A Stewart Grandfather

The last family I met that day at Stewart was an older lady in a wheelchair (we'll call her Ruth). Ruth arrived at about 11 AM, with her daughter, and several of her grandchildren. They were there to visit Ruth’s husband Javier. 

Their story is a little more complicated. Javier is originally from Honduras. He has been in the country legally for over 60 years. About five years ago he was arrested and sentenced to 48 months in federal prison. Ruth did not go into the details about his crime, other than to acknowledge that he had done something wrong.

After he completed his federal prison sentence, he was transferred to ICE custody and placed in the Stewart pending deportation hearings. Ruth was not optimistic that he would win his case and expected that he would be deported back to Honduras. She was planning to sell her house and move to Honduras to be with him.

Ruth and Javier have seven kids, 17 grandchildren, and their first two great grandchildren on the way. Javier has been in the United States legally for over 60 years.

Based on Ruth's story there’s no doubt but that he committed a crime and paid the penalty. But after 60 years, isn’t it time to treat someone like a full-fledged citizen without the threat of being deported? Any action taken at this point would have a huge impact on his 25 family members, the two on the way, plus, I am sure many friends and extended family.

Like I said, it’s complicated. Yes, he is federal felon. He served 48 months in prison. Most federal inmates are there on drug charges (nearly half). And he’s done his time. At nearly 80 years old, it’s hard to imagine he presents much of a threat to society.

One other note on the needless hoops these families must jump through. One of Javier‘s granddaughters, a 16-year-old girl, was wearing torn jeans, much like many kids and even some adults wear these days. It’s part of the style. It wasn’t anything that jumped out at me when I saw the family come in. Either of my girls could have worn them to school. However, the guards decided that her torn jeans represented “see-through clothes” in the context of the Stewart dress code. They would not allow her back to see her grandfather.

Fortunately, our host from El Refugio was able to go to the guest house and get her a pair of sweatpants. Had it not been for Maria, the family would probably have been forced to go to back to Columbus to get clothes for the girl or she would have missed the chance to visit. 

And Ruth is in a wheelchair that doesn’t fit through the metal detector. Not one single guard got up and helped her and her chair through. I just don’t get it.

I have some sympathy for the guards there. Lumpkin is a small (tiny, population 1,091) town in the middle of nowhere. The Stewart complex is several times teh size of the small, mostly shuttered downtown area. They don’t have a grocery store or any other retailers. And I doubt CoreCivic pays these folks much money at all. Their priority is to keeps costs down and make money off the system. But on the other hand, like the rest of us, the guards have a chance to make life a little less hard for people in a bad situation. Why not do it?