But there is no mercy under our current president. Even immigrants who are legal permanent residents have ended up in deportation proceedings for misdemeanor offenses committed decades ago. Jimmy Al-Daoud, a 41-year-old former legal permanent resident from Michigan, was deported to Iraq even though he had lived in the U. since he was six months old. He was found dead there this summer. Al-Daoud had a lengthy rap sheet in the U. S., which made him a target for deportation. Immigrants can have their legal status revoked for committing crimes. But Al-Daoud also was mentally ill and at times homeless. His family said his offenses were connected to his illness. He also was a diabetic without access to adequate amounts of medicine once he arrived in Iraq. Al-Daoud's family and lawyers believe that contributed to his death. Al-Daoud deserved to be punished for his crimes, but he didn't deserve a death sentence. That's what the U. callously gave him by sending him to Iraq. In the Chicago area, Avalos-Merino's family and friends fear his life will be in danger if he is sent back to El Salvador, which has one of the world's highest homicide rates.
One reason I failed to see President Donald Trump coming is that I never saw even a single episode of "The Apprentice. " Indeed, I'd be hard put to name a single "reality TV" program I've watched from beginning to end. The hallmark of the genre, of course, being its sheer artificiality. For entertainment, I mainly watch ballgames. So everything I knew about Trump came from the New York tabloids: He was a vainglorious blowhard with more garish taste than Liberace. A publicity hound who'd inherited a whole lot of money; a playboy and an epic fabulator. Good grief, the guy even lies about his height. He claims to be 6-foot-3. Did you see him hanging a medal on basketball great Jerry West the other day? Even at age 81, West stands an athletic 6-foot-2. He's got at least two inches on Trump, who's maybe 6-foot, tops. What kind of guy does that? Maybe the kind of guy who phones tabloid gossip columnists pretending to be his own press agent, bragging about all the sexual favors he's scoring.
Your commander-in-chief. But I digress. Because I'd watched a lot of pro wrestling from Sunnyside Gardens in Queens during middle school, which my friends and I found hilarious, I was quick to recognize Trump's trademark WWE campaign style. The phony feuds, fake threats and endless boasting were tell-tale features in a televised "kayfabe" campaign — a term of art for the make-believe dramas of professional wrestling. (Also, I suspect, what Trump meant when he tweeted the nonsense word "covfefe " during a ritual attack on the press. He just couldn't spell it. ) He even appears to have stolen his pompadour hairdo from the swaggering bleach-blond "heels" of the era — notably Dr. Jerry Graham. The Graham Brothers regularly sold out Madison Square Garden back in the '50s when Trump was a lad. He was a master of the balsa-wood chair and fake blood capsule. And what kind of Ph. D. did Dr. Graham hold? "He's a tree surgeon, " his manager told a TV announcer. Just so Trump. What took me by surprise was how many viewers out there in TV land fell for it: the political equivalent of those poor souls who believe that professional wrestling is real.
He came to the U. for his survival, like many others from Central America. Living here doesn't mean they have freedom to make mistakes. They can't ever forget it. Marlen Garcia is a member of the Sun-Times Editorial Board.
Or who don't care, so long as Trump is insulting people like me, who think they're so damn smart. Even now, while he's spending his days feuding with the National Weather Service and denouncing refugees from the devastated island nation of the Bahamas as terrorists and criminals. It's called "owning the libs, " and to a certain nihilistic subset of Trumpists, it's the only thing that really counts. To them, the president's erratic governing style isn't a bug, it's a feature. Indeed, it's pretty much the whole point. I come by this insight courtesy of Thomas B. Edsall in The New York Times. Edsall devoted a recent column to a scholarly paper by two Danish and one American political scientists entitled "A 'Need for Chaos' and the Sharing of Hostile Political Rumors in Advanced Democracies. " The authors surveyed thousands of voters in the U. S. and Denmark, seeking individuals "drawn to chaos" by their positive responses to statements like "I fantasize about a natural disaster wiping out most of humanity such that a small group of people can start all over, " and "Sometimes I just feel like destroying beautiful things. "
There always has been little room for error for immigrants in America. Many times, there is no room at all. If you're an immigrant, legal or not, you should never get so comfortable in this country that you forget it. It's a harsh reality for undocumented immigrants and those who are legal permanent residents. For undocumented immigrants, a traffic stop can be enough to set in motion deportation. That was the case for Cristian Avalos-Merino of Berwyn. Cicero police arrested and fingerprinted him on May 14 after they found him asleep in his car and saw an open can of beer. He was charged with transportation of an open alcoholic beverage in a vehicle. A Cicero police spokesman said Avalos-Merino's fingerprints were entered in a database that is shared with federal authorities and caught the attention of U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. An ICE spokesman told Sun-Times reporter Manny Ramos that Avalos-Merino, who is undocumented, previously had been deported back to El Salvador.