The feeling of nausea that has overcome me at 4a.m. this morning, isn't due to the fact I'm finishing up a rather long (12 hour) night shift, nor is it due to the chinese food from about 6 hours ago that I probably should have put in the refridgerator some time ago. It's the sort of nausea that envelopes not only ones stomach, but ones soul as well...

I remember that May morning a few months back when the story of a large scale immigration raid in an Iowa slaughterhouse hit the news. I recall reading all the reports of families separated, of a community torn apart as a result of it. My second husband is Mexican, and while he is here legally (and I can't tell you how long and expensive that process was- we're still paying off the attorneys 5 years later!) we both know quite a few very hard working, honest (yet, illegal) immigrants who are assets to their communities and our country who want nothing more than the opportunity to make enough money to support their families.

I've been to several parts of Mexico, not just to Cancun for spring break (which, I would venture to guess, is the part that most Americans experience.)and we've driven through small towns and seen the fragile shacks with tin roofs in the middle of nowhere and children who spend their days -not playing as we all recall doing as children, but trying to make whatever money possible to to help their family. As a woman who was a single mom for 6 years, I understand how it feels to worry how you are going to pay the mortgage, buy groceries, and hopefully have a little left over to pay the utilities. It is because we are all of the same human race -regardless of language we speak- that I know the heartache felt when one must send their children to bed hungry or can't afford to seek medical treatment for them when needed. I understand why they are here and can not find it in my heart to condem and persecute them for wanting something better for themselves and their families.

That being said, I was catching up on AlterNet tonight while at work and THIS (rather lengthy) inside account of that event made me feel like there is something truly very wrong with a nation that can treat people the way that we let these men, women and children be treated. Have we absolutely no social conscience except when it serves our own interests??? How the hell were these people denied immigration attorneys?! How could the issue of asylum not have been raised for so many of the Guatemalan immigrants?! How were they denied the right of severance?! How were they denied the opportunity to defend themselves to the best of their ability?! The author of the article notes that, under the charges brought against them, many would have been not guilty due to the lack of criminal knowledge and/or intent. Much like the animals they slaughtered these human beings were shuttled through our own rather cold-hearted, brutal assembly line of American "Justice".

Yes, this sadness and injustice is the source of my nocturnal nausea this morning. I don't question the braveness of the many people that walk (legally and otherwise) amongst us, it's the fact that we still pick and choose who deserves to be free and who doesn't that saddens and sickens me most.

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