How many heroes are we deporting?

I believe in second chances. I have had more than a few. None deserved. All appreciated.

A person’s worst day should not define the rest of their life.

Think of a man sitting on death row.  After a six-day trial, he is sentence to hang.  He escapes and finds his way to the United States.

He didn’t have a visa. Or a green card. He just came. He reinvented himself. He became a lawyer. He married a woman from a prominent New York family.

Do you know who I’m talking about?

Thomas Francis Meagher.

The British government convicted him of treason in 1848 and he was sentenced to death. He was 25. His sentence was commuted to life in Tasmania. He escaped in 1852 and landed in America. Five years later, he was a citizen.  In 1861, he joined the Union army.  He became the General of the Irish Brigade in our Civil War. In 1865, President Andrew Johnson appointed him Secretary of the Montana Territory. In 1866, he called Montana’s first Constitutional Convention. He died in 1867.

His statue sits in front of our Capitol in Helena.  There is another in Waterford, Ireland. Meagher County is named for him.  There is the Meagher Monument at the Antietam National Battlefield.  During WWII, we named a Liberty Ship after him, the S.S. Thomas F. Meagher.

When Meagher became territorial secretary, the governor was absent. He became our acting governor. Yes, he went from death row to being governor — in only 17 years.  He is not the only criminal we have placed in office.

The story of Thomas Francis Meagher is Montana’s story. It’s America’s story.

An immigrant found a new country and built a new life. He was a convicted criminal, a fugitive from British justice. America looked beyond Meagher’s status as a convict and a fugitive. America gave him a chance to become something more.  He became an American hero. Montana and our country are better because of Meagher and millions like him.

Here’s the hard part: Today, Meagher would not be allowed to immigrate to America.  Think of what we would have lost if America had not welcomed Thomas Francis Meagher to our country.

Our country is going through an unholy purge of immigrants today. Mass deportations. A policy of exclusion.  We hear a constant stream of racist and untrue descriptions. Others claim it’s an invasion of killers, rapists, gangbangers, and animals. Some leaders claim those people are poisoning the blood of our country, or that they’re coming from mental institutions.

History will measure those words by reality and facts.

It’s not true.  Not honest.  ICE data shows that roughly 70 of the people we have deported have absolutely no criminal record. None. Only 3% to 5% of those deported had a criminal record of violence.  The rest? Minor things like traffic violations.

Yes, they want us to believe that they are making people safer by deporting someone who had a burned-out taillight. Really, we are spending billions to protect America from minor traffic violations?

Think of the human cost:  Take a few minutes and really think about what this purge is doing to individuals, children, families and the future of our country, our neighborhoods and our schools. That’s the price of fear.

Consider the irony:  We honor Meagher with a statue in front of our Capitol —  an immigrant, and a convicted criminal.  Yet, we are deporting hundreds of thousands of people who have never been convicted of anything.  We are separating spouses, families, children from parents. These people risked their lives to pursue the American dream.

In 75 years, how will history view our treatment of immigrants?  Our deportations?  How will history understand our Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers? How about our elected leaders spewing vulgar lies? Government agents wearing face masks, assaulting and killing people. Hint: The masks are a sign — of guilt and shame. Masks aren’t righteous.

America has always been a place of second chances.  We judge people for who they are, not for what they did in the past.  A land of new beginnings and opportunity.

How will history judge our government action today?  And, how will it judge those who didn’t speak up about the erosion of our fundamental values?  We are spending roughly $200 billion on mass deportation and border security, while cutting funding for critical safety net programs.

Border security is a legitimate government action.  Securing our borders is not the same as deporting our neighbors and breaking up families.

What will our legacy be for allowing mass removal?  Mass cruelty?  All fueled by hatred, racism, and lies.

We have become a deportation state. It is a retreat from the promise of America. No chance, much less a second chance.

Thomas Francis Meagher could not immigrate to the United States today.  If he tried, he would be arrested, put in an ICE detention center, and deported.

Meagher was a hero.

But, how many heroes are we deporting?