Nuns on the bus.

When Jose was moved to McHenry Detention Center I was attending the Broadview prayer vigils. I met several Sisters of Mercy and there was a moment when one of them, after hearing my name, told me she knew who I was. As it turned out these Sisters visited the McHenry Detention Center and visited the immigrant detainees. During their visits, which were in person and not through the video/electronic visitations, they would pray together and asked who the detainees wanted to pray for. There was one man who would always ask for them to pray for his wife, America. I get a knot in my throat just thinking about it. Jose would always ask them to pray for me and our son, without fail.

I became familiar with the Sisters who visited Jose and asked them, at one point, if they could give him a hug for me. They certainly did and Cairo and I got a hug back :)

I got to know these Sisters. They are the reason why priests and nuns are able to board the deportation buses at the Broadview immigrant processing center and pray with the deportees before they are taken to the air port. They are the reason why their is a law in the state of Illinois that allows them to enter the McHenry Detention Center and pray, in person, with immigrant detainees. They are also the ones that connected me to Jose while he was detained. They would tell me if he was well and how he was doing in between our weekly phone calls and video only visits.

They started tour called "Nuns on the bus" and they toured the southern states speaking out in favor of immigration reform . Their tour ends today but I thought it deserved a mention :) You can read about their adventure here.

Woah, it's been almost a year since my last post here.

Life just got in the way and I've kinda neglected posting on this blog. Truth is nothing exciting has been happening for us on the immigration front. We are still scheduled for court in September, we are just anxiously waiting.

Now that my son is on summer vacation I've been trying to go to the Broadview Immigration Vigil every Friday. The last time I was there, two weeks ago, I met a young woman whose significant other was being deported that day. She's about to give birth any day. I gave her my number in case she needed someone to talk to. She mentioned she didn't have anyone here. Her family is in another state. I really hope everything turns out ok for her.

I have to say, even though Jose is home with us, my heart aches for these families who are being torn apart. It's horrible watching the buses leave and the children and wives and husbands of those being deported standing there helplessly, crying. There just has to be a better way of handling this.