Editor’s Letter – 1/17/18

Last week I interviewed Elena, an undocumented woman from Mexico who has called the United States home for 18 years. Her husband of 20 years was deported last year, leaving her to care and provide for their two American daughters alone. We talked for nearly two hours about her husband, about the circumstances that brought them here, about the difficulties of living undocumented, before I asked how the experience has affected their daughters. It was only then that she cried.

As I sat there with Elena, it was impossible not to wonder about the many families across Tulsa —not to mention our country—who face similar situations—a loved one ripped from them, detained for an unspecified period, shipped back to a country that isn’t their home.

It was a tense week for anyone who disagrees with or could be affected by the tough immigration stance taken by the Trump administration. ICE conducted its largest raid since the president took office—targeting 98 convenience stores across the country and arresting 21 people. After making his now-infamous “all these people from shithole countries” comment, Trump threw a wrench in the bipartisan immigration deal he had previously indicated he would approve. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Dreamers’ fates hang in the balance.

In an interview on NPR, Jason Johnson, politics editor at The Root, put Trump’s comment in perspective:

The problem is when your private and personal racism in your home manifests itself in policies, then you're violating the Constitution … He said something racist in the context of a policy discussion. So, I think the news coverage has actually been focusing on, well, what does it mean to have a racist president who's supposed to be negotiating about immigration and DACA with mostly brown and black people?

It means our neighbors here in Tulsa will be affected.

Elsewhere in this issue, you’ll find people working in different ways to unify our town. For New Sanctuary Network Tulsa, that means opposing the wholesale deportation of undocumented immigrants. For others, it means investing in, building, and managing the Gathering Place so all Tulsans have a free, shared space. Cirque Coffee invites anyone needing a caffeine fix. Congregation B’Nai Emunah welcomes strangers at their Seventeenth Street Deli. And, speaking of sandwiches—don’t miss Mitch Gilliam’s tale of the Torta Letourneau.