Immigration policy harms families in Tuscarawas County

When Trump promised mass deportations, he sold it to the public as finding hardened criminals and sending them to their home countries. 

I don’t know anybody—conservative or liberal—who was opposed to this. But that “promise” was quickly broken when Immigration & Customs Enforcement began targeting workplaces and detaining people with no criminal record. 

Some say, “I’m just glad that isn’t happening here.” I hate to tell you, but it’s happening. Right here. Not just in big cities across the country, but right here in Tuscarawas County.

Many of us have struggled to connect with the county's Maya and Latino residents due to the language barrier—myself included—so if you don’t know somebody who speaks their language, you might not have heard what’s been happening in recent months. 

Fathers trying to support their families are being detained at their workplaces with no warning and taken to detention facilities in other parts of the state (Butler County Jail, Geauga County Jail and Northeast Ohio Correctional Center). 

They are held there for months in terrible conditions, their families worried every day for their safety and trying to figure out how to reconnect with them, which is made intentionally complicated. Most are sent to their countries of origin, where they have no home or support. Often when they arrive there, gangs target them because they know they are vulnerable. 

Literal children are being deported without a parent or guardian to travel with them. 

These are not made-up stories—they are first-hand accounts from those trying to assist these broken families in their time of crisis. One cannot support “family values” and also support the current immigration policy—it’s one or the other. 

Which one speaks to your moral values?

Many say, “If they just did it the right way, I wouldn’t care about them being here.” But many of the people being detained right now do have legal documents giving them permission to work in the U.S.

Some even have Permanent Residency. But ICE agents are ignoring documents and asking anybody with brown skin, “Where are you from?” Then they cram them into unmarked vans with heavily tinted windows carrying 20 or more other people, regardless of documentation. 

So why are people who are trying to “do it the right way” being detained? I can’t say, but I know it wasn’t because they committed a crime.

Trump’s immigration policies waste taxpayer dollars in support of the fraudulent claim that only criminals would be deported while ICE agents abuse harmless people who came to our community in search of a better life. 

Why can’t we spend that money to improve our immigration system and expedite the pathway to citizenship? Are they here illegally? Of course, some are. But in a nation of “pardons” why can’t we find a way to give them the best second chance of their life, the pursuit of the American Dream.

Jack Dooling

Dover