Only the Worst of the Worst?

What has happened to our country? A high-school honors student, Nory Sontay Ramos, and her mother, Estela Ramos Baten, were deported on July 4 to Guatemala after a routine immigration appointment. They had an asylum case pending in our country because Estela had been threatened by a Guatemalan gang before they came to the United States for safety in 2015. Before ICE deported the mother, they confiscated her blood-pressure medicine. Back in Guatemala, she began to suffer severe headaches and an all-consuming fear that the Guatemalan gang would find her. When Estela became ill, reportedly because she did not have her medicine, she was too scared to seek medical treatment in Guatemala. She recently collapsed and died at age 45. Her daughter, Nory, remains in Guatemala.

Did Trump voters vote for this? I remember the “Mass Deportations Now” signs at many Trump rallies. Trump first promised to deport only “the worst of the worst,” those with violent criminal records. Criminal immigrants, though, have been deported by all administrations. That was nothing new, although Trump acted like it was. In order to get to the “mass” in deportations, as demanded by Trump and Stephen Miller, you must deport non-criminals — people like Estela, who are seeking asylum here and have legal cases pending. We have all heard how immigrants are now being deported when they show up for their regular immigration check-ins. To deport a woman and her honors high-school daughter, who have lived here for 10 years, to the country from which they were seeking asylum is simply cruel.

Our economy will be hurt by deporting immigrant workers and taxpayers. But beyond that, my soul is hurting by knowing that Nory no longer has her mother because of the ICE actions, including confiscating her mother’s medicine before deporting her. How many more like her have been deported? I repeat, what has happened to our country? If you care, contact your federal legislators, including Representative John Joyce, Senator McCormick, and Senator Fetterman, to express your concern. They have the power to stand up to Trump and Stephen Miller. Let’s help them make the right choice.