Wednesday, December 30, 2009

" ....for you were aliens in the land of Egypt" Exodus 23:9

I often wonder about the conversations that happen in the homes of our clients. I wonder if they are able to disconnect themselves from their immigration issues, or if they think about them all the time. I certainly hope they don’t. I wonder if their immigration status is the first thing they think about in the morning and the last thing the think about before they go to sleep. I wonder if they think: is this the day I will receive a decision? is this the day I will be told that I have to leave? What would happen if I leave? What would happen to my life if I had to live it outside of America? Perhaps they talk about the trivial, like we all do. They probably talk about work, school, family, about their lousy bosses and their plans for their time off. Perhaps they talk about their countries of origin, about their beauty, about how hard it was to let go.

I wish the current government could take a glimpse at the lives of the millions of undocumented immigrants. I wish they could see the faces, the struggles, hear their voices and hear their stories. I wish. Another day comes and goes, another day full of stories that will not be told. Another day in the land of promise, another day in the land of the free.

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

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