something i never thought i would do
Aug. 14th, 2008 01:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elessatoday i joined the ACLU
why? because i am pissed. i am tired of the loss of commonsense in this country. this is no longer a country i am proud to be a citizen of.
the impetus?
this article in the NY times
A Hong Kong computer programmer who had legally resided in the US for 15 years (since he was 17) and fathered two American children went for his final green card interview and was locked up, detained until he died of cancer that the DHS refused to treat him for. He had overstayed a visa (the DHS sent a key notice to the wrong address), and this prompted the DHS to lock him away and demand that he waive all right to immigration appeal and be immediately deported. In detention, his complaints of excruciating back pain were treated as fakery, and he was dragged around in shackles after he lost the ability to walk, taken on long, bumpy drives while official demanded that he drop his immigration appeals. The jailers who caused his death were private contractors with fat deals with the DHS to lock up immigration detainees.
As he lay dying, his family -- wife and two children, aged 1 and 3 -- were denied access to him while the warden considered their request to visit.
"Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses..."
the united states is no different than china, darfur, russia, north korea or any one of a number of countries we look down our noses at and "tut tut".
why? because i am pissed. i am tired of the loss of commonsense in this country. this is no longer a country i am proud to be a citizen of.
the impetus?
this article in the NY times
A Hong Kong computer programmer who had legally resided in the US for 15 years (since he was 17) and fathered two American children went for his final green card interview and was locked up, detained until he died of cancer that the DHS refused to treat him for. He had overstayed a visa (the DHS sent a key notice to the wrong address), and this prompted the DHS to lock him away and demand that he waive all right to immigration appeal and be immediately deported. In detention, his complaints of excruciating back pain were treated as fakery, and he was dragged around in shackles after he lost the ability to walk, taken on long, bumpy drives while official demanded that he drop his immigration appeals. The jailers who caused his death were private contractors with fat deals with the DHS to lock up immigration detainees.
As he lay dying, his family -- wife and two children, aged 1 and 3 -- were denied access to him while the warden considered their request to visit.
"Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses..."
the united states is no different than china, darfur, russia, north korea or any one of a number of countries we look down our noses at and "tut tut".
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no subject
Date: 2008-08-14 10:20 pm (UTC)