A couple of years ago my husband Mike and I traveled to Maine to help our granddaughter move from the apartment where she had lived for the summer to the house to which she was assigned for the coming school year. She had been attempting to move her belongings using a bicycle, the only form of transportation that she had for getting around Brunswick, Maine where her college, Bowdoin, was located. 

We turned her request into a good excuse for a road trip and were soon headed up north from Houston, Texas. Unfortunately the timing coincided with an international music festival that Bowdoin College sponsors each summer. People come from all over the world to enjoy a week of musical bliss. That meant that most of the hotels and motels were already booked so we had to do some searching before we found a motel on the edge of town that had one vacancy left. 

It was not exactly a five star residence. It fact it would have been a bit of a stretch to give it three stars but upon arriving we saw that it was clean and quiet and only a few minutes away from where we would meet up with our granddaughter each day. We felt fortunate to have a place to rest that seemed to just be old rather than run down.

The first thing we noticed as we were checking into our room was that there were a number of pickup trucks from out of state. A couple of them were from Texas. We soon learned that this motel was a haven for migrant workers who came to do construction jobs. Each afternoon they would arrive covered in sweat and dust. They would smile and nod their heads at us and once they reached the doors of their rooms they took off their work boots and left them outside so that they would not bring dirt into the room. Then they would quietly spend the evening relaxing and sleeping until it was time to leave for work the next morning before sunrise. We felt humbled by the work ethic that had made them our temporary neighbors. 

When I heard that yet another immigrant was killed by ICE this week I thought of those young men who were so devoted to a grueling routine that took them out to work before we had begun our daily adventures only to return just before dark each evening. Most of them spoke only enough English to get by but they were always pleasant when we encountered them. I saw that we have a workforce in our nation comprised of individuals from many parts of the world who have come to our nation not to cause trouble but to take on the jobs that most of us would not want to do. This has always been the case. 

Our nation began with slaves being forcefully brought to our shores to do the brutal work on plantations. They even built the White House. People came from China to forge the railroads. People from Ireland and Italy and Germany came to America looking for work. My own grandfather came from Slovakia to toil in fields and then ultimately work inside a meat packing plant. The riches of our nation were achieved with the hard work of immigrants from all over the world. Their stories have never ended. They changed the face of America even as the first generations were often treated with disdain. Somehow many of their descendants refuse to acknowledge that their ancestors were once treated with the same kind of ugly rejection that many of today’s immigrants experience. They speak of rigid adherence to laws as excuses for terrorizing today’s immigrants, many of whom are in our nation legally just like the poor soul who was killed in Maine on his way to work this week. 

Joan Sebastian Guerrero was an immigrant from Colombia with legal work permits. He was only twenty six and leaves behind a wife and a three year old child. He was going to work early in the morning when he was stopped by members of ICE who were actually searching for someone else. In the terror of the moment an agent shot into his car and fatally wounded him while his young child sat in the backseat. Once again the shooter claimed that he was attempting to protect people when it appeared that Mr, Guerrero was using his car as a weapon. 

On the one hand we have Americans who commend ICE for doing a job that is long overdue. They insist that people who are stopped should simply comply with ICE agents and they will not be harmed. On the other hand we know that many of the ICE officers were selected without much background information and with little training in law enforcement. They often travel in unmarked cars wearing masks without understanding that there are many better ways of enforcing laws without violence. All too often innocents who willingly follow ICE orders are sent away to detention centers before having opportunities to prove their legal status. Other times they are thrown to the ground and treated inhumanely. Just being subservient does not seem to insure their safety.

Most police departments run applicants through a series of psychological tests to determine how they might respond under stress. Those who show problems are not usually hired. The ones who are selected attend an academy for training that lasts much longer than what members of ICE are getting. Therein lie many of the problems that have ended in deadly encounters with ICE. Sadly I see no inclination to improve either the selection or training of ICE officers. Without many changes like taking off those masks, having visual identification, and using body cams nothing will change what is happening. I worry that the unreasonable deaths will continue until and unless the powers that be realize that they must to their utmost to insure that the unwarranted killings stop. So far those in charge only defend their incompetence and that of their agents. Maybe our votes in November can force a positive change if enough of us demonstrate that we demand improvements. Until that time I worry that we have only seen the tip of the iceberg of unwarranted deaths.