Last week when ICE officials suddenly detained 680 people in Mississippi, it was the largest immigration raid in U.S. history.
The kids of the people detained had no one to pick them up from school, and were terrified. What our government is doing is deplorable and nauseating.
The scale of this operation may have reached new heights, but this practice is nothing new. I have seen the effects of immigrant detention and family separation first hand. Those visceral experiences are a major reason I finally said, “enough is enough, I’m running for office.”
Before running for public office, my last job entailed traveling throughout the Deep South, including Mississippi, to work on documentary storytelling and political advocacy around a variety of social justice issues. I remember visiting a shelter for immigrants recently released from detention in Texas. As I opened the door to a room, I saw a mom curled up in the fetal position sobbing and moaning. Her pain was heartrending to witness.
What had happened? She had crossed the border with her elementary school-aged son and the two had been immediately detained. After some time in detention (a traumatizing experience in its own right), she was released into the community with an ankle monitor, but without her son.
Every day, she called various government entities to track down her son. Every day, they told her same thing: we don’t have any information about him. After an entire week passed, they were finally reunited.
I am of a generation that sees immigration and diversity very differently than those currently in power. For me, accented speech and brown faces do not represent a threat. They are simply my family, neighbors, and friends. They were the people who encouraged me to become who I am today, who I depended on, and, if I become a Congresswoman, who can depend on me.
Please donate to our campaign if you can. Let’s elect public officials who will not tolerate this inhumane cruelty any longer.
