Backseat coach: ICE melts our heart in favor of single M’ville mom

ICE is having a brain-freeze because it’s not using common sense.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is planning to deport a Marysville woman, Bernarda Pineda, back to Honduras.

She has been in Marysville on a work visa for seven years and has three girls. She fled violence-ridden Honduras 12 years ago with her oldest daughter, who was 2.

Marysville as a community needs to rise up and support her family. She is set to leave March 19. Maybe even Gov. Jay Inslee needs to get involved. He seems to like to defy President Trump, and this cause certainly is worth it. ICE is too cold in dealing with these cases. It needs to use good judgment on a case-by-case basis. I understand why the country would want to get rid of illegal immigrants who are causing problems. If they are criminals or living off the taxpayers that is one thing. But if they are here on work visas and not causing any trouble a process should be developed to help them become citizens.

To deport Pineda back to Honduras causes our society more harm than good. Not only are the girls going to be separated from their mother, they also are having to move to Chicago to live with their dad. Certainly Marysville is a better place to grow up than Chicago.

By splitting up their family, the types of services that could be needed in the future to deal with their trauma could be huge. Why not just keep the family together and focus on those who are detrimental to our country?

Of course that would take common sense and that’s the problem with sense lately – it’s not common enough.

Pineda was denied a request to stay longer because there was no “urgent humanitarian or significant public benefit reason” to. They say it’s no different than many others.

OK folks. If that many people are being deported under similar circumstances then stop doing it. Stick to the bad guys. It’s not worth the expense, either for the deportation process or the trauma it causes families.

It also doesn’t make sense to send Pineda back to such a dangerous country. That’s not safe or smart.

The acronym ICE may sound like it has no heart, but it needs to get some and do its job with some humanity – and common sense.

Backseat coach: ICE melts our heart in favor of single M’ville mom