Sunday, July 30, 2017

Isa Ramoul and the Border He Crossed

  I shall call him Isa, Isa Ramoul, the poorest of the poor in Mexico. As a birthday present to himself, when he turned 23, he headed north, thinking to find a job and a living in a land he honored and revered.
  Hadn't he heard you need to get permission to come to America? Check. He had. But, he had also heard that even without paperwork, you could stay. It would take a long time before they would catch up with you and send you home. In the meantime, he figured to be working, earning money, and sending it home to his wife and their two babies.
  If you wonder about his character, Isa was an honest type. Didn't want to join the cartels just to make a living, although joining the cartels was a certain way to make a good income. But, that was not for Isa. His mother had raised him differently than that, teaching him to stay away from crime.
  So, he headed north.
  He didn't bring enough food, and barely enough water. He stumbled through the border territory without a guide, arriving on the American side of the line a-hungering and a-thirsting and a stranger to all -- and anxious to knock on a door and ask for help.
  Now, Mr. Biddle had had a lot of migrants knock his door before. They were a nuisance -- an unwanted, unwelcome, uncomely nuisance. They were all criminals and drug burros, to him. So, as you might guess, this didn't go too well.
  "Help me! Please help me," Isa pleaded as Mr. Biddle swung open the door.
  "You scum. You criminal," came the reply. "Shall I call the Border Patrol, or will you go back on your own? You heard me, go back where you belong! Get out of here! Leave me alone!"
  Isa stumbled up to another two or three doors before someone finally called the Border Patrol and had him arrested. Seems in this new country he had entered, they didn't think in terms of helping people out, only of kicking them out. They really weren't bad people, these Americans, but somehow they had gotten it in their heads that these immigrants coming in from Mexico were going to ruin their country. Somehow, they figured that instead of being shown charity, the immigrants needed to be taught a lesson.
  Now, that might make perfect sense to you, but it doesn't to me.

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