What I'm Calling Congress About

There is so much going on every day and it feels overwhelming at times. If I could call Congress about everything that was important to me I would be on the phone for hours. Sometimes I use the 5Calls app for help with scripts, other times I use the scripts in Jessica Craven’s Chop Wood, Carry Water daily substack.

I usually call about more than one thing, because *gestures vaguely* we live in a hellscape of insanity right now. HOWEVER, the one thing that I have consistently been calling about every single day for weeks is the way that this administration is treating LEGAL IMMIGRANTS. (Oh, and also totally innocent tourists). Immigrants who are here in the country LEGALLY are being arrested and thrown in jail, and sometimes deported without warning or often without even being given a reason. Visas are being revoked, again, for no good reason.

Whenever I click on the comments section of news articles discussing these arrests and detainments, they are full of people saying “Illegal immigrants committed a crime, they are criminals, get them out of here!” There are two issues with this statement. First of all, crossing the border illegally is a civil offense, not a criminal one. It’s a misdemeanor charge about on par with a DUI. You don’t have to LIKE or AGREE with that fact, but it is a fact. The punishment is typically a fine or a short prison sentence. (Illegal RE-entry, on the other hand, is a felony.) Becuase it takes up a lot of time and resources to give each person accused of an illegal crossing a trial, we have pretty much just started sending them back across the border without charging them with anything. It’s fine if you think everyone who came here illegally or overstayed their visa ought to be deported. You’re allowed to have that opinion, but it does not mean that every person who crossed our border illegally is a dangerous violent criminal (despite what the President may want you to think).

The problem is that most of what I’m talking about is NOT HAPPENING TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS. Again, you may not like this, but it is a fact that coming across the border and claiming asylum is a LEGAL METHOD of immigration. People who are here in the country awaiting hearings for their asylum claims are NOT ILLEGAL. If you have a work visa or a student visa you are NOT an illgal immigrant. If you came here through a refugee resettlement program, you are NOT an illegal immigrant.

When people are clammoring for the deportation of immigrants who came here through legal pathways, I can only conclude that racism is the motivation behind their actions. And that racist ideology has been actively fed by our current president and right wing news pundits and influencers who have repeatedly talked about immigrants with dehumanizing lanugage. (Reminder, in Germany prior to WWII, this is excatly how Hitler got the people to turn against Jews. He talked about them as if they were not humans, that as a group they were hurting “real Germans” and scapegoated them until people were willing to look the other way as they were stripped of their rights and murdered en masse. Don’t even THINK about saying “But this isn’t the same” because yes it IS.) I am not willing to look the other way as this administration strips an entire group of people - immigrants, specifically immigrants of color - of any and all rights, scapegoats them for all our national problems, and lies to the American public by trying to convince us that immigrants as a whole are dangerous criminals that are making America less safe.

Remember when DT made plenty of campaign promises that he was only going to deport the criminals? Most of us saw that for the lie it was, but some of you didn’t. And I’m here to tell you that he’s NOT just deporting criminals. Just the other day, tens of thousands of migrants who entered the country via the CPB One app under the Biden administration, were told that they were no longer welcome here and needed to immediately self-deport. Again, these were people who went through the legal channels. And if you disagree with the fact that this app existed or that Biden allowed so many in, that’s fine, but it still doesn’t change the fact that these people followed the rules that existed at the time and came here through a LEGAL channel. And they weren’t even granted permanent residence. They were allowd to stay here temporarily, for two years and were on “parole.” The administration says that sending these people back home is an important step in national security. But there is no evidence whatsoever that these people were dangerous.

Hundreds of international students have had their visas revoked with no warning and no method of disputing the orders. Some had participated in pro-Palistinian protests (which is not illegal or criminal) but others were told their visas were being revoked because they had recieved a speeding ticket in the past. Hardly dangerous criminal behavior! Others maintain that they have not commited any infractions of law and have not participated in protests and have been given no reason for their arrest or the revoking of their visas. Some students were arrested right on the street, just handcuffed and thrown into the back of an unmarked van to be carted off to a detention center. This is not the America I thought I lived in. You can watch a video or read the transcript of this PBS report on the issue. It’s chilling.

Most egregiously to me are the reports of people being rounded up and sent off to a notoriously cruel prison in El Salvador without being given due process. What is due process? It the constitutionally protected right to life, liberty and property that cannot be taken by the government without going through the proper legal channels. That means if the government wants to accuse a father in Maryland of being part of an evil foreign gang, they can’t just send him right to prison in El Salvador and then refuse to try to get him back even after admitting it was a mistake. They are supposed to give him a TRIAL first. (By the way, I didn’t make this scenario up, it really happened and it’s horrifying.) The Department of Homeland Security (and random people on the internet) are trying to argue that if you are a membr of this scary gang you should not get due process. But the problem is, due process is how we confirm that someone is guilty of whatever they are accused of. If the government is allowed to disappear anyone they say is a member of this gang, without giving them due process, what is to stop them from accusing ANYONE AT ALL of being a member of this gang? The government decided they don’t like my neighbor Bob so they just said “He’s in a gang. Deport him.” That’s how this works.

And by the way, that Maryland father? Despite what the government is saying in public, there is no real evidence that he is a member of this gang. He was also not here illegally. And he is not the only person this has happened to. In March, over 300 men were arrested and put on a plane to El Salvador, against the orders of a judge. They were all accused of being members of this gang, but were not given any opportunity to defend themselves. They have not been convicted of crimes. Some were arrested simply because an immigration official decided their tattoos marked them as gang members, but they have innocent explanations for them. One example is a man with a rainbow autism awareness tatoo. He was told by an ICE officer that his tattoo was not suspicious, but he was till deported. And now these men are stuck in a foreign prison known for its cruelty. This is unAmerican.

And if all of this happening to people of color isn’t enough to make you concerned, guess what? It’s happening to white Europeans too! Over 240,000 Ukrainian refugees who came here (LEGALLY) to escape the war in their country are now on edge as the adminstration considers revoking their temporary legal status and sending them right back into a war zone. The adminstration has already done this with over half a million people from Cuba, Haiti, and Venezuela, who were escaping similiarly harrowing existences.

Also, did you hear about the (white!) Canadian woman who tried to renew her work visa and was detained for TWO WEEKS? She was sent to a detention center without being given a chance to talk to a lawyer and with no warning. They took her belongings and she was given only a small aluminum blanket to sleep in a freezing concrete cell with lights blazing 24/7. They then transferred her to a real jail (with her wrists and ankles in chains), and told her she could be there for MONTHS. Again, she still had not been allowed to talk to a lawyer or even been told why she is there. While in jail, she met over a hundred other women, all with similar stories. They had been detained with no warning, had no criminal record, and had no idea when they would get out.

I met a woman who had been on a road trip with her husband. She said they had 10-year work visas. While driving near the San Diego border, they mistakenly got into a lane leading to Mexico. They stopped and told the agent they didn’t have their passports on them, expecting to be redirected. Instead, they were detained. They are both pastors.

I met a family of three who had been living in the US for 11 years with work authorizations. They paid taxes and were waiting for their green cards. Every year, the mother had to undergo a background check, but this time, she was told to bring her whole family. When they arrived, they were taken into custody and told their status would now be processed from within the detention center.

Fun fact - we’re also treating European tourists like this! It’s so bad that several countries have issued travel warnings, telling their citizens that it may not be safe to vacation in the United States. A British woman named Rebecca was detained for three weeks after an immigration official decided she had the wrong type of visa. She had travelled here before with the same visa and had no problems. But when she tried to enter Canada, she was detained, thrown in jail, and was not given the opportunity to contact legal counsel. She also met many other women who were confused as to why they were there.

Kseniia, a Russian woman who had been working for two years in a California nail salon, had permission to work in the US but was handcuffed while waiting for her husband to come out of an Ice interview. “She was so confused. She kept saying to me, ‘I’ve got a work permit.’”

Rebecca only got out after her parents went to the media with her story. But even after being told she could leave, she was still driven to the airport in shackles and strip searched before being allowed to board the plane.

Do you see why I call my elected officials daily about this? It’s completely unnacceptable. This is not the country that America claims to be. We are scaring off tourists, arresting and deporting legal residents, and not giving people the due process they are entitled to in the Constitution. I cannot look away. I cannot allow this to just happen without me trying to do something about it. If you are not yet calling or emailing Congress about anything, maybe this could be the thing you start with.

We know that public backlash DOES work. The massive protests that have been happening around the country ARE helping. Calling your representatives on the regular and letting them know you are watching how they vote and what they are saying on TV and on social media DOES make a difference. There have already been several actions taken by this adminstration that they were forced to back pedal on after facing immense public backlash. We cannot afford to sit around and assume someone else will ensure that our rights and our freedoms are protected. We must be part of the opposition. It’s not too late to join us, and it doesn’t mean that you have to abandon your political positions. But I hope you will stand up for obvious human rights violations and attempts to ignore the Constitution. It’s what a true patriot would do.