Friday came and went with little fanfare. I managed to come up with an excellent idea on someone who could vouch for Alberto’s moral character; the pastor currently leading our church. As of approximately 6 days ago, the pastor at our church is now Father Ortero, originally of Mexico. I had a meeting with Father Ortero on Wednesday and told him the whole sad story. He agreed to meet with Alberto in Jail and write a letter vouching for his good moral character. He said he would even write the letter just based on what I had to say, but I thought it would be helpful to Alberto to visit with a priest anyhow. The only downside was when Father Ortero said the Mexican man is not typically mature before they reach their mid to late 30’s, but I suppose I already knew that on my own. I just need to talk to Alberto to make the appointment for Father Ortero to go and visit him.
The thing I hate the most about this whole situation is when I see my husband so downtrodden. The guards are rude to all of them and seem to go out of their way to belittle and harass their charges. I understand well enough that more people will sign the deportation papers after a few days of this treatment, but isn’t being in jail for wanting a better life bad enough? I know there are immigrants out there that do bad things and deserve this fate, but there are just as many if not more who contribute to society and wish to raise their children somewhere safe. Would you punish the son for the sins of his father? Oh wait, our government does that already. Isn’t Alberto a prime example of a minor child brought to the United States who became a deportable ‘alien’ a mere 6 months after his 18th birthday? I hate how these immigrants are referred to as ‘aliens’ as if they were from Neptune, instead of from the other side of a line someone long ago drew in the dirt.
It is 10 more days until our next immigration hearing; I believe this is number 6 in this long and mind-numbing series. Lance sent me a copy of the newest Motion to Terminate to which he added a Motion to Continue just in case the government wants to be cute. He has a prior obligation to attend to, so we have another attorney coming in to represent Alberto: Graciela. She’s a newer attorney and Lance is using our case to train her. I imagine that our case is a prime example of the good, the bad, and the ugly of dealing with immigration. The good in this case is Lance as without him we wouldn’t have stood a chance, the bad refers to the quality of the processing our case has received, and the ugly describes the length of our case - the first week of March will mark the 4th year of this government sanctioned circus. It’s is hard for me to believe at times that we started this process 4 years ago. Oh well, 4 years and $14,000 later we are finally coming to the end of this madness.
I’m trying to get ahold of one of Alberto’s bosses, but he’s proving hard to locate after he had to declare bankruptcy. Lance said not to worry about getting a reference from the boss, so I’ll send out a letter and hope that he gets it.
Moral adj \ˈmȯr-əl\ 1 a: of or relating to principals of right and wrong in behavior, b: expressing or teaching a conception of right behavior, c: conforming to a standard of right behavior
Ciao
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