cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/43460008

Abdellatif Hafraoui sits at a small dining table in the Bayonne apartment he shares with his wife, Sandra, sipping his morning coffee — a ritual unchanged over their 15 years of marriage.

Since August, however, that routine has been shadowed by months in ICE detention and the black ankle monitor now strapped around his leg.

The arrest forced Sandra to reconsider assumptions she had long held about immigration enforcement. “To think we were MAGA!,” Sandra proclaimed. The couple even attended a Trump rally in Las Vegas in 2020.

Sandra voted for Trump three times, believing enforcement would focus on people with criminal records — not individuals like her husband.

Asked what she would say to him now, she paused. “You said you were going after the worst of the worst, but instead you ruined our life,” she said.

  • KeenFlame@feddit.nu
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    7 hours ago

    Are you the only ones ever in the history of man that were in the faschist protected elite group they will not target and kill? no? Then the leopards may feast

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    Seeing the results after a year, voting for Trump should be considered treason. So they actually went after a criminal.

  • chillpanzee@lemmy.ml
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    1 day ago

    This story warms my heart. It’s pretty rare that someone gets exactly what they voted for.

    Can’t wait for the sequel where he gets deported and has his GoFundMe scam money stolen.

  • Optional@lemmy.worldOP
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    2 days ago

    Sandra voted for President Trump three times, believing enforcement would focus on people with criminal records — not individuals like her husband.

    . . . Since his release, Abdellatif has been required to attend ICE check-ins and live under electronic monitoring. He cannot return to work.

    In addition to the $15,000 bond, the couple estimates they have spent about $50,000 in legal fees to date, draining savings built over decades. They have launched a GoFundMe [link removed because fuck that] to help cover ongoing costs.

    “We just want to be treated like people with rights,” Sandra said. “Not as problems to be managed.”

    TL;DR: Learned nothing, will continue to vote cult til they die.

  • aramis87@fedia.io
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    2 days ago

    “We just want to be treated like people with rights,”

    If there is one person without rights, then nobody has rights. But I’m not sure you’re smart enough to learn that lesson.

  • manxu@piefed.social
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    2 days ago

    I can forgive a lot of things in life, but someone over 30 (so of voting age during Trump’s first campaign and presidency) with an Arab-sounding name cheering for the guy whose Very First Act In Office was a blanket ban on visits from a lot of Muslim countries is a special kind of dumb.

    It’s not even LeopardsAteMyFace territory. It’s, “This guy already said he hates my guts, so I am totally voting for him because this time it’s going to be different.”

      • Drusas@fedia.io
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        2 days ago

        They are the Hafraouis. The man is Abdellatif Hafraoui. So, yes, they both have Arab-sounding names, one moreso than the other.

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          The point is that the person doing the voting was the white American wife named Sandra, not the immigrant as the parent commenter implied. The parent commenter’s statement…

          It’s not even LeopardsAteMyFace territory. It’s, “This guy already said he hates my guts, so I am totally voting for him because this time it’s going to be different.”

          …wasn’t accurate because she, the voter, wasn’t the one whose guts Trump hated (at least not more than he hates everybody).

  • Bakkoda@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    “I voted for a criminal who said he was gonna go after criminals. I don’t know what went wrong.”

    Some day scholars will have figured it out. Until then a mystery it shall remain.

    • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
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      20 hours ago

      generally speaking, people do file the proper paperwork if it doesn’t put them at immediate risk of expulsion back to whatever they were fleeing in the first place (which is the most common outcome of applying for legal residency after “illegally” “crossing” the “border”). once you file the paperwork the usual turnaround time to get legal residency or citizenship is 10-15 years.

      • My mom got citizenship at around 5 years after getting legal permanent residency, you can send the paperwork like 3-6 months before the 5 year mark and they process it as soon as you are eligible.

        I thonk the test happened right after the 5 year msrk and the Oath ceremony is like 1 month after I think.

        This was during Obama Admin

        I was a minor at the time so I automatically got citizenship from my mother

        As for green card visas, yes that took like more than a decade, the petition for my parents started before I was even born. But for citizenship is usually 5 years of legal permanent residency.

        The article said he lived in the country for like a few decades, and he applied for naturalization 10 years before… why didnt he finish the process? Kinda confused… not trying to victim blame, just confused…

        The only reason why you couldn’t go through with it is if your English isn’t good enough or if you can’t memorize test questions… like my dad (👀 uh oh… hope he doesn’t run into ICE)

        but this dude married a US Citizen so this implied he does speak English with enough proficiency to pass the interviews.

        So I’m confused af

        I wish there were more info, these articles always lack the full picture.

  • Optional@lemmy.worldOP
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    2 days ago

    The pic is choice:

    Sandra and Abdellatif were staunch supporters of President Donald Trump. They even flew to Las Vegas to attend a Trump rally in 2020.

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Conservative Media: “Trump is arresting all the criminals. Here are some of the (AI generated) criminals Trump has recently arrested. Aren’t you glad these people are no longer in the United States?”

    Conservative Voters: “Wow, great job, I love this news”

    Actual ICE official: incoherent screaming at your husband

    Subset of Conservative Voters Experiencing This Personally: “This is not what the TV told me would happen”

    Now I guess we get to find out if the subset is big enough to shift the elections, despite CBS getting added to the pile of reactionary propaganda.

        • TryingSomethingNew@sopuli.xyz
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          2 days ago

          I don’t know if you should read that much into it, other than that for once there are multiple viable Democrats in a primary. I personally wish Crockett and Talarico weren’t running against each other, so that they could focus on Cornyn/Paxton/Hunt instead , though to both parties’ credit they are not running negative campaigns.

          But yes, the local repubs are calling it an existential threat to Christ-fearin’ ‘muricans, and how if they get in power there will be Sharia law and cats and dogs living together, etc

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            I personally wish Crockett and Talarico weren’t running against each other, so that they could focus on Cornyn/Paxton/Hunt instead

            The GOP is having its own night of the long knives. I wouldn’t lose too much sleep.

            But yes, the local repubs are calling it an existential threat to Christ-fearin’ ‘muricans, and how if they get in power there will be Sharia law and cats and dogs living together, etc

            It’s a powerful message. Just ask NYC Mayor Andrew Cuomo

    • HazardousBanjo@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      These stupid assholes will never change their minds.

      This dumb cunt and her husband will both immediately go back to supporting Trump tomorrow.

  • PugJesus@piefed.social
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    2 days ago

    Sandra voted for Trump three times

    Don’t worry, once 2028 rolls around, she’ll vote for him a fourth time.