Should I Stay or Should I Go? Hard Choices for Immigrants in the Heartland
Jack Healey for the New York Times reports on the heart-wrenching decisions being made by immigrants in the Midwest, where increasing numbers had settled in recent years:
“Now, at this tense juncture for immigrants and their adoptive hometowns [Hampton, Iowa] across the conservative swaths of rural America,[Edith] Rivera [whose husband had been deported to Mexico] planned to sever one last tie. She was returning to Mexico — and to her husband — with Steven, 13 years old and American-born.
Some politicians call it `self-deportation.’ She called it her family’s only hope of being together.
The heartland is freckled with Hamptons and Ediths. In small agricultural towns that supported President Trump by 20-point margins, residents are now seeing an immigration crackdown ripple through the families that have helped revive their downtown squares and transform their economies.”
KJ