Armando has no criminal record, steady employment and a community of hundreds of families who love him. Yet in an instant, he was taken away.
I have included the entire text of this article. It is worth reading the entire text here from Rabbi Aaron Brusso of Bet Torah of Mt.Kisco, New Yorkâs beloved Armondo:
A week before the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer told him he was going to a detention facility, Armando, our synagogueâs custodian for two decades, had come in to work on Presidentâs Day to be there for my family as we held a small service to celebrate my sonâs upcoming bar mitzvah.
Afterwards, as we ate lunch, Armando stood at a distance smiling. A week later, when I spoke to him in custody, he said through tears, âI have seen your son grow. I wanted to be there for the big celebration. âMy son, by happenstance of birth, is a United States citizen, and simply by reaching the age of 13 he becomes a full citizen of our religious community. Armando has worked and lived in this country more than twice as long as my son has been alive, has two boys of his own, no criminal record, steady employment and a community of hundreds of families who love him.
Yet in an instant, he was taken away.
Like my son, I did absolutely nothing to earn or deserve my citizenship, it was gifted to me at birth because of a decision my great-grandparents made. I didnât have to work for it, sacrifice for it, travel for it. It was given to me before I knew to dream of it, before I knew what dreams were.
We enjoy tremendous privilege and access simply because we were born in the right place at the right time. Not so for Armando.
We got a call that Armando had been arrested over the weekend and was in the county jail. He was in a restaurant with family when a fight broke out. The police were called and they arrested a number of people, including Armando. Aside from being in the wrong place at the wrong time, he was completely exonerated in court.
But during his time in the county jail, ICE was sent a list of inmates. An ICE officer came to the jail to let him know he was going to be brought into detention.
Armando came to this country nearly 30 years ago. In the 20 years he worked in our synagogue, he paid social security, Medicare, state and local taxes. As far as we were concerned he belonged in every way. But others apparently saw that differently.
Keep reading
