You could write a Letter to the Editor of your favorite newspaper about some issue close to your heart. Chances that it will be published are relatively small.
You could write a letter to your senator or representative on a matter that has you tied up in knots. As to getting more than a form letter as a reply, good luck!
Or, you could write a letter on an issue that is close to your heart, on a matter that has others “tied up in knots” to say the least and one to which you may get an unforgettable reply.
It is a national disgrace, a stain on America’s conscience, how the Trump administration is treating would-be migrants crossing our southern border or fleeing other far-away countries, especially those escaping persecution, rampant violent crime and abject poverty to seek asylum in our country.
True, some – perhaps many – of these desperate men, women and children may not reach the high, legal bar to qualify for political asylum, but they should not be summarily denied entry or asylum consideration nor treated as criminals, as some lower form of life. Young children of asylum-seeking migrants should not be separated from their parents nor should these unfortunate people be imprisoned like criminals in detention centers.
One of these detention centers is Otay Mesa, located 15 miles southeast of central San Diego and housing about 1000 detainees* of which at least 12 percent are asylum seekers.
One of these detainees is 23-year-old Fernando who fled Honduras and is seeking asylum in the U.S. after losing his mother and grandmother and after being shot, assaulted, and raped because of his military service.
“And I was left alone since my grandmother passed away in 2016 and from that date I have been alone in this life… Sorry for bothering you and taking a little bit of your time but I would really like to be helped,” Fernando writes.
Another young man at Otay Mesa, “K,” fled violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and has been detained for 18 months. K writes, ”I am writing you this letter regarding my situation in detention, it is so hard to live a life in detention without any support and family…” K concludes, “Help me from your heart please. I can be out from this hell with your help and love…” (below)
Credit: “Detainee Allies”
These two letters are part of the Otay Mesa Detention Center Detainee Letter Collection, documenting “the hidden stories of hundreds of refugees from human rights hot spots around the world… Each of them has sought asylum in the United States and has been held at the San Diego, California Otay Mesa Detention Center…”
They are part of the work of “Detainee Allies” and of professors and staff at San Diego State University, many of these letters in response to letters written to the detainees by people with empathy and compassion.
A “project” that started last summer as “an old-fashioned correspondence that bloomed into a friendship, part of an unusual epistolary campaign initiated by San Diego State professors and others in suburban San Diego,” and which, according to the New York Times, “[l]ast week, the university library made public the digital archive of hundreds of letters from detainees, throwing open a window into the fragile lives of migrants from more than 20 countries living, some of them for years, inside a nondescript private prison.”
Detainees began writing letters, many using stubby golf pencils purchased for 6 cents from the commissary. They pleaded for help while telling their stories of rape, murder and torture in their home countries, and of separation from their children at the border. Volunteers responded with shock and empathy, sending Christmas cards, poems, pictures and updates about their own families.
So, if you would like to write a letter “on an issue that is close to your heart, on a matter that has others ‘“tied up in knots’ to say the least, and one to which you may get an unforgettable reply,” please go to detaineeallies.org where you can write a letter to one of the thousands of persons languishing in an immigration detention center in order to affirm their “ humanity in the midst of dehumanization.”
On a personal note, I will be writing a letter since, as an immigrant, I always remember that only two letters — “i” and “m” — separate me from these migrants.
To learn more about this project, please click here.
* “But fewer than half of the detainees have criminal convictions, according to the latest records kept by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse of Syracuse University. Most are simply awaiting the outcome of deportation or asylum proceedings. Of those with criminal records, drunken driving and illegal entry into the country are the most common offenses, the analysis shows,” The New York Times.
CODA: This commendable project was brought to my attention by TMV reader Susan Rappoport, herself the daughter and granddaughter of immigrants.
Lead image, credit Caitlin Regan
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.