Gladys and Nelson Gonzalez have called the United States home since 1989. Their three daughters, now grown, were all born and raised in California.
“For nearly four decades, they have built a life here — raising three daughters, giving back to their community, and recently welcoming their first grandchild,” their daughter Stephanie Gonzalez wrote on a GoFundMe page for the family. “Now, they are being treated as criminals.”
Last month, the parents checked in at an immigration court in Santa Ana, just “like they have been doing since 2000,” Stephanie wrote in an email to CNN.
But this check-in ended with a much different outcome.
The couple was arrested and handcuffed during their February 21 appointment and put in federal custody, where they spent three weeks before being deported to Colombia.
“We didn’t expect that they would be apprehended and held in custody. And again, it’s not really unique to them anymore. It’s happening across the country,” Crooms told CNN, pointing to recent immigration policy changes in the US two months into the current administration.
The Gonzalezes spent many years searching for a viable path to citizenship, paid their taxes and never had any trouble with the law, according to Crooms and their daughters.
Ideally, the couple would have been given time to get their affairs in order and say goodbye to their daughters and grandchild, according to Crooms. But that didn’t happen.
“We had to go and pick up their car from the parking lot and didn’t get to say goodbye,” Stephanie said.
Immigrants who are in the country illegally:
And the positive side:
Clearly, the easiest way to solve all of these problems would be to make them tax paying citizens as quickly as possible.
But that would upset the xenophobic racists…
Yup - immigrants who come to the country legally don’t cause all those problems.
So what do you propose? To give legal permanent resident status to everyone who shows up at the border?
To abolish all visa policies and let everyone in?
What a limited imagination you have that you can only imagine one extreme or another. Not really surprising for an extremist.
But you certainly made it clear that what you see as the “problem“ is immigrants, not whether they pay taxes or not. Your xenophobia and racism are on full display.
Having any sort of a visa policy means that we have to not let some people in.
But if you reward those who break the law to get in the country - it will just encourage more people to come.
Also why should someone try to migrate legally? Get all the paperwork sorted and everything. Just to see a bunch of undocumented immigrants skipping the line and getting in?
If I come to the USA as a tourist - why do I even have that 90 day time limit? Why can’t you let me stay as long as I please?
We already punish people who come in illegally. It doesn’t seem to stop them.
Your logic is flawed.
The USA has so-called “sanctuary cities” that protect undocumented immigrants. Those cities encourage the immigrants to come, because it’s less likely that they’ll get punished for that.
Show me proof that any city in the US is encouraging illegal immigration.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctuary_city
If a city doesn’t cooperate with ICE then undocumented migrants are more likely to go there.
Or maybe they pay more taxes because they may get taxes withheld from their pay but can’t file for a refund without risking their freedom.
Or maybe the US should support human rights by not involving immigration where it doesn’t belong. We want all people here to have healthcare and car insurance and job safety and at least a minimum wage, and wtf does immigration status have to do with any of that? By tying those together you’re not only making government more complicated but you’re in collusion with exploitive companies in creating an underclass class of people with limited human rights who can be exploited at will