Earthly Offerings: Scattering Seeds

I like to think that I share a lot because:

I want to help others avoid suffering in ways that I have.
I want others to know that they are not alone.
I want people to find hope and solutions that they might not have considered.
I want people to find the freedom and peace that I dreamed of finding for so long and have now finally found.
My soul cries out, “taste and see that Love is good…. And that the spirit of Love is IN YOU” and I can't help but try to tell others.

The world lies and so many of us were sold a false version of Love. There is no Fear in Love. There is no judgement. There is just learning and growth and acceptance and reciprocal encouragement and mutual support.

But, if I’m being totally honest, I also share selfishly at times, too.

So I can avoid the triggering I feel in my body when people who are close to me say hateful things without realizing it.
So I can point out the ways that my ego was right and theirs was wrong because it makes me feel superior and therefore safe.
So I can avoid the fear that threatens to overtake me when I look around and feel as though entire communities are living in a different reality than I am, due to misinformation and our corrupt media conglomerates in this nation.
So I can stop feeling so frustrated at the general apathy, close-mindedness, and unwillingness of people to consider other perspectives, different from their own, in order to investigate and honestly determine the best solutions for us as a nation, or for themselves as a human.

I don’t honestly know which this one is - a genuine desire to help others or a selfish desire for this madness to end.

It puts people at risk. Worse, it puts people I love at risk, even though they are LEGAL immigrants. I believe that it is fundamentally immoral, illegal, and unconstitutional. None of which are small things.

But honestly, emotionally, I am just so tired of people being so willing to pull the wool over their own eyes and disregard basic facts. I am tired of the news, the politicians, the advertisers, the CEOs, and all the others lying to make it harder and harder to determine truthful fact from manipulative deceit. I am tired of the all-or-nothing thinking and the what-about-isms. We are not toddlers. Communication requires both a desire to hear and understand, as well as to talk and be heard, by ALL PARTIES involved.

This is one of those completely irritating immigration political points for me. It’s exhausting and I don’t understand why people are not willing to hear or understand it, because, honestly, it seems really simple to me.

Many of us would support an ethically-run immigration system wherein those immigrants who are granted temporary status have that status revoked if they are found guilty of having committed a crime. We would support returning the 'rapists' and 'murderers' to their home countries and not granting them legal status in this country, if this were, in fact, rapists and murderers.

That is not what is happening here.

When it comes to politics and laws and how our government functions, one must be willing to read all of a thing, and to read between the lines, if one is going to consider it at all, because that is where changes are really occurring, that is where the boundaries are being pushed, and where the loopholes are being created.

First, please know, I am not going to argue this particular act or immigration as a whole. I am done with that. If we disagree, we disagree. If you have facts which might change my mind, please share them, but if they can't be proven or cited from reputable sources, then don't waste my time. I can read the act for myself with my own eyes. I can read the amendments which have been added.

And because I have, I will, also, provide a few seeds for you to also hopefully consider.

No, I do not support the Laken-Riley Act and here is why:

There were things in this act that are extremely problematic, in my opinion.

This act allows for mandatory detention of people simply based on “accusation and/or arrest”. There is no difference provided in the treatment of the accused versus the guilty. Additionally, it created several judicial review changes, all of which serve to strip all possibility of rectifying any wrongdoing and removing any outside oversight. I personally want MORE ACCOUNTABILITY, not less.

The only course of action that an innocent immigrant has now that this has been passed, is to ask for the Dept of Homeland Security to check and see if they were designated correctly in their immigration category which allowed us to detain them. Well, if their designation is “accused of a crime”, then guess what, Dept of Homeland Security can look and say, “yep, the designation is correct. You were accused of a crime.” And that’s that. That is the only recourse. Any person can accuse an immigrant of a crime, and they can be confined without any recourse.

What happened to innocent until proven guilty? You see, this is where the racism comes in -- some people assume that they are all guilty and want them all treated as such without any rights to due process or humane treatment.

Some of us believe that doing that is the equivalent to treating an entire group of people differently simply based upon the color of their skin or the nation in which they were born, and we define that as racism, and, in this case, White Supremacy - believing that the white nationalities are better, safer, deserve to live here, whereas the others, well, they can "just go back to where they came from". Right? Gross.

You can read the internal memo which was sent out to employees and see exactly what they were concerned about. I highlighted the parts that concern me. Assuming control over immigrants for any reason they deem required, regardless of law, and ensuring that no one can stop them.

Here’s an article that explains a little better than I do:

Legal expert says the bipartisan Laken Riley Act is unjust, wasteful and a Trojan horse : NPR

Here is the internal memorandum instructing employees about the new changes. (I highlighted the parts I, personally, have a problem with.):

https://www.justice.gov/eoir/media/1387731/dl?inline