Rep. Darrell Issa: You failed to step up in 2013-14; will you step up now for a constituent?
The indiscriminate nature of the Trump Administration’s deportation push knows no limits.
Witness the following story from the San Diego area. An evangelical minister who strongly identifies with the Republican Party, actively supported President Trump and has encouraged his U.S. citizen daughter to volunteer for local Republican congressman Rep. Darrell Issa is now facing deportation. Jorge Ramirez has been in the U.S. since age 11. He has three U.S. citizen daughters. He was picked up by the Border Patrol and detained. The reasons remain unclear.
A Los Angeles Times story by Kate Morrissey, entitled “An Oceanside minister supported Trump. Now, he’s getting deported” tells an all-too familiar story:
Jorge Ramirez, an Oceanside minister and immigrant who is in the country illegally, didn’t think he would end up in line for deportation when he encouraged his U.S. citizen daughter to vote for now-President Trump.
In an interview at the Otay Mesa Detention Center, Ramirez — who said he holds conservative religious beliefs and considers himself a Republican — explained that Border Patrol agents picked him up after staking out his house early one May morning.
Ramirez said he does not know why he was targeted for removal from the U.S. The Trump administration has said that it is focusing on immigrants with criminal records and those who previously have been ordered deported. Ramirez said he falls into neither category.
‘Trump said, ‘Let’s keep all the good people here and all the bad people out,’’ Ramirez said.
‘That’s great, but I’m here,’ Ramirez said of his detention. ‘I’m not saying I’m the best person in the world, but I’ve tried to live a good life.’
…Ramirez said he also encouraged his youngest daughter to volunteer with the campaign of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista).
Ramirez came to the U.S. with his family when he was 11 and was raised in San Diego County. In high school, he joined the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps for the Marines, and when the Gulf War began, he tried to enlist. The military would not accept him because of his immigration status, he said.
‘I’m USA all the way,’ Ramirez said. ‘It’s that American spirit. It just gets into you.’
The issue he has with the way immigration policy is being implemented, he said, is that he’s seen good people in detention.
‘To think that undeserving people are coming here [to the detention facility] makes me sad,’ Ramirez said.
According to Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice Education Fund:
While some may blame the victim, we do not. An immigrant who has lived in the U.S. since he was 11 years old, a man of faith and a loving husband and father is facing deportation. He’s not a public safety threat, he’s an American in all but paperwork.
This is part of a disturbing pattern under this Administration. The Trump deportation force – made up of ‘unshackled’ ICE and CBP agents – go after whoever they can get their hands on while throwing sand in our faces with talk of ‘bad hombres.’ From targeting Iraqi Christians to using unaccompanied kids as ‘bait’ to target their parents for deportation, each week seems to bring into sharper relief the cruelty and excesses of Trump’s indiscriminate rush to arrest and deport immigrants. In the process, the Administration is trampling on basic decency and common sense and doing disservice to our nation’s highest values and traditions.
Mr. Ramirez encouraged his daughter to volunteer on behalf of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). If Congressman Issa and his fellow House Republicans had done their job back in 2013-14 and taken up immigration reform after the Senate approved it with strong bipartisan support, Mr. Ramirez would have legal status now. Instead, he’s in detention and on the verge of being ripped away from his family. What say you, Rep. Issa? Go to bat for a conservative man of faith who is being threatened by your party’s President? You didn’t step up when the Ramirez family needed you before. Here’s your chance to set things right, as least for them.
