A Dusty Lady

By John Dooley

This is the story of two 75 year old retired persons - a detective and high school teacher - interested in civic matters. They are especially interested in the plight of immigrant families that were ripped apart by the zero-tolerance border policies of the Trump administration. They became so involved with this cause, they created a corporation they called Salva La Familia (meaning, Save The Family). Abbey Tutt, the police officer, recruited several of his well heeled friends in financing this corporation with an initial investment of $1,000,000.

They also teamed up with another friend, the CEO of Algonquin Free Native American University, who was interested in creating a correspondence course that appealed to any undocumented immigrant in the US, entitled Pathway to Citizenship.
This course was a major success and helped to recruit hundreds of undocumented persons, helping them on their way to citizenship.

Unfortunately the Homeland Security Department of the US Government called upon Immigration Custom Enforcement (ICE) to carry out heavy-handed enforcement of deportation. ICE attempted to use Salva La Familia to help locate unsuspecting undocumented immigrants throughout the US.

Surprisingly, Abbey finds that the opposition to immigration by the Administration is only a smoke screen to cover up the President's plot to engineer a coup d'etat, similar to what Adolph Hitler pulled off in Germany in 1930.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098370305

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

It was a fine, warm, sunny afternoon in Cliffside, a town on the hidden Atlantic Bay, New England. The Senior Home, The Painted Lady, overlooked the entrance to the Bay. Abidiah Tutt leaned back in his large wicker chair on the front porch enjoying the view. His significant other, Phoebe Sinclair, looked over and asked, You’re quiet this morning…anything bothering you?

Not a darn thing. I’m as content as a Frog on a Lily Pad. It is a beautiful fall day and sitting here on the porch in all the lady’s Victorian splendor is one of the blessings we enjoy in our seventy-fifth year. The Commodore built a fine house for his six children with space for all the relatives that chose to visit.

Abby continued, In this Victorian home, now for seniors, are twelve rooms, two upper floors, and a tall attic with curved ceilings. He even added a small Heliport on his flat rear roof.

Phoebe smiled and said, You retired as a Police Detective Sgt. and I as a high school teacher at just the right time to get in on all of this.

You’re right. We are very lucky.

A large orange school bus, followed by a black sedan, suddenly pulled up in front of the building and two children belonging to the Painted Lady’s custodian, Juan Morales, got off and started up the walk.

Suddenly, two men in dark clothes came around the rear of the bus and seized the seven-year-old girl. She screamed and struggled to get free. Her brother was grabbed by the other man but was kicked in the shins by the boy who could not free himself. Abby, seeing this, leaped from his chair and bounded down the steps, hollering, Hold on there, and leave those children alone.

The men froze in their tracks as he approached them. Abby pulled out his wallet, flipped it open, and flashed his gold detective’s badge. They did not release the children but replied, Custom Service apprehension of undocumented children.

The bus driver, having witnessed this, was approaching and brandishing a tire iron. The two men reached into their pockets and withdrew their Official Identification and showed them to Abby, the elder man, saying, These are the children of undocumented migrants, and their parents are soon to be arrested and deported.

Phoebe dialed her smart phone immediately and relayed his message to a policeman she knew. She soon called, Abby, Steve said he’ll be here in five minutes with two officers. Then she boldly walked up to the two men and took the children. HER BODY LANGUAGE DARED THEM TO STOP HER. She held them close to her as she retreated to the porch.

Within five minutes, the air was filled with police sirens approaching. Steve pulled up in the first car and got out signaling to the two officers in the second to approach the ICE men. He walked up to the Federal Officers, introduced himself, showed them his Detective Lieutenants Badge, and asks them for an explanation.

After some spirited conversation between Steve, the two officers he brought with him, and the two arresting officers, the ICE men agreed to retire to the Police Chief’s office at the station to resolve the whole issue.

Steve took Abby aside and said, I’ll get back to you and let you know what the Chief and the ICE men have agreed upon as a course of action.

In the meantime, Juan Morales and his wife joined their children on the porch with great anxiety. They heard, from Phoebe, what the commotion was about and asked to please tell them what was going on. Their appeal to Abby was obviously seeped with anxiety.

Phoebe and Abby looked at one another, more than just a little overwhelmed. Especially by the stalking of the officers, and by the whole issue of arrest through the children first. Only to then approach the parents as they were frantically intimidated. Phoebe and Abby were of course aware of the President’s attitude and the actions of the Customs Department, but did not think that they would be assaulting children and using them as a means to gain additional cooperation from their parents.

There are strong opinions on both sides of the Immigration issue, but, as Phoebe said, This is no way to approach the problem. Abby, you and I are really not familiar with this whole thing. We are going to have to do some homework. I thought Migrants and Refugees were welcome to this country. We have always admired and agreed with the verse on the Statue of Liberty. Are we out of date? We are all descendants of immigrants, since the Mayflower!

Phoebe added, Tradition, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are things we are all striving for. They sat down in their chairs, and she said, Abby, are we going to get involved in the Morales family’s struggle? If we are, we had better start getting the facts and do some serious research, especially considering the new National Federal Administration’s attitude on Immigrants and Refugees.

Abby replied, I’ll get the library books that I can on the subject, and you can follow through with your contacts in the education world past and present. We will do our homework and get back together again in a week. Steve should have the police view for us by then.

True to his word Abby spent some time searching the library racks and books for anything he could find on immigration. He found several good books but chose only three. One on the history of Nativism since the 1780s, another on Northern and Southern European surges between 1890 and 1918 including the Asian influx, and a third one on the modern era. He read each carefully, made notes, and found them as intense on the subject as he thought they would be. They discussed both the former and recent attitudes in America but did not express any author’s opinion.

They learned that the Justice Department was threatening to hold or withhold funds from cities that did not comply and cooperate with the ICE enforcement people. Abby also learned that the ACLU, the American Civil Liberties Union, had fired back on several occasions stating the illegality and the violation of Articles in the American Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, which, of course, is their main mission. It is their intention to legally push for the enforcement of the existing immigration laws and to resist new Federal threats as indefensible by our system of government. But the ICE agents have been intimidating the immigrants and have increased the apparatus of apprehension against immigrant families and the sanctuary cities and states as well as many local churches that support them.

He found that newspapers were full of human interest stories about worried immigrant families, especially those whose children were small (when the parents slipped into this country) without papers. Those children that were born as Americans were also separated from their undocumented parents. The migrant workers with jobs were being intimidated. They were worried about being on the job and threatened with deportation. They were going to attorneys for advice. Many of the lawyers worked pro bono because they were sympathetic to their cause and were related to immigrant families, themselves. The migrant parents and other adults were even afraid to go to work for fear that enforcement people might be lying in wait for them. Should they run to Canada or find some sanctuary in a church or in the city? Young people who were brought to this country as small children, known as Dreamers, were estimated to be in very large numbers—as high as 750,000.

Abby spent many hours at the library studying these books. He read, made notes, and passed the notes along to Phoebe at their luncheon meetings. They discussed them, and then separated again for their individual research. They postponed their visits to the Morales family and Steve Corcoran until they felt they understood the situation fully. They also reviewed the Cliffside newspapers and the editorial references to the new Presidential Program. The Justice Department was threatening to slow the source of funds to individual communities if they were providing sanctuary for any of the undocumented migrants and not cooperating with the ICE recommendations.

Abby learned also that the ACLU had created several cases backing the individual Migrant’s Status with laws based on the Constitution and the other historical documents to enforce the immigration law position. The Federal threats were indefensible according to the ACLU by our system of government. But some of the persons with the opposite point of view had been intense in their efforts to gain as much publicity against the migrants as possible.

The papers were full of stories about the fearful migrants. Families, especially those whose children had been born in the United States since their parents slipped into the country without any papers. Those children that are here, and think of themselves as Americans, could also be separated from their families if they are without documents.

Abby and Phoebe came upon a gathering crowd in City Hall Park on their way to a movie. The people were facing the portico at the front of the City Hall, all waiting for previously assigned speakers to address them. The pair didn’t know what was happening. An organization called Migrant Justice, representing the working immigrants in New England, especially in the Dairy Industry, had called for this public meeting. The turnout was a favorable one, about 700 people, who were quietly but anxiously awaiting the speakers of the evening. No other activities seemed to be planned.

The signs that were being carried by the people gathering for the rally were not terrorists in any respect. However, they were very clearly pro dairy workers and those working on the family farms at the outskirts of the city. One of the signs said, Don’t walk on us. We are your friends and here to help you.

The first speaker took his place at the podium, and the others proceeded to take their positions one after the other. They were there to convince the crowd that they should support the migrant workers even though they may not be involved in the Dairy or the Farming industry. The speakers offered their help. Some were attorneys paid by Migrant Justice, and others offered their services for free. They were from immigrant families. The speakers wanted to address the City and State officials, even though they were not present, and had not interfered. The program was for the migrant workers themselves. The workers had been very well behaved and, even though quite loud and boisterous in cheering on the speakers, had not created any disturbance.

Two attorneys offered further advice and their services. Workers reported they were afraid to go to work, if their employments were known by the ICE men.

It was reported that undocumented children who had been brought into this country prior to their parents getting citizenship were especially vulnerable, and even afraid to go to school. Those that had been born after their parents came into the country were also vulnerable. It was commonly known, and well-publicized, that there are thousands of such children. A woman speaking out on such matters at a rally in Jackson, Mississippi, was jailed and held for several days.

It was reported by one of the speakers that in the springtime the ICE men arrested a woman in the area, then released her several days later, without any explanation.

Steve Corcoran and a couple of his detectives came up. They signaled recognition to Phoebe and Abby to be quiet. They were just listening and observing, not taking any part in the rally. After a few speeches, they were interrupted by Steve. He told Abby that the Chief of Police didn’t want them to take any part in the rally or any of the other demonstrations unless they had begun to break the law or threaten the general public in some way. Phoebe assured Steve that this kind of a crowd was not going to be doing that kind of thing. They weren’t rowdy at all. They were all just trying to make their point to the General Public that they had gathered and wanted to make the public aware of their harassment by ICE. It seemed that very few of the public had been paying much attention to the articles in the papers or other information about the immigration problem, except what they saw on television which was only the headlines. Those didn’t provide much in-depth information.

Phoebe told Steve, We are watching the demonstrations. Then we’re going to the movies.

By the time they came out of the movies, the area had been cleared and the Police and the city workers were cleaning up some of the trash that was left behind. They returned to the Painted Lady and sat on the porch talking about the whole situation. They finally agreed to continue their investigation and give it another week or so before they decided whether or not they were going to get involved.

Phoebe mentioned that the Morales children were being harassed at school by other children who were just repeating what their parents were talking about at home. She was surprised that the parents would take such a hard line and allow it to be repeated at the school by their children.

As a Retired High School Educator, Phoebe was upset with the attitudes of the people that she’d encountered on the subject. They have little or no interest, but certainly do not have a very wide point of view on the subject. She said, I’m going to continue gathering materials at the School Library, and then we’ll get together again and see what we can agree upon.

Abby said, I’ll be going to check with the Police Department to find out just exactly what the Chief wants to do and how he wants to do it, before I make any decision.

Phoebe said, It’s a good idea. Let’s devote some time and work to the research, and then we will begin to either take a position or not—depending on what we come up with.

The following day Abby made a trip to the State library. He wanted to find some books that were not available in the local library. They were glad to find them for him and gave him some time to study them, but would not let him take them out of the building because those were only the few books they had on the subject of Nativism and Immigration. Call it what you will, Nativism was a new phrase to Abby.

Nativism appeared as far back in time as recorded American politics. There have been two very opposite strong opinions on the subject of Nativism relative to Immigration. Going back as far as 1783, The National Nativism feeling was set by some of the British migrants. They represented a Religion preference and White Citizenship at the time. They believed both ought to continue. However, George Washington, President at the time, said openly, The Bosom of America is Open to Receive Not Only the Opulent and Respectable Strangers, But the Outcast and the Persecuted of all Nations and Religions.

Okay, it seems Washington did not agree with the Nativists, but wanted to set our country’s future on a course unlike the populace one that was being offered by the Nativist public speakers of the time. The preference for European-born, Protestant migrants were clearly promoted by many of the early leaders themselves. When they were called immigrants, they preferred the word Natives, though it was an incorrect distinction. Only our Indian population could truly call themselves Natives.

Abby found that laws were passed against Irish Catholics in 1830, all the way to 1852, and was still being practiced in some communities in 1920. Also such laws were set against Asian Americans in 1870, and even lower Eastern European Nations from 1850 to 1922. Samuel Gompers, a Londoner by birth, and a very popular labor leader of the AFL, was such a leader. His sentiments were very strictly for the Nativism opinion in 1886.

This whole Nativism migrant idea and Washington’s quotation made Abby sit back in his chair at the library and rethink the whole situation. He started asking himself questions. Can we measure the energy of ideas expressed in our international invitation like that on the Statue of Liberty? Does that poem truly represent the majority opinion in our country?

That international invitation released an energy in the hearts and minds of millions of people around the world. The message of Emma Lazarus has been firmly held by the majority of our people since the Mayflower. Most recent arrivals respected it as the new invitation to the world’s downtrodden. She only, poetically, expressed the will of the Father of our country, George Washington.

How, in the name of progress, can we ever acknowledge the goodness, the positive growth, and the genuine pursuit of happiness our immigrants, such as the manual laborers and providers to this country? They have been more than just occupants. They have been genuine contributors to the nation.

Newspapers, however, published images and our President has called immigrants lawless and violent social outcasts. They try to portray them that way to fix a negative image in the public’s minds. For example, all Italians were accused of being controlled by a secret criminal society or by the Vatican in Rome.

Thomas Bailey Aldrich published a poem in 1882 depicting our national open-door policy. He declared it our Unguarded Gates.

Abby got to wondering—why is this Nativist behavior so familiar? He was astounded to recall the similarity of language that the President was using to that which was used by the Nazi regime in the 1930s. Their purpose, he learned, was to create in the public’s mind the idea that the troubles that Germany