It cannot be said too many times. Elections have consequences.
What is more, those consequences can be devastating without most people knowing about them.
Recently E. J. Montini, a veteran journalist who has been writing for the Arizona Republic Newspaper for many years, told a story that made those often unknown consequences abundantly clear.
His story was about a man named Magana Ortiz whose personal and tragic ordeal, in Montini’s words, exposed “everything that’s wrong with President Donald Trump’s deportation program.”
Ortiz entered the United States when he was 15, worked hard and by age 43 had become a very successful coffee farmer in Hawaii. He and his wife have three children who are American citizens.
None of that mattered. ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) arrested Ortiz and ordered him to be deported.
He paid taxes, cared for his family, provided jobs for many workers, and even the government admitted in court that he was a man of “good moral character.”
He and his family are devastated, his business is bankrupt, and to what end? Nothing, as it turns out, except to give Trump a reason to claim he is fulfilling a campaign promise.
What he won’t claim, but is equally true is that he is betraying everything good about our country.
Even worse, it didn’t need to happen, and should not have happened, at least that is what Judge Stephen Roy Reinhardt of the Ninth Circuit Court said in his ruling:
“All Magana Ortiz asked for in requesting a stay was to remain in this country, his home of almost three decades, while pursuing such routes to legal status. It was fully within the government’s power to once more grant his reasonable request. Instead, it has ordered him deported immediately. In doing so, the government forces us to participate in ripping apart a family. Three United States citizen children will now have to choose between their father and their country …. Subjecting vulnerable children to a choice between expulsion to a foreign land or losing the care and support of their father is not how this nation should treat its citizens.
“President Trump has claimed that his immigration policies would target the ‘bad hombres.’ The government’s decision to remove Magana Ortiz shows that even the ‘good hombres’ are not safe. Magana Ortiz is by all accounts a pillar of his community and a devoted father and husband. It is difficult to see how the government’s decision to expel him is consistent with the President’s promise of an immigration system with ‘a lot of heart.’ I find no such compassion in the government’s choice to deport Magana Ortiz.
“We are unable to prevent Magana Ortiz’s removal, yet it is contrary to the values of this nation and its legal system. Indeed, the government’s decision to remove Magana Ortiz diminishes not only our country but our courts, which are supposedly dedicated to the pursuit of justice. Magana Ortiz and his family are in truth not the only victims. Among the others are judges who, forced to participate in such inhumane acts, suffer a loss of dignity and humanity as well. I concur as a judge, but as a citizen I do not.”
Nor should any of us, but Trump and his supporters do.
Let’s be honest. What is happening in plain sight is that Donald Trump and those who support him are turning our nation into a country that no longer has any common sense or common decency.
All the while they have the temerity to claim they want to make America great again.
In truth they wouldn’t know “greatness” if it slapped them in the face, but there are days when I wish I could.
linnposts.com 
Outrageous!
Jan – not sure your post tells the entire story.
Which story, Edmund? About Trump’s policies or the Ortiz tragedy? Either way, tell me what the entire story is.
Jan,
I share your curiosity as to what our good-guy friend and high school classmate Edmund knows that we don’t about the Ortiz story. I trust it is not a Fox News version of the truth!
Not in my name! I’ll oppose this administration whenever I can. The sooner these heartless people are gone the better. What have we become?
Amen to that, Rollie.
Whatever it is we have become, it ain’t purty!
No it’s not, Wally. Ugly in fact.
Jan,
Thank you for sharing the Magana Ortiz story. Judge Reinhardt wisely and compassionately summed-up the situation and spoke for all good people in his ruling. You, in turn, called-out the absence of “common decency” on the part of Donald Trump and his supporters.
Like the judge and you, I cannot use here the words I’d like to use to accurately describe the kind of person Donald Trump is. Readers will have to employ their imaginations to know what is in my mind right now 🙂
Bill Blackwell
I am pretty sure I know, Bill. Thank you for your self-restraint!
Thanks Jan. Another reminder that so many Trump supporters are a mean, callous bunch. Too rigid for for empathy. Too selfish for compassion.
They really are, Wilbur, and I find it astounding. People I have known for years talk and write the meanest and most outrageous stuff, mostly lies and untruths I have to believe they know are not true, things that don’t even make sense, but they say them anyway. I have never seen anything like it in my lifetime. You just wonder where it will all lead.
Second law of thermodynamics?
I can feel things getting warmer by the day, Rollie.
I don’t understand the second law of thermodynamics very well, but maybe the current administration is a good example of entropy. i.e. we are heading to more disorder every day.
One thing is for sure, Wally. Trump is draining the energy out of the country in more ways than one. He is entropy on steroids.
Jan – I responded to your question of “which story”. Not sure if you received my response. Really trying to understand entire picture.
I only received this response, Edmund. Please post your reply to my question again. Thanks.
Ortize – looking at his story his legal status has been an issue since his arrival. Curious that he built such a successful life and investment knowing his risk. He has been granted a 30 day stay which implies someone is listening.
Policy – needless to say this is a horrible story and there is hope for a corrective turn. On the other extreme, the policy is removing MS-13 members. My thought is there is a productive and positive side to this policy.
Edmund, the “stay” is temporary and is in place only because of Hawaii’s congressional representatives bringing pressure on the government. Otherwise Ortiz would already be gone.
I don’t understand why you are “curious” about his business success. He came here to do just that. Yes, people take risks for a better life. This country was built on that drive. You can fault him for coming in the first place, but thirty years ought to count for something. This is where common sense and common decency ought to make a difference in how we apply the law.
President Obama increased deportation enforcement already, and was criticized for it so Trump’s policy is nothing new. But, of course, as always he makes it sound like he is the only person ever to do anything. Moreover, Obama’s policy expllcitly focused on convicted felons and also set out guidelines to give people like Ortiz grounds for appeal if they got caught up in the effort, Trump’s policy doesn’t do that because he is simply fulfilling an immoral campaign pledge because of its disregard for the cost of doing what he is now doing.
You may believe there is a productive and positive side to this policy, but you don’t say what that is. I see it as nothing but theatrics, much like Trump’s talk about immigration where he speaks as if no vetting was in place already before he was elected. The truth is, immigrating to the US before Trump took up to two years.
All of this is why your last sentence is an enigma to me. Given what ICE is doing without regard for common sense or common decency, how anything productive or positive can come from this policy escapes me completely.
Not sure how you can see anything productive or positive in that.
Conclusion – in your mind this enforcement is bad with no positive? Not being argumentative. Just trying to understand.
My conclusion is that Trump’s executive order was unnecessary to begin with because ICE was already seeking to deport illegal criminal immigrants. He did it for political reasons. Worse, his rhetoric about “bad dudes” poisoned the well on this one, not to mention hurting families like Ortiz’s. By the one, he is only one example of good families being torn apart.
All of that is why I don’t see anything positive coming from what Trump has done on this. It was a political stunt to make people who voted for him believe he was “cracking down” on a heretofore neglected problem. That was simply not true. Tell a lie and expect positive results? Not as far as I’m concerned.
One last comment. This issue is an example of why Trump is so bad for our country. His words and actions convince me that he doesn’t care whether people get hurt or not. What matters is how it all makes him look. I find him to be morally bankrupt personally and politically.
More than you wanted, but I had to say it.
Sounds like ortiz had 30 years to sign up to become a citizen. Why didn’t he? Also a 2-year wait to enter USA is not “oppressive”. People in many other countries are following our law to enter–waiting is just part of it. Perhaps law needs to be streamlined, but as it is, everyone needs to play by the same rules. And Ninth Circuit Court has itself been overturned by Supreme Court in ruling–perhaps Ninth Circuit is trying to play politics again, CAUSE “trouble”. I see the “progressive movement” as pushing people too far in their governance, and now people (under DJT) are simply pushing back. What would you expect, when progressives like ONLY the people who agree with them and disdain those who don’t? Progressives expect EVERYONE to think as they do, and do not allow freedom to differ.
Sounds like to me you think and act in the very ways you accuse progressives of doing. You seem to think to disagree with you or conservative policies restricts your freedom. I write blogs to express what I believe. The fact that I allow you to take exception to what I say proves you are dead wrong about progressives, at least the ones I know. I have no expectations for you to think like me, and frankly don’t care. What I do care about is you criticism me for giving you the freedom to criticize me. Now that takes brass.
NOT PERSONAL — this was about Most Progressives. It’s the THINKING about life and governance of life that I was/am talking about. You are not the only progressive in the world, so think of it as confronting the group, not just you. For EXAMPLE: that “thing” about Politically Correct Speech went way out too far for most people–too many cases where eyeballs would roll over some new phrase that was commonly used and now considered “politically incorrect” because somebody was offended, and can’t have that. Nasty and degrading should not be used; granted. But so many other times, even the slightest turn is no longer “acceptable.” Comedians no longer play college campuses because what they say in light banter on the stage is now being bullied out of there! I mean we are speaking of EXTREMES here! Don’t even know what can/cannot be spoken anymore!! No more Polack Jokes, Drunken Irish jokes, dumb Swede jokes. When is Notre Dame going to drop the Fighting Irish logo? Also, progressives WANTED more and more and more “regulations” on business startups, etc., and look where that got them? Thrown out on their ear for the added expense and time of paperwork. Farms can’t allow rain water to collect ANYWHERE on their property, lest we call out EPA. Those are the progressive demands that were so HATED that no Democrat could get elected. Think again before progressives try it all over again. And don’t make it personal, as you have in your verbiage. You are not the “issue” — it’s the action/reaction of a movement that middle American rejects.
Andrew:
Jan can certainly handle your criticism with a high level of intelligence and integrity. That said, I will simply add that “political correctness” has forever been a “whipping boy” of the far-right, used with little understanding of the difference between comedic application as opposed to intentional (at times subtle) racial, ethnic, or religious bias. Then, your abrupt transition to government regulations is bafflingly irrelevant to the original message in Jan’s post. It seems you have the most trouble addressing the “progressive movement” as you call it. Make it easier on yourself by recognizing the root element, namely progress — in all aspects of life, from social views to world relations to medicine/healthcare. If you are incapable of embracing progress, at least stay out of the way in your old-school bubble of willful ignorance!
Bill Blackwell
Progress: YES to flushing toilets. NO to Bill Ayres. NO to One World Order. It all depends on what/where this “progress” is. What the consequences will be long term. Who is being affected, and how. Not all “progressive” actions are good and/or needed/wanted. Now, back to Ortiz: do we factually know that he never committed any crime in the 30 years that caused him about to be evicted? Or did he? (in addition to the original illegal entry). Then, there are those who want to make decisions based on emotions and emotional responses; others who make decisions (about immigration) based on facts of the matter–which some think/feel is being “cold, without heart, no dignity of the person.” Well, life is tough on a lot of people in lot worse condition–simple reality–nobody has it easy in life. How one accepts what life throws out determines whether they want to play “victim” or if they play “survivor.”
I will let Bill’s reply to you speak for itself except to say that when you generalize about how bad progressives are it is personal for me. I am a progressive through and through, no apology. Take that any way you want to. I could care less.
In regard to Ortiz, are you seriously suggesting he did something illegal to justify his deportation and the sitting judge would not know that? Or that he should chalk up his deportation to “life is not easy” for anyone. Honestly, you have crossed a bridge too far for me to think about anymore, so I won’t.
“Life is not easy” — think of skeletal people truly starving and dying by the dozens in current history because of drought conditions and no crops or because of so-called “leaders” like Edi Amin, N. Korea, etc. That’s tough. Ortiz being here 30 years means that he more than likely has grandchildren by now–not essentially a father figure leaving small children in USA, IF he were to be deported. I predict Ortiz will survive, after 30 years already. Also, not saying “progressives are bad” in general, which you misinterpreted, misspoke. Progress in many ways is good, but realize that what some want in “progress” is not what ALL want in making progress. It depends on what it is, the intent, the CONSEQUENCES, the approval/disapproval of the voting population, not decided by any identifable group pushing their own agenda; i.e. that group of world leaders who meet in secret, secret agenda, secret location, with attempts to “rule the world” by creating events that lead to their outcomes.
The Bilderburgers. Google it.
Google conspiracy theorists and whack jobs. Or just save time and look in the mirror.
Bill: >:o(
I give you credit for a classy reply, although I am not an expert on emoticons, so you may have sent something worse than I think, more in line with my “cheap shot.” Jan has walked away and now so will I……….Peace!
Jan – this morning the news reports the arrest of 13 MS-13 gang members in NY. About 3-4 weeks ago, 83 “bad guys” we’re rounded yo in Charlotte. Not sure about the MS-13 members but the majority of the arrested in Charlotte we’re illegals. I know about the Obama reports of deportation but candidly didn’t see these kinds of results. That coupled with the recent frame of mind of the ICE and border patrol people that have been outspoken, I say that our current immigration policy is positive. These Officers are being supported to do their jobs as described.
I totally agree that the Orteze issue is sad. I also feel like we have to have laws and enforce them. Again I question Orteze and his building a significant business knowing his status with the law.
This is reflection on why I questioned the Orteze case as “the entire story”. I do think our current immigration policy and the enforcement if it has a positive side.
Not to belabor the issue but would be interested in your thoughts.
Edmund, Bill is correct that his name is Ortiz, but to your comment. Two things I want to say.
First, I don’t understand your issue with his starting a business nearly 30 years ago. To me it showed initiative and ability, especially as he became a successful taxpayer as a way to pay back the country for his being here.
Second, complaining that he should not have been here to begin with is a non-started. Desperate people do desperate things. Ortiz was only fourteen when he came here, which means someone brought him. He did not come on his own. But to rehash the story of more than 13,000 people like him who are here illegally gets us nowhere unless you believe all 13,000 should be deported. That of course, is the debate going on now, with people like me favoring a road to citizenship for everyone who has played by the rules and can care for themselves.
That’s where my call for common sense and common decency comes in. I think deportation is the worst solution, not the best. Trump made it worse by disregarding common sense and common decency. Why you want to find credibility in what this man is doing is beyond my understanding. He is a danger to this country for so many reasons, not least because he is consumed by narcissism that makes everything about him, and his obvious incompetence. How many GOP Senators does it take to believe them when they say they have left meetings with him over healthcare angry and frustrated because it was obvious he had no clue about the issue? That has been true about every issue he has discussed, including immigration.
You know by now that the Supreme Court just ruled against Trump omitting grandparents as being a significant relationship for someone seeking to immigrate here. The fact that Trump chose to leave them out in the first place once again shows his lack of common sense and common decency.
To bring this to a close, I have to say, Edmund. knowing that you are a person of sincere faith, it is a total enigma to me that you would be supporting such a man as Donald Trump. You certainly have a right to, but that doesn’t make it right, as I would argue he has proven over and again.
I would hope you would rethink the support because of the stakes involved in his presidency. Trying to find good in a bad leader is not to do good. I believe it is to enable more bad things to happen. The last thing he needs is to believe people support him. I truly believe the country’s future I hanging in the balance.
This was long, but I wanted to try to speak to the issues you raised thoughtfully.
Thank you!
Thanks, Charlie. That these men did good was good, but from my perspective justice demands more than charity. Given bread crumbs from a table of plenty helps others, but a just wage and working conditions goes a lot further.
His name is Ortiz. That’s always a good place to start if you want any credibility.