It’s going to be a long post..

Today as I sat at my dads gravesite, I couldn’t help but to feel sooo sad.. but mostly mad. But not at him, mad at the fact that he’s not here, mad that he wanted to be home so bad, and that this is the only way he was allowed back. I don’t talk about anything because it all brings so much pain and heartache, but I also can’t sit by and and act like what was done to him was right. My dad was in a very bad car accident in Tijuana, was unconscious but was still responsive, we started the process to get him across the border for the care he needed and deserved since he was a U.S veteran as soon as we could. We spent most of our days checking, calling, trying to get information on how he could get across. They said the only way was to take him to the border to ask for him to get care, roll him out of the ambulance while he’s unconscious and on breathing tubes to get fingerprinted and wait for possibly HOURS for immigration to make a decision on whether he could cross or not, and nothing was guaranteed. It was not guaranteed that a U.S Marine Corp veteran that was in very critical condition could cross to the country that he served for to get the care that he needed. Even though I had his California ID, his U.S veteran ID, and his DD214. The hospital in Mexico never had a set diagnosis for my dad, they kept going back and forth with what was wrong with him and his condition. Meanwhile the United States, the country he fought for was doing NOTHING to get my dad across for care. My dad was in the hospital in Mexico for 2 weeks, the most exhausting, frustrating, and stressful two weeks I have EVER been through, all while pregnant. And in those two weeks the U.S still did nothing! Nothing to help him, nothing to help us, nothing for a former Marine that if anyone knew him, knew he was a proud American. Even though he was an “illegal immigrant” he never hated this country, even though it turned its back on him. So finally after 2 weeks that seemed like an eternity, I received a call from a woman that was really sent from the angels, Sally. She worked at the border and said that she was going to allow for my dad to cross over to the U.S but that time was not on my side so to get him across as soon as possible. She was right, time wasn’t on my side. At the USCD trauma center they started working on him immediately. Did more for him in the first 4 hours he was there than Mexico did for him in two weeks.. but it was too late. By that point my dad was considered brain dead, there was absolutely nothing else we could do for him. Why? Because the U.S found it appropriate to wait that long to allow him to cross over, if he would have been allowed back before my dad would 100% still be here. But it’s all ok, because he was given a proper service member burial on a VA national cemetery. This country not only turned its back on my dad, but it also turned its back on me and my family. Yes, my dad made a mistake over 12 years ago that got him deported.. but he didn’t deserve this. We didn’t deserve this, so while everyone celebrates this “amazing” country.. all I can think about is how it didn’t give me an opportunity at a life with my dad. How it abandoned me and my family when we needed it the most. My dad wasn’t allowed home while alive but was allowed to be buried in a VA cemetery.. no one else finds a problem with that? #Merica