#FamiliesBelongTogether

A wave of guilt washed over me as I weaved through the parade of protestors walking past with their signs. Abolish Ice. Children don't belong in cages. I care, y don't u? I do care! And we all should. But life has a tendency of getting in the way. It was Saturday morning and my watch read 11:27. My aerial silks class was due to begin in 3 minutes. There just wasn't time. There never is. Some things are worth creating time, so after class, walking upstream against the packs of twos and threes slowly scattering away, signs by their sides, I headed over to catch the tail end of the rally outside city hall. I wanted to be counted. Separating families who are desperately seeking to escape violence isn't right. It isn't human. 

#FamiliesBelongTogether

Listening to everyone fight this fight wasn't easy. Not only was I ashamed of my government, but I was also heartbroken by how big this fight is going to have to be. Everyone here was talking about the most immediate and obvious immigration problem at hand, but all I could think about was how the government isn't only violently separating families at borders. Even those who follow the law, the "legal immigrants," suffer a calm and cold separation which, speaking from experience, can feel endless, hopeless. Months of silence from a government who holds our lives in its filing cabinets. Last January, I poured my heart and soul into a thick folder documenting every proof of our relationship, evidenced by a 380-page pdf copy that I've kept just in case we have to start all over. At the start of February, our sealed hopes and dreams went off in a postbox. A letter in mid-May, one piece of paper after 3.5 months, was our first light at the end of the tunnel. It has since been followed by more months of deafening silence. I feel powerless and betrayed by my own government. I never imagined it would treat its own citizens this way.

Last Sunday evening, after a weekend of reflection, I shared this: 

#FamiliesBelongTogether Proud of my new city and all the socially-minded citizens who care. Our immigration system is broken. And I know I speak from a place of privilege, but these marches really hit home. My family too has been separated by the USCIS. No, we haven't been put in cages or seen children torn from our arms. But, when 8 months into my marriage, my husband and I found ourselves with no obvious choice but to move to the US, we started packing our boxes and placed a call with an immigration lawyer only to learn he couldn't come with me. I am a US citizen, born and raised in America, to two US parents. Even I couldn't bring home my own husband, my chosen and legally-recognized family, with me. If an American living abroad chooses to move back to the US with a foreign spouse, the process to bring a spouse to the States takes about a year. And that's speedy for the US immigration services. We are the lucky ones. My husband is French, so he'll eventually get admitted to this country. Our own immigration services tear apart newlyweds, casually force even citizens from America's oldest ally to wait a year to rejoin an American spouse, and that's the legal process. That's the norm. Folks, this problem is a lot bigger than illegal crossings on the Mexican border. It's time for change.

I could talk all day, but I guess that's all I have to say. I really miss my husband. Only 37 days now until my next flight lands in Paris.