January 2025 Immigration Update -Avalanche with You
Avalanche with You
Immigration Update: January 2025
Trump's Shock & Awe Deportations Pending
Metaphors in Music
The wintery scenery and poetic lyrics in James Arthur's music video, Avalanche, explain the current emotion as we wrap up yet another year and turn to the chaos promised by the incumbent presidency in the new year. As one of the darkest seasons in our battle for LGBTQ+ equality, justice, and fairness in American immigration comes to a close, a frosty beginning and freezing four years are just ahead.
We're about to commence the unthinkable - four more years of hate. As evidenced and personally experienced in Trump 1.0, we (and countless other migrants, LGBTQ+ families, and other marginalized populations) have suffered barbaric and inhumane conditions. We anticipate more of the same terror, discrimination, uncivil and inhumane policy in Trump 2.0.
As always, the holiday season provides an excellent time for catching up. For us, reconnecting with family and friends is always overshadowed by the same elephant in the room discussed year after year as loved ones try to decipher where we are in a very complex legal process that is nearly impossible to comprehend. Body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice convey their fear and sympathy for our facing the unimaginable. "Are you traveling soon?" a neighbor familiar with our case inquires. For those who aren't aware, see our November Update Here.
Poetically simple lyrics when considering sweeping deportations...
You and I, maybe we'll disappear like ghosts
Intertwined, in a couple of years they'll write our stone
Here lies a lucky man who was losing all hope
In real life, and a beautiful soul who never let go
Some who are familiar with the conditions in El Salvador have expressed concern about a potential delay in allowing Enrique to return to the U.S. simply because there are no LGBTQ+ or same-sex marriage protections in the country. While we could have filed for a third safe country request for a change of venue, Enrique chose to stop any further filings and simply press for completion in El Salvador as soon as possible. We've asked that our lawyers take the necessary steps to finalize our case - with or without the green card so that we can simply get on with our lives inside or outside the country. After ten years of battle - we're done fighting w/ U.S. immigration & white male dominance and hate!
The musical masterpiece "Avalanche" tells the story of songwriter James Author's struggle with anxiety and depression and the escape, safety, and stability he found in his partner's love and patience. This update is anchored around the lyrics of this song. The perpetual cycle that has been our pattern for the past decade of fighting for justice now spans the roller-coaster policy shifts of what will be our fourth administration.
Over the years, I've fought to find the courage and voice to stand up for Enrique and the grave injustices our family and so many immigrants and LGBTQ+ families and individuals have faced in modern-day American culture; I'd actually lost my own voice in the debilitating fear of anxiety and chronic depression. Countless writings never finished crowd the digital space of my online journals. What good will it do anyway? The bully is back with a vengeance, and his white Christian Nationalist billionaire cronies, who literally bought the most powerful seat on the planet, will never change their views. Evil is within the very DNA of a large percentage of American white males of the 21st century. The bully, the conqueror, is back!
Impassioned advocacy work never published, words paint emotions and fears with every realistic, sometimes pretty outlandish but accurate catastrophic prediction. Think "family separations" of Trump 1.0 and the various news headlines promising worse with Trump 2.0 powered by "Project 2025," which shall serve as the roadmap for a conservative-led ethnic cleansing of migrants present within the United States.
Rumination, a cornerstone symptom of anxiety and depression, results in debilitating catastrophic thinking. Since Trump entered the political sphere, we've witnessed the worst in humanity; these are my experiences through the lens of anxiety and depression -- the "bullets" of the mind, the lyrics foretell.
"What if Enrique were taken by ICE tomorrow?""What if they refuse to honor the green card approval invalidating our ten years of battles won?""What if they drag it out past his work authorization? What will we do then?""What if he's deported and I can't get a visa in El Salvador?""How long will we have to be apart?""What if they won't let him return?"
"What would he do in El Salvador for work?"
"What would I do at 56 years of age, uprooted to a forign nation where I am (still) unable to speak the language?"
Author - LGTBQ+ & Immigration Advocate
To put it into perspective-- for more than a decade, we have been fighting a battle to complete the immigration-required documentation to stay together as a same-sex married couple within the historic times of a presidential race built and won on public hysteria and division.
With "bullets" of the political landscape -- immigration and deportation and unending attacks on LGBTQ+ equalities, the white/Christian nation is losing its grip on a homogenized society. A new totalitarian regime emboldened by the 2nd win takes office on Jan 20th. All mayhem is promised thereafter.
In his typical calm and stylish demeanor, Enrique, hardened by atrocities he experienced as a child of a third-world nation, suggests, "They soon will discover, they did it to themselves," of course, referring to the millions of conservative voters who invited such evil back into the White House. Meanwhile, I retreat further into the solitude of our home, nature, the outdoors, meditation, and writing. With so much at stake, I reserve my body, mind, and Spirit for peaceful resistance efforts. I can not help but continue to advocate for others while keenly aware I must not give in to darkness and hate that can seep into the hearts and minds of the innocent left helpless. But it's not easy!
At a time when we feel compelled to rise up in opposition, I've found myself less willing to partake in any further social media or public commentary or attacks lest I again step into the cycle of anxiety and depression, anger and hate. With the help and support of family and friends and a whole hell of a lot of hard work in our household and inside my own psyche, the "butterflies" hardly ever visit unexpectedly anymore, and "the bullets" have been more tolerable the past few years as I've come to a conclusion... this is a force much more powerful than anything we can do much about today. So, we continue our peaceful resistance efforts while being mindful of what's at stake.
Thank you, Bill Penzeys and the Penzeys Spice team
for your continued courage and unwavering allyship
Many have shared concerns that speaking up may be unsafe in the current climate of American society. Some have suggested that I filter what I write. For this reason, while I write almost daily, I no longer feel like posting in public. Truth be told, for all the words in the digital landscape, all the print on paper, and emotions spent, our lives, freedoms, justice, safety, and happiness pale in comparison to an entire world -- the life we've all known -- is once again burning down both figuratively and literally. Conservatives insist global warming is a hoax. I digress. But what about the countless other LGBTQ+ and immigrant families who are not prepared for what is to come? Barbaric and inhumane attacks once again will commence next week. Spirit help us all!
At 56 years old, Enrique, 18 years my junior, we've reached a point where we've fought the good fight, and now we just want to get on with our lives—with or without the green card. We're hoping for the best while learning to surrender as we wait for the notice to appear in El Salvador to complete the process or another notification that our time in the U.S. has expired. Either way, we're prepared.
If it were solely my decision, we'd leave this purgatory today! To live a lifetime under the constant threat of separation and harm, enduring countless headlines shaming already marginalized populations for who we love, and for the 11 million beautiful brown-bodied migrants and others who will endure the broad brush whitewashing in an all too realistic Hitler fashion, we know your fears, we feel your pain, and we stand with you in solidarity! Peacefully, we all must RESIST!
As the eloquent phrase of the song suggests, after all that we've been through, nothing is going to harm us now cause we've grown strong within the avalanche as we love, count on, and support each other through thick and thin till death do us part, ..."...ashes to ashes, dust to dust." Trump "2.0" or "10.0" couldn't summon as much power as the love, partnerships, marriage, friendship, and success Enrique and I have achieved.
Under this avalanche with you, avalanche with youI feel the world collapsing downBut after all that I've been through, long as I'm with youNobody can hurt me nowIt's been breaking me, breaking me down to the boneYou're saving me, say to me, I'm not aloneIn this avalanche with you, avalanche with youNobody can hurt us now
The age-old adage goes: "Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer." To our friends, family, and supporters, we want to hear from you. Please do not worry. We love you, and thank you for your support. The best you can do now is peacefully resist while letting your marginalized and attacked neighbors, family, and friends know that you care.
Speaking from my own first-hand experiences...when the days are so dark and the fears so wide, the only way we've made it is with you by our side! Friendship, kindness, allyship, and support! It helps to know you care! As this incredible song by Finneas suggests, "It's only a lifetime. Don't waste it." "Nobody can hurt us now!"
FINNEAS - Only A Lifetime
Perhaps one of the most timely songs for what the world now faces...
… How do you knowIf you've done everything right?Is it the love you have at handOr the cash you kiss at night?… How do you knowIf it was worth it in the end?Did every second really countOr were there some you shouldn't spendOn anything but anyone you love?Was this the life that you were dreaming of?A movie night, a yellow lightYou're slowing down and days are adding up… So don't waste the time you have waiting for time to passIt's only a lifetimeThat's only a whileIt's not worth the anger you felt as a childDon't waste the time you have waiting for time to passIt's only a lifetimeThat's not long enoughYou're not gonna like it without any loveSo don't waste it… I'm unimpressedBy the people preaching painFor the sake of some small gainIn the sake of someone's name… I'm unpreparedFor my loved ones to be goneCall 'em way too often nowWorry way too much about mom… Don't waste the time you have waiting for time to passIt's only a lifetimeThat's only a whileIt's not worth the anger you felt as a childDon't waste the time you have waiting for time to passIt's only a lifetimeThat's not long enoughYou're not gonna like it without any loveSo don't waste it… It's family and friends, and that's the truthThe fountain doesn't give you back your youthIt's staying up too late at night and laughing under kitchen lightsSo hard you start to cry… Don't waste the time you have waiting for time to passIt's only a lifetimeThat's not long enoughYou're not gonna like it without any loveSo don't waste itSource: LyricFindSongwriters: Finneas O'ConnellOnly a Lifetime lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
