Illegal Immigrants, Their Children, and Consequences

A short video by BostonGlobe described, "Ice arrests and the devastating effect on children left behind". They described the financial stress and mental toll on children of illegal immigrants when one or both parents are taken away. The children have the fear of wondering if their parents will ever come home or if they will see them again.  This story is heart-wrenching to anyone with compassion, as they watch children of detained illegal immigrants cry.

The BostonGlobe failed to recognize that this feeling of distress is what military families go through repeatedly.  The military member must go when deployed or restationed.  They have no choice, as they chose to serve their country due to their loyalty to the United States. As a consequence, the children and spouse are left behind, unless they are sent somewhere the family can accompany them, even though uprooted.

The BostonGlobe failed to mention that unlike military families, the illegal immigrant parents could avoid this trauma for their children by leaving the country voluntarily, signing up for re-entry if qualified, and suffer no separation from their families. 

The BostonGlobe failed to mention that the children and families can be deported with them, unless the person if the crime is being here illegally.  It is the parent's choice to abandon their children in the United States, just as it was their choice to bring or give birth to them here.

The BostonGlobe failed to acknowledge that the vast majority of immigrants who crossed the border illegally answer to the cartels, since they must identify themselves and their friends and families to the cartel and then pay the cartel to cross, whether or not they are escorted.  These people can be forced to pay or commit crimes under threat of harm or death to their families in their countries or origin.  Quite a number of illegals are enslaved or forced to work as indentured workers, or worse, as sex slaves... including children. 

In my own daily activities, I inadvertently come across people who surreptitiously give me indications that they are indentured or enslaved in veiled clues as we talk. Sadly, in the past, I missed what would be obvious to anyone aware of the slavery issue (I wasn't at that time). 

Where have I encountered those indentured or slaves?   Gas stations with mini-marts, nail salons, and construction sites. Most gas station mini-mart workers speak a decent amount of English. Nail salon technicians either are not required to be licensed or the owners simply ignore the law. Many indentured/enslaved "illegal" men work for construction sites.

How are illegals identified? 

  1. If you notice that different workers at the same or similar place all give a similar story of their backgrounds or lives, that's a clue.

  2. If the person doing doesn't seem to want to talk to you or can't speak English, that's a tiny indicator.  

  3. Or, when holidays come and you ask if they will be spending it with their families, they lament they won't, haven't for a while, and won't be able to see them for a long time.

  4.  If they glance around furitively as they speak to you, that's another indicator they may be indentured or outright enslaved. 

  5. If they are brought to a work site stuffed into the covered bed of a pickup or packed into the back of a truck with no or blacked-out windows, that's a clue.

  6. For ICE, tips are usually given as to the location of a wanted criminal illegal immigrant. In the process of apprehension, other illegal immigrants are frequently encountered, detained, identified, and deported.

The BostonGlobe failed to mention the solution... stop illegal immigration. Illegal immigration is an expensive, dangerous, and arduous undertaking.  If you love immigrants, encourage those here illegally to leave and come back legally, because laws will continue to be enforced for the protection and benefit of our country. Those who come illegally will be identified and deported immediately, without time to get their affairs in order.

Over decades, the most driven, hard working, good people have been siphoned off to the United States. Unfortunately with them come hardened criminals, cartel members and obligants, mentally ill, drug addicts, and physically disabled, whose goal is to take advantage of our system.  Our president has offered to help some of those countries fight the issues that are making their most productive citizens flee. These immigrants who are determined to work and build a life need to work to make changes in their own countries.

Little Birdies Crime Scene.

 In writing, the rule is if a story has disastrous or bad outcome, disclose that early. This the narrative of coming upon a murder scene.

For several years, a mud swallows nest existed beneath the roof overhang eves, tucked where two exterior walls met to form a right angle. Within that well-covered corner the nest was protected from the weather elements. It had be vacant for the last several years, but I held hope that the swallows would return.

 One day in early May, 2025, while cleaning on the side of the house, the peeping of little birds caught my attention. Their tiny heads barely showed over the edge of the nest, bobbing up and down intermittently. After a minute, the mother bird appeared. I watched the mother bird, not a swallow, make flight after flight over the fence to the neighbor's yard swooping in mid-air aerobatics to capture insects, which she dutifully brought back, clutched in her beak. She'd quickly deposit her catch into one of the open mouths, then immediately fly off and within minutes, bring back another. For the next few days I enjoyed the knowledge that birds were back and the live nature show.

But the intriguing nuturing show didn’t last. On the third day of viewing a few trips by the mother bird, another bird showed up, diving into her pathway. It was slightly bigger than her and aggressive, but not a hawk. I didn't get a good enough look to determine if it was the same species or not. Clearly, they had "words" with an unfriendly appearing mid-flight exchange.  A phone call forced me away from the unfolding natural world drama.

On May 5, 2025, a mere two days after enjoying the newly occupied nest, I came upon a crime scene a few feet from the base of the long ramp leading to the back sliding door. A small chaotic pile of tiny pin feathers littered the patterned concrete patio floor. Scanning the delicate and unmistakable feathers, they were clearly the remnants of a baby bird. I rushed to the side of the house and desperately searched for any signs of life in the high-mounted nest. The nest was a silent shell, its occupants gone. I made bird calls, to no avail. No sound, no movement.  The scattered feathers are all that remained of the little birdies.

 

Then on 5/7/2025, I found another grim clue... a pile of tiny feathers by the washer and dryer stored along the house's exterior beneath the nest.😥 I stood there, trying to piece together what had happened. Had they tried to fly? The chicks were too young to fly; their feathers and wings weren't sufficiently developed. Had they fallen out? Not likely. They barely showed their little heads above the nest's edge when their necks were stretched out, mouths open, begging for food from their mother. Most likely they were brutally snatch from the small mud fortress without mercy, but by what?

I recall that at around 2 or 3 a.m., three nights after I had originally discovered them, I heard a commotion of birds. I’d dismissed it as a fleeting disturbance, but that must have been when an attack ensued. But by what? The predator could’ve been another bird, a rat, a possum, or feral cat, all common in our area.  Rats, possums, and some cats can climb a stucco walled house.

This wasn’t just a loss; it was a violation of the small sanctuary I’d watched with such hope. Nor have I seen the mother bird return to the nest. For a moment, I wondered if I could’ve done something—scared off the intruder, checked the nest sooner. But nature doesn’t wait for our interventions. Eventually whatever the determined predator would have prevailed. Nature moves on, leaving us to grapple with the aftermath of its brutality. I’m left staring at that corner of the house, hoping the swallows might one day reclaim it, but knowing the story of those little birds will linger, a reminder of the beauty, brutality, and reality of nature.

On two separate, heart-wrenching occasions, a baby possum was found drowned in my pool. Nature can be so cruel. I've witnessed it repeatedly across species. I often wonder what the mothers think, after they've lost their baby. Do they search for their lost young and for how long? They usually have a brood to look after, so can't risk the other lives for the one. I remember as a child seeing a mother farm cat return from a training foraging hunt with her kittens only to realize one was missing. Usually over time, several from the litter would disappear before they reached adulthood. 

How long do the animal mothers mourn? Do they dream of their lost young, as I do of moments gone? The more evolved species, such as chimpanzees and great apes, appear to mourn deeper and longer, carrying and cradling the limp body of their young in their grief. Their brains are wired for empathy and sorrow.

In San Diego’s canyon hills, nature is being pushed to the brink as untethered development and the ignoring of homeless people who camp in the nature corridors displaces the native wildlife. What binds us to the animal world? There’s a flicker of something universal, bonds of love that even greed and cruelty cannot extinguish, a resilience that humbles me. Is it the reflection of our lives... love and nuturing versus the brutality and cruelty? When resources are aplenty, aggression and cruelty decrease. Do we pay attention to a fleeting pang or a prolonged wail, each a cry against indifference and the assault on our natural world?

The story of the baby birds are a indicator, like the frogs in a stream or a canary in a mine, that something is going wrong with our environment and ecology.