GROFF MEDIA 2024© TRUTH ENDURES IMDBPRO
Presented by benandsteve.com By: Benjamin Groff II©s
SENT BACK – OMAR’S STORY
(Fictional)
Omar Vasquez had never questioned his place in the United States. He was born in El Paso, Texas, to parents who traced their lineage back generations. His grandfather had fought in World War II. His father served in Vietnam. Omar himself had completed two tours in Iraq as a U.S. Marine. He had a college degree, a steady job, and a home he had just finished paying off.
But none of that mattered the day he was taken.
It happened suddenly, in the middle of an ordinary afternoon. Omar had just stepped out of a coffee shop when unmarked black SUVs screeched to a stop around him. Before he reacted, he was surrounded by men in tactical gear barking orders. Confused, he reached for his wallet to show his ID, but they were already on him. They forced his hands behind his back, zip-tied his wrists, and shoved him into a waiting vehicle. People on the sidewalk froze, watching in stunned silence.
“You got the wrong guy!”
He shouted.
“I’m a U.S. citizen! I was born here!”
His words went unheard.
Inside the detention center, the reality of his situation set in. The holding cells were packed with others—some looking just as confused as he was, others resigned to their fate. He saw fear in their eyes, exhaustion from what must have been days or weeks of uncertainty.
Guards ignored his questions, his demands for a phone call, and his requests to see an attorney. When he finally managed to speak with someone, they told him flatly:
“You’re undocumented. You are being processed for deportation.”
Omar laughed in disbelief.
“You’re joking, right? Check my records. My Social Security number. My military service. Call my family.”
The officer barely looked at him.
“If your family wants to go with you, they can do so. Otherwise, you’ll be deported alone.”
He was handed a packet of papers to sign. The papers were written in Spanish, a language he barely understood beyond a few pleasantries.
“I don’t speak Spanish. I only speak English,”
He said.
The officer raised an eyebrow.
“Sure you do.”
His family arrived with documents. They brought his birth certificate, his passport, his military discharge papers, and even photos of him in uniform. They pleaded, demanded, and argued, but every official they encountered dismissed them, saying the decision had been made.
“Mistakes happen,”
One agent told his mother.
“And mistakes can be corrected. But in this case, the process has already started. You can contest it from the other side.”
“The other side?”
His mother gasped.
“He has no other side. This is his home!”
His father, a quiet man who had seen combat and never flinched, broke down in helpless tears.
Despite everything, Omar was put on a plane.
Destination: Guatemala. It was a country he had never set foot in. He knew no one there. He didn’t speak the language. As the plane lifted, he looked out the window at the land he had fought for. This was the country he had called home his entire life. He wondered how many others had disappeared into this system. They were erased by the stroke of a bureaucratic pen. Their American identity was stripped away by nothing more than suspicion.
How many would ever make it back?
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