For the week 4 readings, I read “A Dream Re-Routed: Deported Maryland Brothers Seek Options, Play on After Being Banished” an article about two Salvoderian brothers deported for coming to the United States Illegally as children. United States Customs initially caught the Brothers, Lizandro, and Diego Claros Saravia as they were entering the US in 2009 but at the time were allowed to stay with orders to appear in Immigration court. From 2009 to 2018 the brothers lived as normal American suburbian children would, both graduating high school, playing sports and having friends. As a high school, Lizandro was noted for his superb ability on the soccer pitch for which he was given a scholarship at Louisberg University. Thinking he needed to notify ICE of his new location at North Carolina University, Lizandro sent them a copy of his scholarship. The decision to send the notification would end up accelerating the deportation process for the brothers and they would soon find themselves deported back to El El Salvador.
My reaction to this reading is one mainly of confusion. In the article, the change in presidential administration from the pro-Immigration Obama administration to the hard-line anti-immigration Trump administration is noted but not immediately labeled as the reason for the deportation. Having seen the extreme rhetoric and policies of the Trump administration, I feel very similar to the brother’s elder sister, in that I had to have played at least some role in their deportation. “Lizandro says he’s “not really into politics,” and he refuses to connect the dots between Trump’s election and his deportation. But his sister, Fatima, who is a recipient of DACA, thinks “it changed when the new person came into the office. Everything changed. I’ll say that some people discriminate [against] Spanish people and maybe because my brother got a scholarship, that’s the reason they found to deport them.” As a whole, this is one of the more emotionally impactful articles I’ve read this semester, especially when it discusses the current living situation that the two brothers are in and how Lizandro takes extra care to not feel at home because of the finality doing so would give to his situation.”There’s a half-open suitcase at the foot of Lizandro’s bed, filled with clothes that he hates putting away. Lizandro has no posters on the wall, no pictures on a nightstand. He eschews avoidable reminders of home and of the stereotypical American college life he never got to lead”. I think the article really shines a light on our broken immigration system, as Lizandro and Deigo were essentially nationalized during their decade in the United States, just to be removed from their family and a dangerous country that they had very little connection to.
While I understand the decision to not discuss the immigration policies of the Trump administration more, I think more on the political climate of the US when the brother was deported would have benefitted the clear narrative of sympathy that the author is trying to weave.
