You underestimate the reality of deportation. If you saw something vague, of only possible import, and you step forward to share that; you are risking losing your entire family, your home, your children, your job, your whole life. That is a HUGE DEAL for a “maybe”.
ICE just came into NJ this week to make a big show of aggressive arrests. They locked up the father of Noema’s unborn child for his immigration status. This is a VERY BIG DEAL. Asking someone to give up literally everything they hold dear in life, including their own children, to share something that may or may not even be helpful or relevant, is a VERY big deal.
It’s unfair to ask someone to sacrifice their family for someone else’s. Would you give up your child’s safety and security for the possibility that another child might be found? What if what you said turned out to be useless but your child’s safety and security (and yours and that of your whole family) was now gone anyway, simply because you spoke up?
It would be one thing if you knew FOR SURE what you had to say would save this child. But still, asking a parent to sacrifice their own child’s safety for the possibility that another child might be helped is a nearly impossible ask. Asking a parent to sacrifice their own child’s safety and security to ABSOLUTELY help another child is STILL a big ask.
The only way LE could’ve avoided this problem effectively would’ve been to proactively offer some sort of protective custody or witness protection for anyone who came forward. They should’ve done that BEFORE the stepfather of the missing girl was arrested by ICE. In my opinion, that was the last hope for community witness cooperation. After that happened, there would be no real community witnesses no matter what the reward was. Unless the reward was guaranteed instant citizenship, eye witnesses were done coming forward at that point. I said it then and I don’t think that’s changed.
I’m proud of NJ for taking a stand to protect immigrant witnesses (making communities safer) but clearly more must be done. This is a prime example of how dangerous it can be for a community when immigrants feel unsafe talking to LE about crimes they have seen or heard about. It’s so frustrating.
