New Kids on the Block

Four new young men showed up in the neighborhood this week. Otto and Sheny know everyone in the neighborhood and they hadn't seen these guys before. Otto told me at class this morning that he went over to the neighbor to ask who they were since they were not very friendly. He said they were drunk or on drugs and riding bikes in the street when cars were trying to pass. Apparently, they are relatives of neighbors and were deported from the U.S. for criminal activity. They have a lot of tattoos which Otto presumes are gang related, particularly because tattoos are very unusual to have in Guatemala.

That is something I love about the United States. Not that we are good at deporting all people, but that we take crime seriously and do not tolerate it. I don’t know why you’d come to the United States illegally and then get involved in criminal activity-it’s like waiving a red flag to ICE! In actuality, they are probably narco-traffickers who’ve seen others make tons of money in the business and giving it a try for themselves. 

The intolerance in the United States for physical abuse against women can also come as kind of a shock when machismo men realize the hard way that they are not allowed to abuse their wife and that we have strict laws against it. I knew a woman in the United States whose former boyfriend was deported after she reported physical abuse. And that happens all the time. Makes it easy for the police when all they have to do is deport them to Mexico, opposed to restraining orders, jail time, court, etc. Usually they just send them back to Mexico, even if they are Guatemalan, Honduran, or El Salvadorian, to name a few. Most of the time, migrants will have false papers stating their Mexican even if their not since non-Mexican immigrants are more discriminated against. Migrants with false Mexican birth certificates/papers will memorize the Mexican national anthem, know the current president and learn important dates in Mexican history in case someone tries to target their nationality. Anyways, no one is too thrilled about the new kids on the block but I’m sure it won’t be long before their making their way back north.