WHAT HURTS ME most about people here is that without knowing the facts about a person or an issue, they run their mouths on them. They never stop to think how they are hurting the people they are talking about or how by maligning that individual they are making it impossible for him to find work or some place to live.
I have gone through that and it was a struggle for me to get on my feet. Were it not for the kindness of an old aunt who always liked me, I don’t know what would have happened to me.
Because I had my aunt, I was lucky. A lot of other people in similar circumstances were not.
What I am talking about is the plight of people who are deported from the United States. I was deported a few years back after serving time for drugs. I had a traffickable amount as I was partying when they raided and held me. Then, after I paid my debt to that society, I was punished again by being sent back here.
For this reason, I think deportation is an evil system and the Americans should stop doing it because all it serves to do is to destroy people’s lives.
I used to “hit [drugs]” for my pleasure, but I didn’t sell, nor was I a criminal. But the Americans don’t care. If they catch you, they convict you and then deport you.
What hurt me bad is that I had no one here except for that old aunt, but that made no difference to the Americans. They just threw me out of the States as if I was garbage.
Rejected and condemned
I wonder how many people ever thought about what it feels like to have to go through that. To be rejected and condemned to live someplace where you have no real connections. All of your friends, family and best memories are forever snatched away as you can never go back to see them or visit those places again.
Then, to add insult to injury, from the time you land here the police are on your case harassing you. Imagine how my head was spinning trying to come to grips [with the fact] that I would never see
my woman again, that I would never drive my car again, never get to enjoy my apartment again, never be able to go to Madison Square Garden for a ball game again, and never be able to do the things that I had become accustomed to doing.
And while I am trying to deal with these feelings, the police checking in on me and treating me as if I’m some big time criminal who should be locked up and the key thrown away.
Two days after I landed and went to the old lady’s house, they came by wanting to know where I was the day before as somebody’s house nearby was broken into.
A few days later a girl got molested and they said the description fitted me. Then days later another set passed by the house just to check up on me, all the while asking where I was getting money to survive.
It was as if they wanted me to do something stupid so that they could get a piece of me too. But I kept my cool.
Of course, from the time you land and people hear you got sent back, the talk starts. You hear how you are a rapist, a thief, a paedophile, a killer, a fraudster or a drug pusher.
The thing is that not one of them ever asked me what I got sent back for; they just blabbered.
What hurt me most is how it affected the old lady as she was living there peacefully before I was sent back to burden her. And then her neighbours had all sorts of things to say not only about me but her as well for allowing me to live there, as if they would not have done the same for their relative in similar circumstances.
Anyway, this is not about me; this is an appeal for people to recognize that everybody who is deported is not a career criminal. Some, like me, made a mistake and deserve another chance after paying our debt to society.
If you look at the situation here you would see what I mean. A lot of the people sent back are not the ones doing the bad crimes. If it were so, you would hear the police talking off their heads about this.
But I’m making this appeal now because I have heard about a case where a young deportee is being pressured by people’s talk. I don’t know him but I could well understand his feelings. From what I heard about how he is responding, I think this guy is not coping well with the taunts and may hit out at somebody. I hope that doesn’t happen for his sake, but if it does, maybe it would teach people to stop hurting others through their lies and gossip.
Editor’s Note: The United States is just one of a number of countries with strict deportation policies concerning non-citizens who break their laws.