Rafael will be deported tomorrow

 My friend Rafael will likely be deported this week. He’s in the Kandiohi County jail waiting for a seat on the jet Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses to deport people to Mexico. Imagine that! A jet load of people, of Minnesotans, deported to Ciudad Juarez each week.

I use “Minnesotans” intentionally. If all the people of that plane are like Rafael they are Minnesotans. Rafael is a good auto mechanic who was liked by his customers. He’s president of the local Catholic Knights of Columbus group. He’s father to six kids who are US citizens. He likes riding bicycle in the summer and, like the rest of us, makes the best of winter. 

But winter will be different this year because he’ll be back in Agua Gorda in the state of Michoacan. He hasn’t been there, where he was born, for twenty some years. It’s tough to leave Agua Gorda. It sticks to you. A few years back his sister’s brother-in-law was kidnapped at a gas station in broad day light in Agua Gorda. They found his body, Bernardo was his name, in an abandoned building a few days later. 

Bernardo was in Agua Gorda for the Christmas holidays. He was a Minnesotan too. As a leader of our community he had been entrusted with a largish sum of money from Long Prairie to Agua Gorda for the Virgin of Guadalupe celebration. It was speculated that the killers wanted that money but Bernardo didn’t have it when they took him that December.

That summer Bernardo’s  son Julio was in Agua Gorda courting his soon-to-be wife. He received death threats. He returned quickly to Minnesota.

Agua Gorda is a lawless place. This summer two of Rafael’s cousins were kidnapped in broad daylight. They have not been seen since.

We thought Rafael might have a political asylum claim. Under Obama he may have. Under Trump it was quickly denied. We thought Rafael might have a chance to get a deferral because two of his children have dangerous gastric disorders. Under Obama maybe. Under Trump, not a chance.

We tried everything. His sister tried. I tried. My brother, a lawyer, tried.

When they scheduled Rafael’s deportation date I had just called Congressman Peterson’s office looking for help. Peterson has good constituent services and I spoke to a knowledgeable and caring person. But she said there really wasn’t anything she could do.

“Rules are rules,” she said.

The week she said that it came out that a doctor was removing the wombs of immigrant women in ICE custody at a jail in the southern US. This monster was sterilizing women without their consent.

Don’t talk to me about rules. What rule allows forced sterilization of women. What rule allows Rafael to be taken from me, from his kids and wife, his siblings, his parents and everybody who cared for him. Who are these rules for?

What rules are these?! Show them.  I will smash them.

Tim

Central Minnesota Political