The casual cruelty of Immigration and Customs Enforcement hit home in our neighborhood on Friday. Nicolas, a landscaper who has worked in our neighborhood for over 35 years, didn’t show up. It was the first time.
It turns out he was detained by ICE on Monday and is being held at the notorious Otay Mesa Detention Center. His cellphone was taken away. His wife and three U.S.-citizen children, who live in Carlsbad and Escondido, are scared and unsure what to do.
We gave them money for a lawyer, and I reached out to Rep. Mike Levin‘s office, which quickly provided helpful advice. Jewish Family Service of San Diego also stepped up to help. But the initial damage is done. Nicolas’ family must deal with a major crisis, and his successful business could falter in the interim.
We were one of his first customers, and I sent a letter of recommendation for his citizenship application nearly 20 years ago. I believe the application is still pending. Unfortunately, our Citizenship and Immigration Services agency is no model of speed and efficiency.
How is Nicolas’ detention an example of ICE prioritizing criminals? How is a hard-working, dependable landscaper with dozens of long-time customers in San Diego and Del Mar a threat to society?
I know the usual response: he is an undocumented immigrant, so he broke the law.
But the truth is most of us break the law at some point. In fact, probably a third of California drivers are breaking the state vehicle code today by not having a front license plate. (It’s a seldom-enforced $200 fine, but an immigrant might be deported for it.)
What’s worst about this is the casual cruelty. Destroying a person’s life without a second thought. Our government sees Nicolas as an “alien,” an “illegal,” a “criminal” — not as a human being. Just another case number at Otay Mesa.
I’m Jewish, and the casual cruelty of ICE detentions of otherwise law-abiding, working people echoes what happened in Germany in 1935. Everyone knows the horror of the subsequent Holocaust, but before that it was the casual cruelty of the Nuremberg Laws.
Jews who had lived in Germany for generations were suddenly “stateless,” with no rights — they became illegals. Like Nicolas, they were considered aliens in the country they knew. They were harassed, lost jobs, were deprived of property and encouraged to leave, if they could. Most otherwise good Germans just looked the other way. But I can’t look away from what happened to Nicolas.
Ironically, he was detained the same week that the Justice Department proposed a $1.8 billion fund to compensate supposed “victims of lawfare.” That apparently could include violent Capitol rioters and white-collar felons, but probably not hard-working landscapers.
I pray for Nicolas. And I pray for our country. As we near the 250th anniversary of America’s independence, I hope we can do better than to casually destroy lives.
Chris Jennewein is the founder and senior editor of Times of San Diego.
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