Signed, Your Huddled Masses

My husband isn't with me. Not because he doesn't want to be. Not because I don't want him to be. Not because he is deployed. Not because he is deceased. Not because he is on vacation. Not because he is in jail or prison.
But because he is in the immigration system.

I hear them, "Illegals are criminals." Their crime being that they wanted a better life, the "American dream" without a ready, legal passageway. They say this in a country that was built by immigrants.
Written on our Statue of Liberty:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
-Emma Lazarus

In contrast, the United States is almost revered as an exclusive club for those "worthy." Worth being boiled down to whether or not you were born on its land. Seems those bronzed words ring empty now.

For what they've done, crossing into "our" land. They are sentenced to be cast away pending further investigation/scrutiny/paperwork or none at all. Yanked away from their families. Yanked away from the life they built and had struggled to obtain.
Do you think they wouldn't have tried to become legal if they could? If it were that easy, don't you think they'd be able to have insurance, pay taxes, be accountable?

What test are you put through to become a citizen? Whether or not you were born.

We shouldn't HAVE TO wait for our husbands, our wives, our family. We shouldn't HAVE TO fret of their safety. We shouldn't HAVE TO worry whether or not they can even come back. We shouldn't HAVE TO have the run-around. We shouldn't HAVE TO have this stress.
Why, because a better system can't be figured out? Why, because "if it's not broken, don't fix it?" Why, because it's more complicated than that? Why, because just because?

Why don't you just go live there with them in Mexico/Honduras/El Salvador/ETC? Because it would just be that easy to uproot my family, my life, cut my ties, have enough money, move our possessions, become a citizen there, perhaps never see my friends or family again if I don't have money to make the trip to visit?

There isn't a good enough reason to justify the heartbreak or dull the pain.

Actions speak louder than words. But when all you have are words, you try to make them count.