Thursday, August 07, 2003

The Unspeakable Brutality of the INS In all the talk about evil and brutality, one of the things that has long been held up as horrific is the forcible destruction of families.  Today, we recoil at the crimes of slavery, where children could be snatched and sold away from their parents, where couples could be separated—where the ultimate human value of family had no meaning.   Back when the U.S. was holding up communism as the paragon of evil, the idea of children being forced to betray their parents, of whole families punished for the actions of a single person, all were held up as atrocious, brutal, criminal acts.   We now have these atrocities in the U.S., with the full backing and enthusiastic support of the U.S. government.   The way in which we now treat legal immigrants in this country is brutal and sadistic.  Today, in Massachusetts, a 10 day old baby and a two year old are motherless because the U.S. government, though the INS, snatched their mother who had been legally living in the U.S. for 20 years.    In making a routine appointment at the INS office, which she had kept every three months, the 22 year old woman was detained, and will be held for deportation.  Her “crime?”  A 1999 shoplifting conviction of less than $150, for which she served six months probation.  She leaves behind a 10 day old infant and a two year old.  The INS will not release her from jail.   I ask every mother who reads this to imagine being snatched into prison by an authoritarian government leaving behind your 10 day old infant.   Here is the full story, as reported by the Globe.   The Homeland Security Dept., where the INS is now located, is barely distinguishable from the great totalitarian authorities of the past:  the Kafka bureaucrats, the Soviet gulag administration, and yes, the prisons of Iraq under Saddam.   How is it possible that as we hear stories of disappeared family members in Iraq, that we are seeing the same activity—and our government is claiming the same authority, in the U.S.  And don’t say that just because we don’t murder people, we are different.  The point is without public trial a disappearance is a disappearance.   The detention of Edna Borges leaving her 10 day old infant behind is as cruel and outrageous as any of the family separations during slavery.    We must demand that ALL U.S. immigration laws be immediately modified to grant family exceptions to INS deportation policies when they destroy the very things we hold dear.   I don’t accept the U.S. becoming a totalitarian state.  The Homeland Security Dept. and the INS does not speak for me, and it is time we stopped these atrocities. 12:48:30 PM   comment []

© Copyright 2003 Toby Sackton. Last update: 9/27/2003; 4:51:43 PM.