I have close, hard-working, truly decent friends who are about to be deported.

[haele]

25. Anyone who lives in a border town knows people who can be deported.

My granddaughter goes to school with a boy who's mother and uncle are in the limbo between a visa and naturalization, while other members of that same family - including the mother's uncle, are natural born citizens. The family is large, and has settled here - spanning the border for generations. So, is it right to tell a helpful cousin between jobs he now can't just go 5 miles to stay with and help Abuelo - Grandpa - for a couple weeks because Grandpa was born in the U.S. and he wasn't?

I know of three military spouses who have visa issues, and could easily be deported if something happened to their spouse on active duty. Even though spousal visas are supposed to be expidite the naturalization system, at least two are still having problems with the background checks because they weren't from well off families in third world countries where record-keeping is haphazard at best, and potentially corrupted depending on if your family is on the good side of whatever regime is in power or not.

I also know a long-time resident with two US born children who overstayed a spouse visa when she got divorced from her abusive husband before finishing the naturalization process - she stayed because she had started a lucrative specialty business, and had a huge wealthy local clientele. Since she's from Scotland, no one seems to mind one bit that she never got around to finish applying for citizenship. She's got an expired visa number that she uses to pay state and Federal income taxes on, so eventually if she wants to get her Social Security and Medicare, she'll have to fess up, pay the fine and fees, and get her citizenship straightened out.
As I said, she probably doesn't have to worry about deportation, even though she's still here "illegally".

So yes, there are good people whose lives are going to be destroyed because of President Bannon and his mouthpiece Drumpf.
And I have more than one nice, law-abiding relative of a certain age that would not refuse the rope to a mob intent on lynching a lesser person for being un-naturally uppity. I know too well how many good, kind, godly people will overlook a multitude of sins in someone who will re-enforce their deep prejudices and give them someone who can't fight back to blame and step on for their hurt and confusion.

People who voted for Drumpf bought the wood on which to burn the Constitution and "Justice for All" in the US - no matter if they did it intentionally because they were racist, sexist bigots who yearn for an Autocracy where they can be above the Law, or because they were fearful or angry and wanted to break something to feel stronger and in control.

I wouldn't want anyone who voted for this Russian tool of Chaos and Mammon over a typical American politician to die, but I do want them to have to learn to realize they have to own to what they do in life and how it affects the only real world they and their families have to live in.
Especially not those who believe prosperous-looking false profits who lie with honey tongues, simple morals, and a multitude of easy enemies that are always to blame.

And sometimes, when I see the real long-term destruction and pain done to people and the environment because too many people were butt-hurt that there's a big, uncomfortable world around them they can't control or shut out, well - I might not be as nice and forgiving as I normally am.

Haele