Recently I had a conversation I never thought I’d have with my daughter, who was adopted at 4 months from South Korea. She called to tell me ICE had been seen in her neighborhood in New Hampshire and to ask what she could do to protect herself from being picked up and sent to an ICE facility in someplace like Louisiana.
She had already told her partner where she keeps all her important papers. We discussed how she should make copies of her naturalization papers and passport and never carry the originals. How she should keep photos of them on her phone, as should her partner. We made a list of whom she should call, which she should share with her partner. She should drive conservatively, never speak her mind — they have guns, far more powerful than free speech! — and certainly never protest anymore.
Before you dismiss our concerns, do you know how many people of Asian descent have been picked up and sometimes deported in the past year? We are not given accurate information, of course, but universities have done studies.
I then called the New Hampshire senators and representatives, who fortunately, share my concerns and fears.
I imagine the fears of people far more targeted by hate than my daughter, Mexicans (“rapists”), Somalis (“garbage”), Venezuelans (“savage and murderous gangs”).
This is the United States where we now live.
Melody Graulich, Wellsville