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When the Authorities Say You're Not Welcome Here

When the Authorities Say You're Not Welcome Here


When our kid was kicked out of his public school as a young teen, we had no idea what his near future held. Without any consistency in direction, the authorities kept changing the length of the expulsion: first, they said, it would be a month. Next, a year. Then, a semester...And so it went. They clearly knew not what they were doing.

The good news for our son and his family is that there were some limits to the length of time that the district was allowed to continue to deny him an education. Our pro-bono lawyer helped us to understand that our child had to be allowed back to his home school at least after the entire school year had passed. And in the end, without apology, the district recognized their obligation to us after one semester when they finally resumed helping us in educating our child.

But then I look to the plight of the immigrants. In particular, the ones who live in my own Sanctuary city. These are my friends and neighbors! How long have they suffered the not-knowingness? What laws protect them from eventually being released from an unending war against them? Where is their God when the court system can't decide if it's even legal to offer humanitarian aid to fellow human beings whose lives are at risk?

If you make a stink, the authorities get mad. In both instances--that of our beloved child and that of our broader beloved community of immigrants--they punish you for sticking up for your rights. They misinterpret advocacy as a challenge to their own "duty to serve." Friends and families grieve, and in their grief they might accuse their loved ones of making "poor choices," as though the practices and policies of the institutions aren't the perpetrators of the imprisonment.

In our son's case, the uncertain future is beginning to present itself. Last summer, he got an internship with the city, in the very field that the school district felt so threatened by. This summer, he is focused on making more money at a different kind of job. And, he will start his last year of high school with a renewed interest in doing well and maybe even getting into a college that he can afford--despite his school not believing in him.

If only we can shift the system's injustice against our immigrant friends in the same positive direction. But just hours after I scribbled these thoughts into my notebook and before I typed them out, I heard on the radio that the American people should start expecting more raids of our friends and neighbors with deportation orders. Is there no limit to how our beloved friends are being mistreated in this so-called democracy?

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