If President Donald Trump leaves no other legacy, he will leave the wreckage of a witch hunt for people who came to America in search of a better life. Looking for the human face of that crackdown?
Look inside a cell at an eastern Massachusetts jail, where Niberd Alzendi Abdalla — a longtime Hampshire County resident who fled violence in his native Iraq four decades ago and has by all accounts been a law-abiding member of society ever since — deteriorates physically while his deportation case languishes in the overloaded courts.
And look at the walls of First Congregational Church in Amherst, which are serving as both sanctuary and temporary prison for Lucio Perez, a 35-year-old landscaper and father of four who fears that if he steps outside, ICE agents will seize him and send him back to the Guatemala he left half a lifetime ago.
Such cases, detailed by Gazette staff writer Dusty Christensen, show the growing toll of Trump’s immigration crackdown — including “Operation Safe City,” a recent sweep that served as a White House rebuke to communities like Northampton and Amherst that have refused to help ICE hunt down immigrants who lack documentation but otherwise follow the law. (The above cases were separate from the four-day Safe City raids.)
While Trump and his lieutenants have tried to portray the subjects of this dragnet as criminals and thugs, the cases of Abdalla and Perez show a different truth: The people being hunted and imprisoned are by all accounts good workers, spouses, parents and neighbors.
In fact, they are in custody only because they were following the law, regularly reporting to immigration offices as required by then-president Barack Obama. That’s right: They’re behind bars because for years, they’ve been doing exactly what the government asked.
Is it in this nation’s interest to deport a man who works for a living, studies the Bible and is desperately missed by his children? That’s the portrait Christensen provided of Perez, who was granted sanctuary by the Amherst church after the Trump crackdown made him a target.
Perez wears a heavy electronic monitoring bracelet around his ankle, allowing ICE to track his every step. He takes comfort in the house of worship, turning often to a well-thumbed Bible. He rarely breathes fresh air, relies for meals on the kindness of strangers and — worst of all — can’t financially support his family or see them more than once a week because they live in Springfield.
“It’s not easy being away from family,” said his wife, Dora Gonzalez. “More for the kids, because they need him. They need his help and his hugs.”
Before Trump, the government kept track of undocumented immigrants like Perez and Abdalla, requiring them to check in regularly but otherwise focusing deportation efforts on immigrants who were committing serious crimes. But that changed this year, as Trump made good on campaign promises by targeting responsible immigrants.
“He is now an ICE fugitive, and is subject to arrest when encountered,” ICE spokesman Khaalid Walls said of Perez. “If arrested, ICE will then carry out his removal from the United States.”
Fugitive. Subject to arrest. Carry out his removal.
Hard words designed to deny the humanity of someone whose only crime was to be born in another land and come here in search of something better. Surely, this nation can speak with more compassion, can act with more reason, can find something better to do with its might.