My Ever-Shrinking World

silverspiral:

dancingwiththelostboys:

appropriately-inappropriate:

date-a-jew-suggestions:

prismatic-bell:

date-a-jew-suggestions:

If you would report an undocumented immigrant to ICE you would have reported me to the Nazis and I don’t fucking trust you

A note:

I live in a state where you “have to” report anyone you suspect of being undocumented (that wonderful hellhole of Arizona). Now in practice this law has fallen far short, thank goodness. But if you live in such a place and they start enforcing it, here is how you get around it:

Assume everyone who doesn’t speak English is visiting.

Never ask about their job, because if they tell you they work here then you know they’re not visiting. You see them a lot for several weeks or months? Hm. Someone in the family must be ill. That’s terribly tough. They always dress in old, ratty laborers’ clothes? I feel you, my dude, I can’t afford new clothes either, and my dad has the fashion sense of an aardvark, so sometimes it’s not even about “affording” them. They say they’ve been here for years? You must have misunderstood. Spanish isn’t your first language, after all. First and last name? It never came up, or you don’t recall–you meet a lot of people.

And then, if you’re asked: no, you haven’t seen anyone residing illegally in the United States. Just people visiting.

Very good very important addition

Essentially, this is the civil society version of a work-to-rule strike.

Don’t do more than is expressly asked of you, and do what you are asked with such an intense attention to protocol that not asking you at all becomes more effective than even bothering.

In this case:

“Have you seen an illegal immigrant?”

“Could you describe an illegal immigrant, officer?”

*officer describes a person who is in the country without appropriate paperwork, or who has crossed the border illegally*

“No, sir, I haven’t seen any illegal immigrant.”

And this is correct. You have NOT seen an illegal immigrant, because you have no way of knowing if Jose Fulano is here legally or not. And since you can’t see his paperwork (or lack thereof), and did not personally see him cross the border illegally, you are only answering precisely the question asked.

I’m not American, and I have like, three followers, but this is important.

There’s no such thing as “have to”.  You always have a choice.  Don’t make lame excuses for evil.

Also here’s a thought: Don’t assume someone comes from somewhere else if they don’t speak english.  I have family who never spoke a word of english that were born here and never lived anywhere else.  Most of my family speaks spanish as their first language and they were born and raised here, never setting foot anywhere else.  So did most of their parents and grandparents and great grandparents.  English speaking people were not the first ones here.  Discard this ignorant idea that someone who is “other” than your personal life experience is someone who is foreign and does not belong, it’s not that hard.

You can’t tell who is “illegal” or “legal” based on what language someone speaks or what they look like or what their economic situation is like.  And profiling based on your assumptions just makes you an asshole.