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| As a growing number of families are separated as part of the Trump administration’s attempt to control illegal immigration, some parents are being deported before recovering their children.. —Miriam Jordan, The New York Times, June 17, 2018. Photo credit Marian Carrasquero/The New York Times. |
Someone has killed my husband and is trying to kill me and my children.
I run away from the killer and towards your home for many days and nights,
Because
I want to live and I want my children to live.
I know your home is a safe haven for us.
Exhausted and hungry we finally make it to your doorstep.
And knock on your door,
But you don’t answer.
We camp out on your front porch for many days and nights.
We knock on your door,
Every day.
But you don’t answer.
We are out of food and water and my baby is running a fever.
In desperation,
I enter your home through an open window.
I find you and tell you I have entered,
Whereupon
You tell me I am a criminal
Because
I entered your home through a window and not the door.
I try to tell you why,
But you won’t listen or don't understand my language.
Instead,
You put me in jail,
You kidnap my children,
You tell me I am a bad mother,
And that I should never have come,
That I should never have run from this killer.
The next day,
You stop kidnapping the children of those coming through the window.
Excitedly,
I ask you, "where are my children and when can I see them?"
You tell me you don’t know or care where they are.
That I should never have run from this killer.
And that I should never have come.
You tell me I am a bad mother,
And have lost my children.
You send me home
TO DIE.
Barbara J. Clark is a registered patent attorney with 24 years of experience drafting and prosecuting patent applications before the USPTO. She currently runs her own patent law firm in Ames, Iowa. She also enjoys writing picture books, social commentary and humorous memoirs. Last week, Ms. Clark, together with over 5000 other attorneys nationwide, signed up to volunteer through Lawyers For Good Government to help provide pro bono legal services to those seeking asylum. She will be training and working remotely on various activities, including immigration parole bond hearings and legal research and writing. She also signed up with the Dilley Project and will be going to Dilley, Texas in August, with an interpreter, to help prepare mothers (whose children are with them) for their “credible fear” interviews.