Two immigrants from Indonesia have been detained by ICE in New Jersey. These individuals had an order of removal from the United States issued by an immigration judge, which was upheld by the Board of Immigration Appeals. ICE arrested Gunawan Liem, of Franklin Park, NJ, Thursday after he dropped his daughter off at the bus stop. Roby Sanger of Metuchen, NJ, was detained after he brought his daughters to school.
ICE has repeatedly said they do not target individuals based on religion, ethnicity, gender or race.
Opinion:
The law is not always moral. Sure, we can look at this from an emotional perspective and say that ICE is making a handful of kids fatherless or even orphans, but logically it is the fathers' fault for being arrested. They made two mistakes, one for immigrating illegally, and two for having children that would suffer if they were caught for doing the first mistake. Go to any other country illegally and you'll be deported if you're lucky, but when America does it, it's heartless and terrible.
These guys were fleeing religious persecution in Indonesia and had 365 days to apply for asylum. Instead, they chose to break the law and as a result, paid the price.
Do you think ICE is justified in this arrest? Is this article biased with its choice of words?
http://pix11.com/2018/01/25/2-dads-nabbed-by-ice-as-they-drop-off-kids-at-nj-school-3rd-takes-shelter-in-church/
9 comments:
Ok you are correct that the ICE is just doing their job and that is fine. But come on, they take the guys in while they're dropping off their kids? Why couldn't they do it at another time? Talk about leaving a lifelong scar on a child. Not only are their dads taken away and sent back to where they immigrated from, but it was done in front of a bunch of other kids around them. It's embarrassing and heartbreaking and it alienates the kids even more than they previously were. If the ICE were sensible, they would at least wait until the dads were at work or at home and not have to put the kids through this.
Not to go against you personally, but I somewhat disagree with your opinion. First question, what do you mean exactly by "Go to any other country illegally and you'll be deported if you're lucky, but when America does it, it's heartless and terrible."? Also, I can guarantee you that if it were that easy to come to America legally, there would not be as many "illegal immigrants" are there currently are. It is INCREDIBLY difficult to come to this country and not many meet the requirements. Just based on what I've heard from this story, I believe this man and his family fled from Indonesia for their safety and to be able to provide their children with better opportunities. Yes, coming to this country illegally is against the law but these situations need to be looked at with full context. My heart is so broken for the children who will come home and have to try to grasp the idea that they may not see their father for years. I absolutely hate the stigma that immigrants are "criminals" because while yes they initially broke the law by entering this country illegally, the majority do so in order to provide for their families back home and pave better futures for their children. Overall, we must be educated on these issues and have an open mind when dealing with them because in reality, we ALL come from "immigrant" families, unless you are of indigenous descent.
I agree with Alexa and Theo. There are so many other situations out there where the father of a family or a couple gets split a part because one is able to go to America, legally but the others are still unable, and it takes them months to years to actually make it to America legally, if at all. So it is extremely hard to immigrate legally; even if they had 365 days to apply for asylym, didn't mean it was easy or a good choice for them. Like Theo said, there were probably hundreds of situations were ICE could have taken these men, but in front of their children, their friends, even their bus driver, is incredibly embarrassing and traumantic. It's not like ICE couldn't have waited three minutes for the men to get back to their house to take them in. It is psychologically so traumatic on children to see their parents get taken away, and this trauma will stay with them their whole life, effecting them in ways that can potentially hurt their relationships with other people in the furure.
Just because you apply to certain things does not always mean its granted. Maybe the man did apply for asylum but was not granted it. Like the previous comments have said, yes it is ICE's job to detain illegal immigrants, but they definitely did this in a heartless way. The child will always have to grow up knowing her father was arrested after dropping her off, having all her classmates watching her dad being taken away. A lot of people fail to realize that people come to America for a better life. Obviously if they were having a great life in their home country there would be no reason to come live here. Also yes they broke the law by staying here illegally, but honestly us as teenagers also break many laws. At one point in our lives we break one law. There are many laws that I've seen broken in highschool, like driving with other minors, underage drinking, stealing. Does that make everyone terrible people and make most of our classmates criminals? I'm sure most of us wouldn't' even come close to consider them as criminals, but they still broke the law right?. Like Alexa said, I think it's really shady of most people to consider immigrants as criminals when they were only doing what's best for themselves and for their families. It's not always easy to become legal while being in america. It took my mom about 20 years to get her citizenship. It's not just applying and bam you're legal. it does not work like that, it is not an easy process and I think people should be more considerate of that.
I don’t think it is fair you assume coming here illegally is a bad thing. Both of my parents migrated here for a better life for my siblings and I. It’s not as easy as you think to get a Visa or a Green card. It takes most people years and years. Most people that come here illegally aren’t criminals, they’re hardworking people. For example, the lettuce you eat, the strawberries you eat, etc were more than likely picked by an immigrant. You’re entitled to your own opinion just be considerate of others.
I understand that this family broke the law by coming here illegally, but immigrants work so hard for a brighter future for them and their children. This man was taken away from his kids and now the kids are going to get home fatherless. They are going to have the grasp the idea that their father was punished for trying to give his kids a safe place to live and grow. Maybe they applied for Asylum and got denied, maybe he just couldn't find a way to get there or enough time to do so. The process for any immigrant to get into the United States takes a very long time and is so hard. Being an immigrant under a visa I can tell you that the process takes months if not years and it is incredibly expensive. We don't know the reasons for this man not to apply for Asylum and I don't think we're in a place to judge him for it. This is a heartbreaking story especially because he left his country for religious persecution.
I think that a lot of people in this comments section are being too harsh on the government or ICE. They are just doing their job of enforcing the law. There is a law called the Immigration and Nationality Act that clearly states: "people who are in the U.S. without legal permission shall be deported." I personally don't agree that this law should be heavily enforced because I understand that especially in California, a large part of our economy is run by illegal immigrants. However, I can't get mad at the government for enforcing this law. Instead, I would recommend that some sort of class-action lawsuit should be filed in defense of the illegal immigrants showing their positive impact on our state and country. But to clear a few things up that many people in the comments don't seem to understand: we are talking about illegal immigrants, not immigrants; These illegal immigrants are by law: defined as criminals; Calling someone a criminal is not necessarily saying they are a bad person; And finally, instead of fighting some unnamed person that seems to be coming up in many people's comments, fight the law because that is the way to make a difference.
I understand why many people here are against what the ICE and government are doing to immigrants, but I somewhat agree with what Matthew is saying. I do feel bad that these immigrants lost their footing here in America, but illegal immigrants are, well, illegal. It is against the law to immigrate to America without a permit or some legal document showing that you are allowed to stay in the country. To help these immigrants though, the system of immigration in America should be transformed to either allow more people in or be more accessible to underprivileged people. Illegal immigrants probably came to America in order to escape a desperate situation, but the government should not be criticized for doing its job of upholding the law. Rules were created in order to keep a safe society for people to live in, and this is no exception.
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