Letter to the editor: Are you OK with tearing families apart?

At 18, Fidel Rivera left Mexico because he couldn’t find work and wanted a better life. His crime? At 18, not knowing or finding out the legal process to citizenship. But he learned English, became a hard-working electrician, paid taxes, found love with a U.S. citizen schoolteacher, got married and fathered two birthright citizen girls, who are now in high school.

And now after 30 years, this productive, hard-working father has decided to self-deport so his family won’t see him handcuffed and sent to some unknown dangerous country. He’s not permitted to come back to the U.S. Since his wife is near retirement and his girls are still in high school, they do not want to move to Mexico yet. Rivera has no criminal record and has contributed to our society, more than even many natural born citizens.

If you consider yourself a Christian and are OK with tearing this father away from his daughters and wife, then you haven’t studied Jesus’ teachings. And as a human, if you are OK with this, then you are devoid of compassion and empathy and need to reexamine your values. And this is just one of millions of similar stories. WWJD ?

Jack Sillaman

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