A ‘Band-Aid’ for 800 children

July 7, 2014 9:25 AM

Nora Sandigo is guardian to hundreds of U.S. citizens born to illegal immigrants who are subject to deportation.

The 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform & Immigrant Responsibility Act removed the "suspension of deportation" provision, which allowed undocumented people to become permanent residents if they had been in the US for seven years, had no criminal history, and their deportation would cause an extreme hardship to a US citizen or permanent resident immediate relative.

posted by zeptoweasel (33 comments total)

Does this woman have an Amazon wish list or a paypal donation button to click on?
posted by bukvich at 9:34 AM on July 7, 2014 [3 favorites]

they could be held liable if any of the 812 children are mistreated or neglected by the relatives with whom they are living.

This is the first thing I thought of. It's horrible that there seems to be no other alternative here.
posted by desjardins at 9:38 AM on July 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

wow. amazing.

My heart keeps breaking to hear of the protesters in California waiting to block the buses of undocumented children. If you ever find yourself protesting children and demanding they go back to a country that's a war zone, hold on up for a second and take a good fucking look at yourself.
posted by threeants at 9:40 AM on July 7, 2014 [27 favorites]

oh... don't read the comments.
posted by desjardins at 9:40 AM on July 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

Yeah, I read the first couple of comments and noped right out of there.
posted by zeptoweasel at 9:42 AM on July 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

Last night the lead story on the local news was Texas governor on Sunday morning talk TV explaining why deporting these children immediately is his current job number one. Aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye aye.
posted by bukvich at 9:47 AM on July 7, 2014

I was visiting my folks this weekend. My parents are both getting fucking brainwashed by FOX, and it's clear this is the next cultural/social "battle" now that we're getting weed legalized and "teh gayz" are getting married. Sure they'll be battles and continue to be so, just as abortion is, but we're moving forward in many ways on those fronts.

But the immigration bullshit is heating up. My dad, I get it, he's a bigot, grew up in segregated south then moved. Mom - well... she's a supposed Christian, and lives her life for the most part full of love and unprejudicedly on a personal level, but Saturday night, we were watching something unrelated to immigration or any such topic, but somehow, she blurted out something about "The Mexicans" and did it with such a vitriol that I just told her "STOP! If you don't stop I am leaving RIGHT NOW" and this is hard as I'm the only child left and they're getting older, and man I'd really like to not have to create friction in whatever days we have left. I had my period of poking and prodding, but I'm tired of fighting. I gave up trying to change them, but the least they can do is show some respect.

I am going to write a letter asking my mom to really really really think about this. The fact that she spewed such venom when she said that, and to really think about what she means when she says "illegals" -- that it's not "immigration" it's "brown people" not matter how nice you may be to individual brown people - what you see is "MEXICANS" and roving maurading bands trying to "take over"... you're not viewing them with compassion - as victims of local strife and struggle. You're unaware of the difficulties and roadblocks they face to legal immigration - if they had a nice access to avenues of legal immigration, they would surely take it, but we put so many hurdles up, and in the meantime you say the problem is because they're illegal. So make it easier, but the point has nothing to do with legal/illegal... you just don't want people from non-european countries to come to the United State, plain and simple.

Square that with your heartshaped Jesus hole.

I couldn't help but think of the idea of the Good Samaritan when these people are thirsty and dehydrated and deal with the Coyotes taking them across the border, risking their lives in very dangerous conditions just to get a taste of freedom and hope, and then you go and attack them as if they are some giant enemy of yours -- well - that was a lot like "the good Samaritan" because the idea there was that Samaritans and Jews were enemies, and it wasn't the Jews who passed by the fallen dude who helped him up, but the supposed enemy.

So what do you want to be, Christian? Do you want to be a Good Samaritan? Do you want compassion, love and respect and dignity to be shared, or do you want to create division and discord because of their skin color or nationality. How many of those "illegals" consider themselves Christians? What about the part of the Bible that said there is neither "Male nor Female, Greek nor Jew" in Christ??? I suppose there IS "Murricans and Mexicans" in Christ, though...

Murricans = sheep; Mexicans = goats. Scapegoats. What a great thing, and all the while you play the fool for the clowns at the top. You have some idea of what's going on - the influx of labor can reduce the cost of profits, and creates competition to your jobs, but fact is - most Americans do not work those jobs, and many of those jobs are going unfilled.

Sick of these European scum bashing immigrants when they were just as much immigrants (and rapists and murderers - ever more so than anything they claim on FOX news about modern "illegals").

And it sickens me to hear my loving mother filled with such hate like this.

FUCK YOU FOX NEWS YOU EVIL SCUMFUCKS.
posted by symbioid at 9:57 AM on July 7, 2014 [15 favorites]

Last night the lead story on the local news was Texas governor on Sunday morning talk TV explaining why deporting these children immediately is his current job number one.

Different variety of children. Sandigo is guardian to US citizens who have parents being deported. Perry wants to deport children who aren't US citizens.

It's all despicable. At times I wonder whether racist people will ever realize that the people of the US will forever be entwined with Mexico simply because a quarter of the United States originally was Mexico.
posted by Talez at 10:00 AM on July 7, 2014 [4 favorites]

The federal government doesn’t track what happens to the children of deported parents,

This is messed up. Like, rage.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:03 AM on July 7, 2014 [3 favorites]

I didn't heed my own advice and waded into the comments anyway. Someone had a good point about how undocumented parents are exactly the kind of immigrants we should want - they had to be tenacious and smart and hardworking to be able to get as far as they did. Lazy people who don't care about their kids don't make thousand mile journeys to provide better lives for them.
posted by desjardins at 10:12 AM on July 7, 2014 [11 favorites]

Last night the lead story on the local news was Texas governor on Sunday morning talk TV explaining why deporting these children immediately is his current job number one.

Different variety of children. Sandigo is guardian to US citizens who have parents being deported. Perry wants to deport children who aren't US citizens.

It's all despicable. At times I wonder whether racist people will ever realize that the people of the US will forever be entwined with Mexico simply because a quarter of the United States originally was Mexico.

And to be clear, the crisis of unaccompanied minors that are currently here and are not being deported are a different variety of children, too.

The US, by law, is not allowed to deport anyone who has come into the country from a non-contiguous state without giving them an immigration hearing.

If these kids were from Mexico or Canada, we could that exact same day they arrive take them back across the border to their home country. But these kids are from Central America, from countries which do not share our border at all, and so we are required to find a way for them to stay within the US until they get their rightful hearing in an immigration court to determine whether they might be eligible for refugee or other status.

Here is the president of the National Association of Immigration Judges explaining this and more on All Things Considered last week.
posted by hippybear at 10:13 AM on July 7, 2014 [4 favorites]

For I was hungry and you chanted "U-S-A, U-S-A!" in my face, I was thirsty and you chanted "U-S-A, U-S-A!" in my face, I was a stranger and you chanted "U-S-A, U-S-A!" in my face, I needed clothes and you chanted "U-S-A, U-S-A!" in my face, I was sick and you chanted "U-S-A, U-S-A!" in my face, I was in prison and you cheered and screamed "Deportation now, Deportation forever!" in my face. -Matthew 25: 35-36.
posted by T.D. Strange at 10:24 AM on July 7, 2014 [25 favorites]

It mentions in the article that her charity is American Fraternity, if you want to donate.
posted by Fig at 10:27 AM on July 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

And that literally is HER charity. She's the founder and Executive Director.

She also has a personal website.
posted by hippybear at 10:30 AM on July 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

Thousand and thousands of very young kids here. What to do? Comments express pity etc etc...Any offers to house a kid or two?
GOP (House) will not pass immigration Bill. We cannot, it seems, send back all these kids. What then is to be done?
Solid ideas, please.
posted by Postroad at 11:58 AM on July 7, 2014

This is both totally unbelievable and perfectly believable. I'm half expecting the government to step in and tell her she can't do what she's doing without providing any alternative. Although I guess the kids would go into foster care, away from their family and friends. It's such a tenuous position. I guess the best way for us to help is to support through donations and support the lawsuit.
posted by bleep at 12:27 PM on July 7, 2014

The policies of the right are so blatantly anti-family that I can't believe there hasn't been a massive and strategic reclaiming of the phrase "family values". It could be so powerful. Picture it-- an ad featuring a queer couple with kids, a mixed-status family, a working single mom, etc. etc.: "These are my family's values." "These are my family's values." "These are my family's values."
posted by threeants at 12:38 PM on July 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

My brother-in-law, who has mellowed over the years a bit, still was moved to frothing rage when he turned on Fox and they were reporting on the buses being turned back. I mean, I actually expected spittle to fly out of his mouth as he ranted about Obama making these "anchor babies" into citizens by just writing whatever laws he liked, damn the constitution. I vainly tried to say "They are being sent back, you know that right? Also that they are minors?" More howling froth. I just up and left the room. There was nothing more I could say.

Later in the day, it was like nothing happened. We had a pleasant dinner with no political discussions whatsoever. Fox has Pavloved him such that he howls and gibbers at the mention of certain key words, then turns off the TV and goes back to puttering around the yard and giving me real estate advice. I can't think of it as anything but a form of brainwashing. There is no thought whatsoever going on.
posted by emjaybee at 12:57 PM on July 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

It just occurred to me that my great-grandfather came here (from Ireland) as a 12 year old orphan. I don't know what the immigration policies were at the time, but he was adopted by an unrelated family on the east coast, and here I am several generations later.
posted by desjardins at 1:04 PM on July 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

I used to think Clinton was a good republican president. But between this act, his 'welfare reform', and his anti-gay policies (DADT, DOMA) while giving the gay community a ton of lip service, I'm starting to think he was a horrid republican president.
posted by el io at 2:03 PM on July 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

My heart keeps breaking to hear of the protesters in California waiting to block the buses of undocumented children.

I would happily, and very seriously, deport those bigots. That is unamerican and unpleasant, and good riddance were there a way to be rid of them.
posted by Dip Flash at 2:03 PM on July 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

Sometimes I think 'God, why can't bigots just F-off and die. '

And then I realize that bigots are people like symbioid's mother, desjardins' BIL, and my own FIL, and I think why can't bigots just fucking THINK.

(Bigots are one thing, but righteous bastards whipping issues into a racist froth are another. There's a deep circle of hell waiting right there.
posted by BlueHorse at 3:28 PM on July 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

emjaybee is the one who mentioned a brother-in-law, not me, but my mom's parents were very bigoted Fox News watchers and I can say with certainty it's because they never had any substantial contact with people of other races. It's a weird sort of karma that in the last year of my grandmother's life, she had to depend almost exclusively on black people for food, clean clothing and medical care. And voila, black people were now people! Not all gangbangers and welfare queens! It's tragic that she only came to this conclusion when she was 80.

She never did come around on the immigration issue, but if the staff at the nursing home had been Latino/a rather than black it'd probably be a different story.
posted by desjardins at 4:20 PM on July 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

I understand that my opinion is an unpopular one here, but I don't understand the sentiment surrounding this article.

I don't understand this. I don't understand why, when there are stories on Metafilter every day on how the poor and middle class in America are being squeezed, it is desired to have more and more people with little to no education or job skills enter the country illegally.

I don't understand why the ridiculous Wong Kim Ark birthright citizenship decision has been held up, when the original language of the amendment and the congressional debates surrounding its addition to the constitution made it clear that it was not intended at the time to extend citizenship to people who owed allegiance to non-US countries. The original constitutional amendment was put in place to give citizenship to the children of slaves, children whose parents were NOT citizens of any other country. I understand even less how this original poorly planned ruling by SCOTUS was supposed to apply to people who illegally enter this country and evade its laws for years. This is creating a permanent Hispanic underclass that is being raised to not trust American rule of law. Destroying whatever weak American laws still exist with "immigration reform" will not change this.

The problem in this article would have been solved very easily by not giving these children citizenship when they were born to parents residing in this country illegally. They and their parents should be deported to their original countries. The fact that the children speak little Spanish and do not want to go back is of no concern, because laws were broken in the first place. The illegal parents in question might not have even come here if "anchor babies" weren't a thing. There are not enough jobs for the American poor and middle class people that are already here. Big business wants this because it will depress wages, and the Democratic party wants this because it will bring in more people utterly dependent on social services that will vote Democrat. My views have nothing to do with race, but simply the view that the pre-existing citizens of this country (born to parents who legally reside here) should have first priority with respect to our existing resources both physical and financial as compared to the entire rest of the world that might want to live here and take advantage of our generous welfare state.

I know that people in this thread will be angry that I'm saying this, so I'm just going to say now that I'm not going to debate it or respond to debate about it. I just wanted to post my dissenting opinion.
posted by sockpuppetofexistentialconfusion at 4:45 PM on July 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

I know that people in this thread will be angry that I'm saying this, so I'm just going to say now that I'm not going to debate it or respond to debate about it. I just wanted to post my dissenting opinion.

When your dissenting opinion just so happens to be the one shared by racist xenophobes, is this particularly constructive?
posted by hoyland at 5:09 PM on July 7, 2014 [3 favorites]

simply the view that the pre-existing citizens of this country (born to parents who legally reside here) should have first priority with respect to our existing resources both physical and financial as compared to the entire rest of the world that might want to live here and take advantage of our generous welfare state.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you're not Native American. Right?

Get. Out.
posted by Lemurrhea at 6:00 PM on July 7, 2014 [3 favorites]

as compared to the entire rest of the world that might want to live here and take advantage of our generous welfare state.

Most people who are working illegally can't take advantage of any welfare state; in a sad irony, many of them have social security deducted from their wages if they use a fake ID, but will never be able to access social security benefits. And of course, what they buy they pay taxes on, just like everyone else. Many states specifically state that they are not allowed access to welfare. They are also not allowed access to ACA benefits.

Most of them have harrowing stories of brutality attached to their lives elsewhere, endure incredible dangers during their trip here, and then of course, working here in the shadows, they have no protection from wage theft, sexual abuse, physical abuse, or workplace safety violations. Or if they technically do, they are afraid to complain because then they might get on the radar of ICE.

Once they are taken into custody they may languish for years, whole families, in prisons, subject again to abuse and neglect, until they are finally deported back to a place where their safety is far from a given.

I don't tell you this to say any immigration law is wrong. I tell you this because you seem to believe that illegal immigrants come here for reasons of pure greed or criminal intent and that it is a simple matter to keep them out and deport them. This is not borne out by the smallest bit of research into what the lives of illegal immigrants are actually like, before and after they get here. A great many of them work incredibly hard at jobs that even poor Americans don't want for wages that barely keep them alive. We are more dependent on their exploitation than we want to admit.

And the unrest in the places they come from is often the direct result of our government and other governments' colonial policies of exploitation and control that ensure instability and squash revolt and reform if it threatens our business interests.

Until we face the reality of how much that happens, and how immigration will continue as long as there is instability in the countries around us, we can't come close to an answer.

In the meantime, the situation we are in now is at least partially our fault. Treating illegal immigrants like nothing but thieving criminals here to steal "our" jobs, is, to say the least, a less-than-responsible view of the situation.
posted by emjaybee at 6:18 PM on July 7, 2014 [8 favorites]

the entire rest of the world that might want to live here and take advantage of our generous welfare state

Can you send me a list of Presidents? Because in my timeline, the US is rather infamous for the spottiness of its welfare systems and the stinginess of those bits it bothers to have, and i'm curious where our worlds diverged.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:47 PM on July 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

Generous welfare state? The USA?

I am torn between laughing at the ridiculousness of that statement and crying because you believe it to be true.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 8:05 PM on July 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

The problem in this article would have been solved very easily by not giving these children citizenship when they were born to parents residing in this country illegally.

Well, er, that's one you're going to have to take up with the United States Constitution.
posted by threeants at 8:13 PM on July 7, 2014 [4 favorites]

There are not enough jobs for the American poor and middle class people that are already here.

Well, I don't think the vast majority of middle class folks have to worry about undocumented immigrants taking their jobs. Mostly they seem to work in very low paid jobs like cleaning and migrant work, in part because those jobs don't require any English language skills.

Would these jobs otherwise go to poor citizens? Some, I'm sure. I know I've read that employers have trouble filling farm positions when states crack down on illegal labor, because it's horrible backbreaking work, yet for immigrants, it's apparently still better than going back to their home country. I don't know, it's a complicated situation. I don't think they are a net drag on the economy. As said above, they don't have access to a lot of benefits. They work and they pay taxes (at least sales tax) and they add money into local economies.

it is desired to have more and more people with little to no education or job skills enter the country illegally.

I don't think "desired" is the right word. I would definitely prefer that they have better economic opportunities in their home country, but I don't know how much the US can do to fix that without too much political or military interference. I don't know anyone that wants completely open borders. But I also don't understand how you can look at a 4 year old, who is here through no fault of her own, and send her to a poor and violent place she's never known.
posted by desjardins at 9:33 PM on July 7, 2014 [2 favorites]

"I know that people in this thread will be angry that I'm saying this, so I'm just going to say now that I'm not going to debate it or respond to debate about it. I just wanted to post my dissenting opinion."

Look, I don't care if you want to admire Hitler openly, express bigoted viewpoints, defend the violent abortion clinic bombers, declaw cats, or say something about the Isreal/Palestine conflict - feel free to say whatever you want, no matter how controversial.

But please, please, do not enter a thread with the intention of saying provocative and controversial things that many people will potentially have beefs with or want to talk to you about and then also say "but I don't want to talk about it." I'm not sure if there is an agreed upon definition of thread-shitting, but it seems to me walking in, saying some outrageous stuff, and then walking out again is pretty unacceptable.

But, it seems to me you probably knew the behavior (not of your sentiments, which certainly got a spirited response, as you no doubt anticipated) would not be appreciated by metafilter, as you used a sock-puppet.

So, in summary, you don't want to participate, don't want to respond, want to declare a bunch of controversial ideas and then steadfastly refuse to engage in the thread any further. On top of that, you don't even have the integrity to associate you real metafilter handle with your thoughts. You are a coward.

Please consider leaving metafilter and never returning. (this is the first time I've expressed such a sentiment on the blue).
posted by el io at 10:14 PM on July 7, 2014 [7 favorites]

The problem in this article would have been solved very easily by not giving these children citizenship when they were born to parents residing in this country illegally.

It may perhaps be an unintended consequence of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution adopted during the Reconstruction era to help make ex-slaves full citizens under the law, but since I personally watching my own rights roll out toward full equality based on legal reasons grounded in this exact amendment, and because...

Wait, you know, on re-reading your screed, I realize that I don't need to engage with you on this.

This is basically "your favorite band sucks".
posted by hippybear at 11:13 PM on July 7, 2014 [2 favorites]