When Our Immigrant Neighbors Disappear, Our Communities Lose
A man who worked in the cafeteria at my husband's workplace disappeared. My husband talked to him each time he stopped in for lunch. One day, my husband noted how happy the man seemed. He told my husband it was because he had his final green card interview with immigration the next day. My husband never saw him again. He was just gone. My husband asked co-workers about him. It turns out, the man had been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during that interview.
The same thing happened to Armelle Bondonga Bradshaw. She and her husband showed up for their final marriage-based green card interview only for ICE to detain her. Armelle's husband and child were forced to say goodbye and leave the immigration office without her.
Friends, neighbors and colleagues are disappearing at such a rate that even my son, who attends a bilingual immersion elementary school, asked if his classmates would be OK or if they too would disappear.
Perhaps I'm hyperaware of what's happening because my family would not exist had my mother-in-law not crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico into the United States when she was a young girl. She had a marriage-based green card until 2017, when she was sworn in as a naturalized American citizen. My husband and the family we have built was made possible because his mother entered this country under circumstances of severe hardship as a teenager.
When asylum-seekers disappear, it's not just immigrant families who are affected. It's naive to think we don't lose anything collectively when we remove people from our communities. If immigration doesn't touch your family directly, I challenge you to look around. Who takes care of you? Who grows your food? Who built your house? Who sits beside you at work? Who cuts your hair, does your nails, cleans your office, stocks your grocery store or cares for your aging parent?
We talk about immigrants as though they are people on the other side of some political argument. But they're not. They're a vital part of our daily lives.
Each week my family picks up our Community Supported Agriculture share of produce and eggs from a local farm. According to the Baker Institute of Public Policy, foreign-born workers make up a significant share of the agricultural workforce, including both undocumented workers and those here through seasonal worker programs. When workers disappear because of ICE arrests, or they stop showing up because they're afraid of them, farms lose the labor they need to harvest their crops. That disruption doesn't stay on the farm. It means food gets left in the field and raises prices at the grocery store for all of us.
The doctor I've seen for my thyroid disease and pituitary adenoma for more than a decade is from Nigeria. I trust her. She has helped me navigate the ups and downs that any lifelong chronic illness brings. Immigrants make up 28% of physicians and surgeons in the United States. This country is already projected to face a shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036. As the American population ages and demands for medical care grows, we will need more doctors, not fewer. What happens to all of us when we push away the foreign-born medical professionals and students who are already caring for us?
When my husband and I put an addition on our home, many of the construction workers were Spanish-speakers. According to the National Association of Home Builders, immigrants comprise 57% of the drywall and ceiling tile installation force, 56% of all plasterers and stucco masons, 53% of roofers, 53% of painters and 51% of carpet, floor and tile installers. Our country is in the midst of a housing crisis. When the workers who build our homes disappear, the consequences are vast. They show up in the cost of construction, the availability of housing and, ultimately, the lives of renters and homebuyers.
President Donald Trump said he would target criminals for removal: "bad hombres," he called them. But the people being detained aren't limited to people with criminal convictions. As of July 11, more than 70% of people in ICE detention had no criminal conviction, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
We cannot fool ourselves into thinking these detentions only impact the people taken away. They ripple through our hospitals, farms and neighborhoods. They are vital members of our communities and when they disappear, we all lose.
Do you know anyone who's doing cool things to make the world a better place? I want to know. Send me an email at Bonnie@WriterBonnie.com. Also, stay in the loop by signing up for her weekly newsletter at WriterBonnie.com. To find out more about Bonnie Jean Feldkamp and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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