almost to the date in New Bedford
Massachusetts there was an immigration
and customs enforcement gray on a
factory in which approximately 350
immigrants were arrested now immigration
and customs enforcement came to this
this factory oddly enough they were if
they were producing a jackets military
jacket with people serving overseas they
came in with helicopters dogs weapons of
all Tigers and they arrested three
hundred fifty men women and children at
that time oh it’s three years out of Law
School fresh out of law school and was
working a great Boston Legal Services
and we got a call that this rate had
occurred our managing attorney was still
the manager an attorney there nancy
kelly started to put together a plan we
needed to go in and interview these
folks as quickly as possible so we
figured out Nancy figured out that they
were being many of them were being
detained at a military base in Fort
Devens Massachusetts which is it made of
uh
call say in English air in Spanish we
say hi yet because they’re like
yesterday like old-fashioned sort of
technique to bring people
detention and so we we organized to get
down into the military base remember all
types of hurdles it didn’t want to let
us in they required us to submit names
of the people that we were representing
so we quickly got in touch with families
and we got almost all the names of the
people there and said we are the
representatives of these these folks we
get down to the military base and
there’s an armed guard I was in a car
with a few different people we had six
or seven attorneys at the time but we
got volunteers from all the different
units to come up with us I was in a car
and I was illegal was the lawyer was our
other paralegals and secretaries go
ahead we met with an armed guard at the
gate and they said you gotta wait it was
cold we were in a car and it was
freezing cold and we were waiting
suburb in Massachusetts is very surreal
anyway so we get in night has fallen ten
we can’t bring our car so they tell us
to get him back in the back of one of
those police wagons you know there’s a
majority of a forever paddy wagon we had
to get me back up that and go to another
part of the base we get to the other
part of the base they take us out of
this wagon as they’re taking us out for
taking some of the two teenies and we
see that these guys are central american
many of which are from one more
indigenous folks many of them are
indigenous if you know people from water
mala Central America there’s slight
stature very neat and they have them
teen arm and arm like this and their
legs are shackled and to pull it amount
of a wagon somewhere to only wear it and
if one person falls symbols of the whole
line similarly watching this
force myself to watch if I had to watch
it because I felt as though I need to
let those people know that there’s
walk into a sort of mess hall similar to
this but with barbed wire and
floodlights although pet and they bring
in and move the detainees back to the
place and ways make us wait for another
hour so we’re just waiting I know when
they finally bring the detainees out
gotta be around midnight tired look
exhausted it looks like the heart is
hard for them to stand up and they’re
still standing in line presented as if
we’re part of the problem the reason why
you can’t go to sleep is because these
attorneys want to talk to you and it was
I just a little bit aside practicing now
for about 14 years and we have a
relationship with the ice
arguments often times but we have a
working relationship we respect them as
people and they respect consequence or
support but on this day that respect at
least on the part of the ice attorneys
went out the door they were treating us
as if we were breaking a law as if we
were somehow making things harder
troublemakers I remember at one point I
went up to a nice an attorney that that
I had known that I respected they say
sir we’d like to prioritize speaking
with the children first so if you could
bring the children out first we’d like
to talk to those folks firms and he went
and yelled at me saying we do not have
any children in this facility louder
than that more in fact they did we found
children in their DCF Health Department
children and families of those find
children and you know we got them
remedies Boyd one such person i’m open
to wrap up for keys he’s a citizen now
help me to wrap up the keys with him
but that the change in the environment
that change in the way that we saw each
other was part of this sort of
militarization this reinforcement aspect
of the immigration policy that existed
at the time so this was during the bush
the Bush era and what I could say about
the difference then I suppose now push
first took office the border was much
more course people came in there was
this catcher release policy and it’s
really hard to get numbers
many people you release this check
around back in there was not nearly as
much border enforcement as we have now
have some numbers for you as well that
goes something like 9800 2001 9800
border agents and then by 2009 we have
20,000 border agents so during the Bush
administration you see you can see a lot
more of this interior enforcement USC
rounding up of folks like in New Bedford
I saw a smaller scale sweeps here in
Massachusetts and then tuck it
there was some of the meat factories
were rated in Iowa I believe so see a
lot of a much more of a terior base
yeah flip and when I could say in that
regard and the reason why it was so
important for us to get in there is
because even if you get arrested and
detained you still have the right to go
to a hearing and be heard on the merits
of your case so we wanted to make sure
all of these folks no matter where they
were located had an attorney that could
represent them in the event that there
was some immigration remedy available to
them so what did immigration do they
took all of these people that were in
Fort Devens and they transfer them to
Texas a couple of days and I remember
hearing the news that the folks that we
had gone and interviewed and spent those
hours getting their stories were taken
and put in a state far away where they
have no other resources and we were
coming home gosh we’re just coming home
crying into my pillow
even to this day I’m not nervous like I
still feel emotional about
events part of that the emotion comes
from I did a little research on on civil
pictured what it must have been
you
tortured indigenous person tortured
during the watermelon Civil War two
hundred thousand people were killed
eighty-three percent of which were
indigenous Mayans why this is not
recognized as as a genocide globally I
recognized it as a genocide I don’t know
why we don’t have some rather dark
remedy here in the united states that
allows indigenous Mayans fleeing this
genocide some refuge here I don’t know
but I have that picture going into the
detention center and I realized that
what they were seeing here in
Massachusetts very blue state liberal
massachusetts was probably reminiscent
of some of the detention situations they
face
and for that reason I felt my country
had failed that there was a failure in
system that there was something wrong
I still feel that what we saw a in the
transition from the Bush era to the
performant is we see a lot less of that
interior enforcement and maybe Obama had
a heart maybe you recognize some of the
issues that immigrant in space because
in fact his father’s interpret or maybe
Obama was just lucky in that the border
was now secure and everybody had been
dealt with now what we see we see a
border that is eighty percent secure
bye-bye I statistics what I see in my
practice is I see people that are
already in the system they’re already in
there was an interesting article in New
York Times concerning the security of
the border comparions and people are
or nearly impossible but comparing it to
the Berlin Wall the Berlin Wall was
ninety-five percent secure but we’re
talking about 96 miles of border we got
2,000 miles of the mexican border that’s
eighty percent secure i would call that
pretty secure and i think obama road
this time such that he he no longer
focused on on the interior he had a new
set of priorities he was going to
prioritize criminal aliens aliens and
and people with outstanding deportation
orders and continue the security at the
border but now and what i can say it
regards to to bush and obama oddly
enough there immigration policies are
very similar the idea being that if you
start with enforcement then maybe after
we’re secure we secure that border then
maybe we can then start talking about
comprehensive immigration reform so
there was a little bit of that hope for
the light at the end of the tunnel and i
think democrats and republicans went
along with this idea okay let’s secure
so what I think this is my opinion is
that Obama began getting frustrated fact
that he’s fluent reporter and we didn’t
get the duration reform 2010 we see a
bipartisan bill that’s all over that
that that has majority support it didn’t
have enough support to pasco Buster
Republicans health agenda
with that frustration Obama moves to
executive orders 2012 Obama by the
pathway the so-called viewers in sign
and elect the executive order called the
deferred action for childhood arrivals
from doc this was an effort to jumpstart
the conversation once again to at least
signing the dreamer villa or more
after that 2013 Mayo so called gang of
eight for focus for Democrats with the
Boehner didn’t want to bring it to a
vote he is basically held hostage by a
group of very extreme I wouldn’t even
say conservative just an extreme group
of the Republican Party that threatened
to his speaker speakership harm if he
brought it to a book that many coal
chamber so anyways what we have is
comprehensive immigration reform stalled
in the water and the enforcement
continues the enforcement continues and
yet whenever we never feel or we’re
never getting messages that in fact we
are secure with this clear import with
this enforcement what we saw is we speak
and to see a clear picture of who it was
that was entering the United States and
no matter what Trump tells you move the
people that are coming into the United
States with the numbers will show is we
see an increase in unaccompanied minors
these are children entering the United
States without their parents and we see
it increase in family units a lot of
people are coming from Central America
and actually was seen a shift from the
majority of people
from the northern triangle in Guatemala
El Salvador’s and fewer Mexicans it
shifted the population a lot more women
a lot more children they’re not Mexican
rapist that’s for sure they’re not
radical Islamic terrorists that’s for
sure they’re women in children in fact
six what we see in 2009 received 20,000
miners between the United States by 2014
similarly 2013 15 thousand family units
coming into the United States 2014 in
their very next year seventy thousand
family units to the United States at the
same time we’re seeing a decrease in the
that is all to say that border is secure
and these people that are in the United
States expressing appear many times and
endure and they’re not the type of books
that you hear about being a threat to
our security but what Trump is doing
with his rhetoric about mexican teen
murderers and rapists and radical
Islamic terrorists is not only is he
instilling fear but he’s he’s making the
case for increased enforcement and in
fact just this week with we hear him
reiterate his need for 15,000 more
border agents to secure this other
border and of course we all heard about
but what I would argue is that we tried
enforcement Chloe policies for the last
40 years or so we can say really with
the Reagan administration is when you
get the need for a work permit and
relatively modern issue but for the last
four decades we’ve tried enforcement
only causing the deterrent policies and
it doesn’t work it’s inefficient not
only is it inefficient it’s
misunderstood by many people it’s
misunderstood by by people a broth and
it’s misunderstood by people in the
united states people in the United
States certainly don’t feel more secure
people that are coming in feel a sense
of instability having to have an
immigration case pending or sometimes
five years without knowing again whether
or not they will be able to continue
living with their family and continue
study or continue working or whether
they’ll be
classic example of a key of cases that I
have now kids that have
there are 15 years old in high school
completed high school if you win the
case by year if the case is a little bit
more problematic could take it like a
set of five years we’re talking about
that that age group of 15 year old to a
20 year old a lot happens in that time
you go to high school learning English
you get to some job skills maybe or are
and if I bad if it in a half cases like
that save at the end of that by appears
you don’t know what it’s going to happen
it’s not likely that you’re going to be
able to focus such that you can reach
your full potential and who does that
really affect them that affects all of
us we have the opportunity to take
advantage of the potential of all of the
people that we collaborated with in the
United States but with this enforcement
deterrent idea and policy we as a nation
are unable to embrace populations we
what I think we need is we need a
clearer path to citizenship we need to
step away from the turn-based system and
focus more on a reward based system or
merit-based system that recognizes the
need for not only a robust labor force
but the diversity of thought and
creative ideas that comes from
when I think back to what made me so sad
why I would pry my pillow and I saw that
bid for grade it wasn’t really me
thinking politically about it wasn’t me
thinking about I know it’s just a very
inefficient system and also sad that our
system is so efficient no it wasn’t that
wasn’t that the humanity the inhumanity
that experience that was it either he
was part of it but really what made me
sad was the idea that I was seeing the
physical manifestation of policy that
contradicts what I feel is at the core
of our 248 year experiment that is
be sure the founders of this country
admitted reason when they decided to
carve out a piece of land for themselves
but they were also in a situation where
they had to admit those treasonous acts
and preserve the rule of law and how did
they do that they justify it by with the
thoughts of the Philosopher’s during the
Enlightenment there are certain things
that they said should it be taken away
talked about natural rights god-given
Runnings inalienable rights rights that
they were building a nation that
transcends the traditional notion of
to do that they needed people that were
courageous enough to transcend both
traditional groupings they needed people
that move beyond race ethnicity nation
religion they needed this because they
collaboration to seek something higher
the classic is the life liberally
they wanted to create a space and pursue
and in fact the Declaration of
Independence talks about I got to get
the correct word I don’t miss read the
decoration so they talked about repeated
injuries and usurpations of the king and
one of those repeated injuries is if so
mated word for work he has endeavored to
prevent the population of these states
for that purpose obstructing the laws
for naturalization of foreigners
refusing to pass others to encourage the
migrations hither and raising the
kitchen the conditions of new
appropriations of land in the
Declaration of Independence was this
idea that we needed a population
with that the American Dream is not just
the dream of an individual to do all
that he can do to be the best in the
American dream is a dream of our nation
American Dream is the idea that has a
nation with people that are courageous
enough to collaborate with people
different from them we can come together for the benefit