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Tijuana: A deportee's suicide, highlights a nation's disgrace
Thursday, February 23, 2017 1:21
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A deportee's suicide highlights a nation's disgrace
I don't know what went through the man's mind, at around 9:00 AM, as he walked across from the United States, along the El Chapparral bridge, clutching his possessions in a plastic bag, from the ICE processing facility. He wore casual clothes, brown sweatshirt, under a white shirt, and sweatpants. He was from Sinaloa, and had served time in a federal facility, for alien attempting to enter the country, through Arizona.
His heart broke literally, failing him, as his head hit the unforgiving concrete. It's easy to get lost in imagery, metaphors, as you look at the picture. A man's death, his only possessions, stuffed in a plastic bag, his face staring upward, into the equally unforgiving sun. He doesn't need to be a martyr, or a symbol, or signal for a cause. And I won't characterize his death that way. He was a man, not yet old, and long past young, who killed himself, and died, alone, in a lonely sewer bottom. He can just be that. That is enough.
Enough to mourn in some way, to acknowledge in others. Guadelupe Olivias Valencia was this man's name. He had a criminal record for growing, possessing marijuana for sale, and for illegal entry. I don't care. Unless information surfaces to the contrary I'll assume he was like a lot of us, dealing with the circumstances of his birth, in two countries, that never cared much for his kind.
Yet, his death highlights a larger evil, a diseased ideology sweeping the new administration of the United States. An abhorrent anti immigration sentiment, a fevered, deranged vision to build a wall, to deport, round up, imprison, punish, millions of men, and women. Some with criminal records, some who have been arrested, and some who have not. It matters little to the hateful masses, nor who they have empowered. They want them gone. They want them out.Behind each deportation, there is a heartbreak, a heartache, a wrenching of families, an agony of separation, a life pulled apart at the seams, abandoned, left unfinished, a first date that can never happen, a first day in school that will never come, a birthday party without the most important guests….All the things we take for granted, that we will be here tomorrow. Or next week. This is all changed in the last week for millions, who will begin living in fear, in dread, they will be crossing El Chapparral soon.
Recently, the new administration released a proposal to combat illegal immigration, rolling back the previous admin's policy of prioritizing deportees. This will allow for millions more to be deported under the new program, effectively terrorizing millions of people, and tearing holes in the lives and hearts of all they deport. This will help no one, and hurt them all. Everyday. Every minute. This is a disgraceful time in the United States. I don't know if the evilest amongst us have the memories, or the perspective, that will allow them the shame they deserve, when looking back, years from now. I hope they do.
Sources: AFN Tijuana
Source: http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2017/02/tijuana-deportees-suicide-highlights.html
