At the center of any movement for social justice is LOVE. And so today, show yourself and your community some radical love by checking out these 3 stories. Spread the stories and images far and wide.
Felipe's Story - Father Deported, Kids Taken Away
Felipe Montes was deported to Mexico about a year ago, away from his wife and three children, the four of whom are U.S. Citizens. Now the North Carolina Division of Social Services (DSS) wants to take his kids away from him forever, claiming that he has no rights to his children because he is a deported immigrant.
Felipe needs our help. We only have only days before DSS petitions to strip away Felipe’s parental rights in court. Help us pressure DSS to drop the case against Felipe.
Click here to sign the petition to learn more about Felipe, and help him keep his family together
Felipe was the sole breadwinner of his family. After he was deported last year, they removed his children from his wife’s custody after she fell into such hard times that they said she was unable to care for them. Now, Allegheny County’s DSS in North Carolina is planning to ask a judge to let them terminate Felipe’s parental rights and put his children up for adoption.
This is an outrageous assault on the rights of children and parents. Sadly, Felipe is just one of thousands of parents who are having their children snatched from them by a broken immigration system and a patchwork of local child welfare departments. According to a recent report from the Applied Research Center, there are over 5,000 children currently in foster care who had their parents deported. In the next five years, another 15,000 could be separated from their parents forever unless we do something.
A Homage to Undocumented Love
Fellow artist, Julio Salgado, created a lovely series celebrating the love bonds between people who do and don't have papers. He explains: "A homage to undocumented love" is a tribute to couples, families and friends who are being separated due to a broken immigration system. Pictured in the image is my cousin Brenda, who is an American citizen, and her husband Jose, who was undocumented for many years. When they tried to fix his status the "legal way," he was forced to go back to Mexico for two years, leaving my cousin with all the house-hold responsibilities.
With such fucked up immigration system, families are constantly being separated. Couples are forced to have long-distance relationships with the hope of one day reuniting. Queer couples can have it worst at times since they are not given the same rights as heterosexual couples. But in the end, there is a love that keeps them together."
My Story - The Practice of Loving Yourself
I'll conclude this piece with a short story around why I made this piece, titled "The Practice of Loving Yourself." I'm a woman that is constantly on the move, always figuring out how I can support folks in my family and my community. But often it comes a great cost to myself. I usually sleep very little, and I prioritize work over my own health. It's been a habit that I've been undoing slowly, but it's an ingrained practice that I learned from my migrant family, who always juggled 2, or 3, or even 4 jobs at a time.
It's not rare for me to get anxiety or get intense moments of stress, and lately, I have particularly been noticing how bad it is for my body. It's something that seeps into my nerves, muscles, and overall being. So I am learning how to take a moment to pause, and to let the stress go by. I'm learning to breathe and not internalize the external forces of the moment, because often I have no control over them. Yoga is helping me alot with being present, and being one with my body. It's key that as women, we carve out space to take care of us, to nourish ourselves and to love ourselves. This piece is dedicated to that practice.
