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A man who worked in the cafeteria at my husband’s workplace disappeared. My husband talked to him each time he stopped in for lunch. One day, my husband noted how happy the man seemed. He told my husband it was because he had his final green card interview with immigration the next day. My husband never saw him again. He was just gone. My husband asked co-workers about him. It turns out, the man had been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during that interview.
The same thing happened to Armelle Bondonga Bradshaw. She and her husband showed up for their final marriage-based green card interview only for ICE to detain her. Armelle’s husband and child were forced to say goodbye and leave the immigration office without her.
Friends, neighbors and colleagues are disappearing at such a rate that even my son, who attends a bilingual immersion elementary school, asked if his classmates would be OK or if they too would disappear.
Perhaps I’m hyperaware of what’s happening because my family would not exist had my mother-in-law not crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico into the United States when she was a young girl. She had a marriage-based green card until 2017, when she was sworn in as a naturalized American citizen. My husband and the family we have built was made possible because his mother entered this country under circumstances of severe hardship as a teenager.
We talk about immigrants as though they are people on the other side of some political argument. But they’re not. They’re a vital part of our daily lives.
Each week my family picks up our Community Supported Agriculture share of produce and eggs from a local farm. According to the Baker Institute of Public Policy, foreign-born workers make up a significant share of the agricultural workforce, including both undocumented workers and those here through seasonal worker programs.
The doctor I’ve seen for my thyroid disease and pituitary adenoma for more than a decade is from Nigeria. I trust her. She has helped me navigate the ups and downs that any lifelong chronic illness brings. Immigrants make up 28% of physicians and surgeons in the United States.
When my husband and I put an addition on our home, many of the construction workers were Spanish-speakers. According to the National Association of Home Builders, immigrants comprise 57% of the drywall and ceiling tile installation force, 56% of all plasterers and stucco masons, 53% of roofers, 53% of painters and 51% of carpet, floor and tile installers.
We cannot fool ourselves into thinking detentions only impact the people taken away. They ripple through our hospitals, farms and neighborhoods. They are vital members of our communities and when they disappear, we all lose.