Calling all fellow Americans and communities far and wide! A very dear friend of mine is facing her worst nightmare in the midst of our diminishing democracy.

Margaret is one of the most kind, intelligent, hardworking people I know. She is a bright light wherever she goes. Some years ago, she found her soulmate (a Venezuelan refugee) and they were legally married. After years of hoping to become a mother and then repeatedly having that hope lost, they miraculously became pregnant. Their family was meant to be. They now have a beautiful, happy, healthy, and painfully cute almost one-year-old boy.

Margaret, Javier, and Jarret have a good life in Round Rock Texas, a home they own, stable jobs that contribute to their communities, and proximity to supportive family—an essential need that becomes highlighted when we have little ones to care for.

In the midst of the built-in strains of being new parents, they have been living under the weight and worry of Javier being deported. Even though he has no criminal background, is legally married to an American citizen, contributes to his community in many ways, and has an American-born child, both Margaret and Javier have been watching the fervor with which ICE is moving and have navigated this historical period with eyes wide open.

On July 1st, when Javier attended his mandatory ICE check-in with his family, he was detained, separated from his family, and placed in tightly cinched handcuffs for over eight hours. His personal belongings were taken away from him and he was processed as if being arrested; even though he had committed no crime. Javier was then placed in a cold, brightly lit room with fifty or more other non-criminal detainees. These other individuals were all clearly traumatized and terrorized by their own uprooting from their families and communities.

At best, they are given food that is reconstituted, tasteless, and without regard to nutritional needs or food allergies. At worst, they sometimes receive portions of black beans that contain maggots. They are made to "sleep" while the bright fluorescent lights are never turned off or dimmed. They may help themselves to water that flows from a spigot attached to a toilet tank. The beds are metal, covered with a thin "mattress" that more closely resembles a blanket.

The horrors of this experience alone cannot be fully captured. More pressing is the now fully transparent need for Margaret's family to self-deport in order to stay together. They've consulted dozens of attorneys leading up to this crisis and they all essentially said the same thing in different ways: they aren't able to help with the fact that Javier is from Venezuela, a country stigmatized by our government.

Now it is here that we must ask for your help to move Margaret, Javier, and Jarrett away from their dearly cherished lives in Texas to a country that will embrace them.

Every contribution is a prayer for this family, and for us all to be the kind of country, and Americans that care for one another.

Thank you for taking the time to take this in, and thank you in advance for your willingness to help.

In gratitude,

Christina