Keep Detention Safe
September 9, 2020 7:04 AM Subscribe
The key was to strike the right tone, neither reticent nor forward. I rarely encountered problems at the airport, but over the previous months the Trump Administration had formed a task force to identify naturalized citizens eligible for deportation, announced that it would no longer allow foreigners who enrolled in Medicaid to obtain green cards, and repeatedly refused to issue passports to citizens of perceived Latino descent. It had also begun to imprison children in concentration camps, though this last news item was so insane that it was hard not to pretend the concentration camps were not concentration camps and the children were not children. The incredible, in other words, had invaded the realm of the possible.
Wow. Literally was just escorted down that exact dingy white hall to that exact room at SFO, because foreign-born spouse, thinking of stories like this one.
There was a poster on the wall to help agents identify indigenous languages spoken by Central Americans, and there was a portrait of Trump. A British software engineer was shaking while trying to explain a visa predicament to an armed guard. I wondered what various racist injustices had taken place there. Might go send some money to RAICES, thanks for this post.
posted by johngoren at 7:45 AM on September 9, 2020 [5 favorites]
There was a poster on the wall to help agents identify indigenous languages spoken by Central Americans, and there was a portrait of Trump. A British software engineer was shaking while trying to explain a visa predicament to an armed guard. I wondered what various racist injustices had taken place there. Might go send some money to RAICES, thanks for this post.
posted by johngoren at 7:45 AM on September 9, 2020 [5 favorites]
That was an incisive, damning piece of writing with some real beauty in it. Thanks for posting it.
It was very dark and very quiet, said the boy, like those nights when there’s mass because it’s a feast day and everyone gets out of bed, even though it’s real cold, and then the whole town stands outside the church, holding candles, and every time they breathe you can see their souls.
“How do you mean?” I asked.
“Like when smoke comes out of the mouth,” the boy said. “Like a cloud. Like mist. Like fog.”
“Oh,” I said. “You mean steam. Water vapor.”
“Yes,” the boy said. “That. Vapor.”
I nodded and wrote down the quote, though I didn’t understand its significance at the time. Later I would realize that, in my obstinate attempts to write a story about the challenges of providing an American education to children who spoke Indigenous languages better than Spanish, I had mistaken poetry for a lack of vocabulary.
May a day come again in this country, when we can listen for the poetry that immigrants bring to our lives.
posted by Dashy at 7:58 AM on September 9, 2020 [8 favorites]
It was very dark and very quiet, said the boy, like those nights when there’s mass because it’s a feast day and everyone gets out of bed, even though it’s real cold, and then the whole town stands outside the church, holding candles, and every time they breathe you can see their souls.
“How do you mean?” I asked.
“Like when smoke comes out of the mouth,” the boy said. “Like a cloud. Like mist. Like fog.”
“Oh,” I said. “You mean steam. Water vapor.”
“Yes,” the boy said. “That. Vapor.”
I nodded and wrote down the quote, though I didn’t understand its significance at the time. Later I would realize that, in my obstinate attempts to write a story about the challenges of providing an American education to children who spoke Indigenous languages better than Spanish, I had mistaken poetry for a lack of vocabulary.
May a day come again in this country, when we can listen for the poetry that immigrants bring to our lives.
posted by Dashy at 7:58 AM on September 9, 2020 [8 favorites]
Related.
I Was a U.S. Diplomat. Customs and Border Protection Only Cared That I Was Black.
Most of my colleagues crossed the U.S. border with barely a glance. Why was I usually detained and harassed?
posted by adamvasco at 8:01 AM on September 9, 2020 [22 favorites]
I Was a U.S. Diplomat. Customs and Border Protection Only Cared That I Was Black.
Most of my colleagues crossed the U.S. border with barely a glance. Why was I usually detained and harassed?
posted by adamvasco at 8:01 AM on September 9, 2020 [22 favorites]
This isn't a story about a guy being detained at US Customs. Thats just the framing for the more important story within. I hope people are reading beyond the first few paragraphs...
Nicolás Medina Mora, the author of this piece is a Mexican journalist, and an editor of Nexos magazine. This was great and I'd love to see more from him.
posted by vacapinta at 8:06 AM on September 9, 2020 [4 favorites]
Nicolás Medina Mora, the author of this piece is a Mexican journalist, and an editor of Nexos magazine. This was great and I'd love to see more from him.
posted by vacapinta at 8:06 AM on September 9, 2020 [4 favorites]
Great piece of writing.
Dystopian fucking reality we're living in right now.
posted by prepmonkey at 8:28 AM on September 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
Dystopian fucking reality we're living in right now.
posted by prepmonkey at 8:28 AM on September 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
Amazing piece. Thank you to those above that said to keep reading.
posted by notsnot at 10:35 AM on September 9, 2020
posted by notsnot at 10:35 AM on September 9, 2020
Tianna Spears was subject to repeated harassment on the border. It's shocking how badly she was treated, and shocking how little the diplomatic corps supported one of its own.
"What is institutional racism, Alex?"
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 10:50 AM on September 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
"What is institutional racism, Alex?"
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 10:50 AM on September 9, 2020 [1 favorite]
Oh wow, this was really powerful.
Why must we be so inhumane? How can we make a world where kindness is the default?
posted by Deoridhe at 12:32 PM on September 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
Why must we be so inhumane? How can we make a world where kindness is the default?
posted by Deoridhe at 12:32 PM on September 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
What I should have said was that I intended to repackage the boy’s trauma into a digestible narrative I hoped would capture the attention of some hundred thousand internet users, who would then surrender valuable information about themselves to one or another technology baron, who would then reward the website for which I worked with a better starting position in the algorithmic rat race, which would allow the website’s owners to convince a handful of investors to keep funding the company, which in turn would allow my editors to pay me a salary, earn me accolades, and, eventually, if all went well, convince the US government that I deserved to live and work in this country.And perhaps that's what he's done, in part—but it is a lot more than that too. A beautiful and horrible piece of writing. Thank you for the post, ChuraChura.
posted by bcd at 4:48 PM on September 9, 2020 [3 favorites]
Sorry if I detracted from your FPP ChuraChura. I read the article and the first few paragraphs which on further reading was just framing, triggered this.
I have been in that room in Miami. It deepened the loathing I have for America the nation and the ignorance and uncouthness of some of your public servants, even though they are probably employed through some sort of subcontraction.
Then there was the immigration official in Seattle exiting to the US who put a red pencil indelible line through my Visa. The official in Houston who told me I could have 24 hrs in the country when I was returning to get my car in San Diego and drive to Mexico.
Away from the ''Have a Nice Day - Welcome to America'' propaganda the mean streak of uneducated people given power is let loose to insult and belittle those who to the most part are just going about their business to try and survive. Because it was Miami there were a lot of cruise ship crew whose English was rudimentary, some almost in tears being bullied for no other reason than that they were foreign and thus ''other''. I mentioned this to my interviewing officer who was polite and understanding, and his drift was that this was the only sort of people they could get for the probably low paid job. You know the ones I mean, mainly white, overweight spitting ""stand behind the line" as if an offender was going to run amok.
Security theatre run by fascist minded goons.
I have seen immigration control officers shout at Americans returning from holiday and question others as to why they wanted to be away from Amerika for so long. If they had any sort of introspection they could probably work it out. This was all in Bush's day. I won't travel to the states with the present regime but these are all now Trump's people and they are a mirror of your society./ Rant. By the way I am old and white and was then bringing about 3 million dollars worth of business a year to an American company.
posted by adamvasco at 9:37 AM on September 10, 2020 [3 favorites]
I have been in that room in Miami. It deepened the loathing I have for America the nation and the ignorance and uncouthness of some of your public servants, even though they are probably employed through some sort of subcontraction.
Then there was the immigration official in Seattle exiting to the US who put a red pencil indelible line through my Visa. The official in Houston who told me I could have 24 hrs in the country when I was returning to get my car in San Diego and drive to Mexico.
Away from the ''Have a Nice Day - Welcome to America'' propaganda the mean streak of uneducated people given power is let loose to insult and belittle those who to the most part are just going about their business to try and survive. Because it was Miami there were a lot of cruise ship crew whose English was rudimentary, some almost in tears being bullied for no other reason than that they were foreign and thus ''other''. I mentioned this to my interviewing officer who was polite and understanding, and his drift was that this was the only sort of people they could get for the probably low paid job. You know the ones I mean, mainly white, overweight spitting ""stand behind the line" as if an offender was going to run amok.
Security theatre run by fascist minded goons.
I have seen immigration control officers shout at Americans returning from holiday and question others as to why they wanted to be away from Amerika for so long. If they had any sort of introspection they could probably work it out. This was all in Bush's day. I won't travel to the states with the present regime but these are all now Trump's people and they are a mirror of your society./ Rant. By the way I am old and white and was then bringing about 3 million dollars worth of business a year to an American company.
posted by adamvasco at 9:37 AM on September 10, 2020 [3 favorites]
This piece is incredible, especially this part:
In the previous weeks and months I had begun to wonder whether my profession, for all its insistence on the value of facts, was not in the last instance dependent on dishonesty. If I pretended to care about the boy’s discovery of parkour and death metal, it was because I hoped that my kindness would lull him into feeling comfortable enough to tell me about the most painful moments of his life. I had told him and his guardian that I intended to write an article based on our conversations, but my disclosure, though accurate in a strict sense, obscured the nature of my intentions. What I should have said was that I intended to repackage the boy’s trauma into a digestible narrative I hoped would capture the attention of some hundred thousand internet users, who would then surrender valuable information about themselves to one or another technology baron, who would then reward the website for which I worked with a better starting position in the algorithmic rat race, which would allow the website’s owners to convince a handful of investors to keep funding the company, which in turn would allow my editors to pay me a salary, earn me accolades, and, eventually, if all went well, convince the US government that I deserved to live and work in this country. The boy was for me not an end but a means, and lately thoughts of that nature had been bothering me often enough that I wondered whether I shouldn’t do something else with my life.posted by Ouverture at 1:24 PM on September 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
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There's a certain arrogance that the United States has when it comes to people who are not its own. American Exceptionalism is projected at every Port of Entry. I think it's one of the many things that will make the rest of the world happier when the time comes for the United States to be finished as a superpower.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 7:29 AM on September 9, 2020 [10 favorites]