The Monster Attacks

Yesterday, I sat in my car waiting to pick up Cairo from school. It had been four days since I'd seen him because I was out of town for work since Monday. I didn't get much sleep the last few nights. Not only was I alone in a hotel all week but we went to court Friday morning in hopes to vacate Joses "conviction", which isn't a conviction under state law but immigration says it is. I envisioned picking up Cairo and being happy to see my changuito and being over whelmingly happy because we were able to vacate the conviction in the morning That's not what played out. I am happy to see my baby but we were not able to vacate the conviction.

I sat in that court room for two hours waiting for Joses name to be called. When they finally did four attorneys stood up. Tim, two attorneys from his firm and Mr. Little B. It all started well, the judge agreed with us and the prosecuting attorney argued gentley. It looked like she was complying with the negotiation she agreed to. I thought we were going to be in the clear and finally Jose would be able to come home. Then all of a sudden the prosecuting attorneys deminor changed, she became animated and began to vigorsly argue. She had realized the judge was in our favor. As our team argued back with valid points she argued irrelevant ones. She became this monster who was refusing to be beat, we would win over her dead body. This went on for quite some time until the judge decided to make his decision. Although he whole heartily agreed with us and wanted to help, our request was DENIED. I was stunned and tears that started to roll when the monster appeared became a steady steam. Jose will not be coming home next week.

Outside the court room Mr. Little B tore into the prosecutor like a lion protecting his pride. I didn't know what was going on since I was talking to Tim but apparently her smug smile and laughing at how she won the case with the other prosecutors made him lose his temper. I spoke with Mr. Little B. later last night, he confirmed what I was seeing from the side lines. It was all about her ego. Because of her ego she threw our agreement out the window. Because of her ego Joses "conviction" was not vacated. Because of her ego Jose is not coming home. What did the state gain from this? Is justice really being served? To who? The cop who arrested Jose? The attorney who told Jose to plead guilty? Or maybe the judge who ordered the probation? Perhaps it's the piece of paper that says probation is not a conviction even though immigration says it is? Because other than that, no one else was involved with the "crime".

Tim seems to think the judge "insinuated" another solution to our problem. He's going to try again within a week or two. I don't know what it involves but to be honest, seeing what happened yesterday has made me lose faith in the justice system and quite frankly in this country. It seems dead set on continuing to torture my family and keeping us apart. It doesn't care that my sons fingers are bleeding because he rips his nails off to deal with the loss of this father. It doesn't care that I haven't slept in almost a year because my husband is locked up some where for something so stupid and minor. It doesn't care that he will forever be barred from coming back to this "wonderful" country. Needless to say, I was happy to see my son again yesterday, but I am completely and utterly devastated on the inside. All I want to do was to hug Jose and sob, but I can't and all I can do is sob silently by myself.