikoo, traveled to Mexico today to talk with Mr. Garcia.
That is his jail. This is his family’s:
Without Jorge Garcia, her husband and the father of her two children, home doesn't feel the same for Cindy Garcia.
"It's empty," Garcia of Lincoln Park said Friday while sitting at the kitchen dining table of her mother's home.
"The house is completely empty. We walk in, and it's not the same. We're always looking at the door, waiting for him to come through from work, and he's not going to come through.
(snip)
For years, the Garcias have tried to gain permanent legal status for Jorge. He is only one year too old to qualify for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which allows children of undocumented immigrants to stay legally in the U.S.
Now, Garcia sees it as her mission to speak up for others in her situation as the immigration debate heats up in Congress and the White House.
Her job? It’s OUR JOB. This is obscene:
Jorge Garcia was brought to the U.S. by an undocumented family member when he was 10 years old. Today he has a wife and two children, all of whom are U.S. citizens. He's been trying for years to find a path to live legally in the U.S., with he and his wife spending $125,000 in legal costs and fees since 2005, says his wife.
Please call your Senators (202) 224-3121 and your Representative (202) 224-3121 and demand an end to these inhumane deportations. #DreamAct #PathToCitizenship #StopDeportations