The man I met during a late October visit to the Yuba County Jail has a kind face, wears glasses and has a neat, graying hairstyle. He was the third inmate I’ve met through a visitation program run by Faithful Friends, a group that arranges visits for immigrant detainees.
As a nurse, I know that anecdotal information does not make a truth. Yet, I’m struck by the similarities among the three men I’ve visited, and I see truth emerging through the presence of these castaway humans.
The first man I visited was in his 40s and facing deportation to Vietnam. He grew up in a two-parent home in a poor neighborhood and was bullied at school for being different.
Then, I met a young man from Kenya who also faces deportation. He came to the United States as a child with his mother to escape from severe and unrelenting domestic violence. He, too, had been bullied.