‘A nightmare’: Family bids goodbye as undocumented father of 2 is deported to Mexico
January 16, 2018 by admin
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A tearful scene unfolded at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Monday morning, where Jorge Garcia, a father of two and a 30-year resident of Detroit, was deported to Mexico amid cries from his family.
Garcia, 39, was brought to the U.S. by his aunt when he was 10 years old, according to his wife and Michigan United, an immigrant advocacy organization that is working with Garcia. His parents had already immigrated to the country, said Michigan United spokesperson Erik Shelley, who was at the airport this morning as Garcia bid his emotional goodbyes to his wife, Cindy Garcia, and children, ages 15 and 12.
For his family, the parting was devastating. Cindy Garcia told ABC News she is “very sad, very depressed, emotional.”
“It’s like a nightmare,” she said.
Cindy and Jorge Garcia met in Detroit and have been married for 15 years, she said. He worked in the landscaping industry and she is retired from Ford Motor Company.
In 2005, they tried to “fix his paperwork,” Cindy Garcia told ABC News, but instead he ended up in deportation proceedings. Throughout the Obama administration, Jorge Garcia was able to receive multiple stays of deportation, though he had to check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) routinely.
But on Nov. 20, ICE told the couple that Jorge Garcia had to leave the U.S. He was going to be detained, but ICE allowed him to stay with his family, first through Thanksgiving and then through the holidays, Cindy Garcia said. However, he was told he had to leave the country by no later than Jan. 15 — today.
“I am a U.S. citizen and it is affecting me. We tried to do things the right way,” said Cindy Garcia. “We tried and he got sent back to a country he does not know.”
Jorge Garcia’s deportation comes amid a yearlong effort by the Trump administration to ramp up immigration arrests and deportations.
In fiscal year 2017, ICE arrested 143,470 people on immigration violations — the highest number of these type of arrests over the past three years.
“If you choose to violate the laws of this country, you should be concerned,” said acting ICE director Thomas Homan in December — a sentiment he has repeated in public testimony and interviews.
There were 30 percent more immigration-related arrests in 2017 compared to the previous year, according to ICE’s end-of-year report.
“It was touch-and-go throughout the Obama administration,” but Jorge Garcia had no chance when President Donald Trump started going for the “low-hanging fruit,” said Shelley.
Garcia was two years too old to qualify for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program — the Obama-era program that allowed some undocumented immigrants who brought the U.S. illegally to work and live in the U.S. without fear of deportation.
In September, Trump announced he was winding down the program, but the phase-out is facing a number of legal challenges. Meanwhile, Congress is debating a possible permanent solution for DACA recipients — a debate that could lead to a government shutdown.
ICE did not immediately respond to requests for more information on Jorge Garcia’s case.
While politicians fight over a DACA solution, Cindy Garcia remains in limbo, unsure of when her husband will be allowed to return to the U.S.
“It’s like any minute now he’s going to walk through the door, but he’s not, he’s in Mexico,” said Cindy Garcia.
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Two of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Children Speak Out Against Trump
January 16, 2018 by admin
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In Washington, Martin Luther King III, a son of Dr. King, noted Mr. Trump’s remarks and said, “I don’t even think we need to spend any time even talking about what it says and what it is.”
“Now the problem is that you have a president who says things but has the power to execute and create racism,” Mr. King said. “That’s a dangerous power and a dangerous position, and we cannot tolerate that. We’ve got to find a way to work on this man’s heart.”
While two of Dr. King’s adult children spoke out against the president on Monday, another relative, in an interview on Fox News on Saturday, defended Mr. Trump. “President Trump is not a racist,” Alveda C. King, a niece of Dr. King and a former Georgia state legislator, told “Fox and Friends.”
In brief remarks at Ebenezer, Mr. Trump’s housing and urban development secretary, Ben Carson, suggested that he had concerns about some of the remarks attributed to the president.
“I’m a member of this administration, and I don’t agree with the president about everything or of how it’s said,” said Mr. Carson, who noted, to some laughter, that he did not “even agree with everything that I’ve said.”
Credit
Phil Skinner/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, via Associated Press
“There is something to be said about understanding messaging,” Mr. Carson said, “and if the way you say things is so inflammatory that people can’t hear your message, it’s not helpful, and that’s why I don’t do that anymore.”
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Despite the partisan firestorm that has resulted from Mr. Trump’s remarks, elected officials in both parties publicly celebrated Dr. King’s work in Georgia, his birthplace and the site of his marble-encased tomb along Auburn Avenue in Atlanta. Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia, wrote on Twitter that “Dr. King’s legacy is a guiding light.”
Senator Johnny Isakson, Republican of Georgia, said it was a day to “honor and remember the leadership and wisdom of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose legacy continues to make a positive difference in the lives of many people in our state and around the world.”
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During a visit to Georgia last week, Mr. Trump approved legislation that upgraded the designation of National Park Service sites that honor Dr. King in Atlanta. And on Friday, he signed a proclamation marking the holiday on Monday and encouraged “all Americans to observe this day with acts of civic work and community service in honor of Dr. King’s extraordinary life.”
The White House on Monday tweeted a video message from Mr. Trump in which he says that Dr. King’s dream is “the promise stitched into the fabric of our nation, etched into the hearts of our people and written into the soul of humankind.”
Mr. Trump spent part of the holiday in Florida at the Trump International Golf Club, but White House officials did not confirm whether he played golf.
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