The cruelty is the point
Trump would have deported his mother
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Elections have consequences. Locally, the consequence of Donald Trump’s election is to threaten the livelihoods and lives of immigrants who are following the law and contributing to our community.
A South American family is likely to be deported under the new Trump rules, said Richard Leach, who helped bring the family here.
Leach is a retired doctor who lives in Queensbury and is a member of the board of directors of Adirondack Regional Immigration Collaborative, which helps immigrants come to the North Country.
The collaborative grew out of the work of Adirondack Welcome Circle, which has relocated international refugees to the Glens Falls area, assisting them with housing and living expenses until they can support themselves.
Recently, the two groups brought a Rohingya family of four refugees here.
“That status is pretty well protected,” Leach said of refugees, adding after a tiny pause, “I think.”
Since the Rohingya case went well, the groups took up another — an Afghan refugee in his 20s.
“He has his ticket in his hand to come here. He was going to stay here, in my house, for a couple of weeks,” Leach said.
But the ticket is for February 3, and now that Trump has been elected, the door has closed, and the young man is stuck in Pakistan.
“They were trying to move up his flight,” Leach said. “It’s so incredibly outrageous.”
The South American couple has applied for asylum based on their political views. As asylum-seekers, they were allowed to stay in the country until their case was resolved, but Trump’s executive orders have undermined asylum.
Both of them are working. The father is a mechanic.
“The likelihood is they will be picked up and deported,” Leach said.
Their child attends school locally. He has gone from knowing no English to near-fluency in about two years. He has more opportunities here than in his home country, so his parents seek a way for him to stay in the U.S. if they are forced out.
A community of Ukrainians has been growing locally, but that will stop now and likely shrink.
“There are Ukrainians we’ve been sponsoring under a humanitarian parole program. They used to have options at the end of the two-year parole period. Now they’re cutting off renewals,” Leach said.
A Trump administration memo released last week states immigration officials can cancel humanitarian paroles early.
"Take all steps necessary to review the alien's case and consider, in exercising your enforcement discretion, whether any such alien should be placed in removal proceedings,” the memo says.
For Ukrainians, removal means re-entering a war zone.
“They’re terrified,” Leach said.
Elections have consequences, and you can say that with a shrug.
Leach became animated when I asked if he was concerned federal authorities would demand his group’s files.
“That’s a very good question. Adirondack Immigration Collaborative is deliberately raising its head, raising its voice to advocate — This is democracy, right? — in the belief we can turn to our representatives and say, ‘Wait a minute. … This is inhumane, and what we’re doing at ARIC is what has made America great.’”
I agree with Leach, and his question resounds in me: This is democracy, right?
Whitewash the map
GMC might as well rename its pickup truck “McKinley” to acknowledge President Trump’s renaming of the country’s highest mountain, Denali, back to what he sees as its rightful, whiteful name.
Gulf of Mexico is now Gulf of America, Trump has decreed, which is unoriginal. Two continents are already called America, not to mention the United States of —.
Why not Gulf of MAGA? A gulf also means a void or a dark place that unlucky souls slip into — gulf of despair, etc. So it fits. And the Trumpist acronym has a geologic echo, calling to mind the molten muck that hides inside volcanoes, waiting to explode.
Will Trump take aim at the multitude of other Native names — Manhattan, perhaps? I suggest renaming the island New Kallstadt after his father Fred’s ancestral home in Germany.
Florida, where Trump lives now, is a Spanish name for an Easter Sunday feast. But in this new world, where Trump decides what things are called, with no regard for history or public preference, Florida could be renamed Alba, which means Scotland in Gaelic. That would honor Trump’s mother, a teenage immigrant from the Outer Hebrides who spoke Gaelic as her native tongue, worked as a domestic servant in New York City and would have been targeted for deportation in present-day America.
Beautiful cold
Many of the days this January have been cold but sunny and clear and crisp and lovely — great for walks, as long as they’re short walks.
We parked near Crandall Pond a couple of times recently to walk through the park and got to watch people and dogs skating and playing on the ice.
Renewal
Renewal is wonderful, and Ken and I are hoping the many paid subscribers who signed up about a year ago feel that way, and that free subscribers continue, too, and new subscribers feel inspired to sign up.
This Substack newsletter has been an experiment — one that Ken began and I joined with little pressure or expectation. Subscriptions were free, and we could do as we pleased. But it has exceeded my expectations by a large margin — the fun of the freedom we have on this platform and, especially, the close connection with readers, which gets reaffirmed every week.
Georgi
I got a note from Evera Sue Clary, supervisor of the town of Salem, because about three and a half years ago (I think), just before I retired from the Post-Star, I wrote a story about the little-known collection of beautiful European paintings from the 14th through the 18th centuries at the Georgi Museum in Shushan. The paintings were somewhat of a dilemma for the town, since they’re valuable and amazing, but very few people come to see them in their remote location on the Batten Kill and they’re fragile and require careful tending. But the Georgi is still there and so are the paintings, and now a selection of about a dozen are on display in the Whitney-Renz Gallery at the Hyde Collection Museum in Glens Falls. Check it out.
The safety of the immigrant and LGBTQ communities in this area are of grave concern to me. Getting involved in one or both is seriously important.
My flag was at half staff for President Carter. I raised it after his funeral, then lowered it again on January 20 for the death of democracy, and will remain at half staff until Dictator trump is gone for good.