Some of us Schuylkill Countians probably shuddered at reports of masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents swarming on foreign-born people and, regardless of their legal status, shipping them to harsh detention centers (a nicer-sounding term than “prisons”).
There may also have been sighs of relief that such cruelty and intimidation weren’t happening here — until ICE picked up a Pottsville resident who’s spent half of his 32 years, including his entire adult life, in the U.S. since he and his family arrived from Mexico in 2009.
According to a detailed report in the Pottsville Republican Herald, Ruben Rojas-Vargas was in the county courthouse on May 30 to begin 25 days of house arrest for a DUI. But instead of staying home with an ankle bracelet, he’s three hours away in Clearfield County at Moshannon Valley ICE Processing Center, a for-profit facility facing multiple accusations of abuse and neglect.
Immigration is one of our country’s most complex and controversial issues, and this case is no exception.
Social media has been rife with both warm expressions of support and hateful calls for deportation – even though Rojas-Vargas is here legally.
There’s no question that he broke the law, and we’re all aware of the property damage, injuries, deaths and heartbreak that intoxicated drivers can cause when they take to the road.
But how many of us can really point fingers? I can’t. When I was in my late teens and twenties, I was lucky I didn’t get pulled over or cause an accident after an evening of partying. If I had, I would have deserved whatever punishment the law called for, and Rojas-Vargas did admit his guilt and accept his sentence.
Immigration authorities and keyboard warriors alike should realize there’s more to him than his DUI.
Not only is he employed at Fratello’s Bistro, a Pottsville eatery that his older brother Pablo owns, but until his fateful court date, he also operated a car detailing business in Orwigsburg.
To help his case, 60 people lined up at the restaurant on Wednesday to offer letters testifying to Rojas-Vargas’ good character and service to the community.
Family friend Kevin Medina checked each writer’s ID and notarized the documents after making sure they included contact information. “It was like being at the DMV,” he said. “There were people from all walks of life – conservatives and liberals.”
Supporters also took to social media to describe Rojas-Vargas as a hard worker who is always ready to help someone in need and has donated freely to various causes, often without being asked.
Despite some bad choices, he’s obviously nothing like the “bloodthirsty criminals” whom Donald Trump tried to lead us to believe would be the target of his massive deportation effort.
Nor are many other detainees, some documented and some not, who include car wash employees, the owners of a popular South Jersey kebab shop, farm workers and international graduate students.
But baselessly demonizing nearly all immigrants, especially those of color, has been a favorite talking “point” for Trump since he descended an escalator in 2015 to announce his presidential run. His allies eagerly joined in the hate speech, which to some extent has helped them deflect attention from their greed, power grabs and failures.
Apparently, this crew’s position is that the only good foreigners are white South Africans, whose families had benefited from apartheid for generations.
Whites are only 7% of the country’s population but own more than 70% of its land. Nevertheless, Trump has deemed them refugees and rolled out the red carpet while closing programs for genuine refugees who fear for their lives.
Meanwhile, immigrants who’ve made it here, learned English, toiled at jobs that few if any Americans want and revitalized many towns now find themselves in the government’s cross-hairs.
“We came here for the opportunity for a better way of life,” Pablo Rojas-Vargas said. “We pay taxes. I don’t mind. It shows I’m part of something.”
Lisa Von Ahn is an experienced columnist previously published in the Pottsville Republican Herald newspaper.
Canary note: Opinions expressed in any Op-Ed column appearing on this site are the views of the writer and are not necessarily the opinions of Coal Region Canary.
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Josephine
June 9, 2025 at 6:06 am
Thank you for spelling out the truth. It was never about deporting the worst of the worst. It is about doing what is easiest. It is a shame what is happening in our country.