The Family Separation Business: Your Tax Dollars Hard at Work
Keeping America safe, one separated US family at a time.
One of the critical areas where our US tax dollars are hard at work is the business of separating American families.
It’s not pleasant, causes suffering—but hey, it’s critical to keeping America safe.
Note: Check out the ‘Dave Stories’ video that goes with this article.
How I Joined the Business
I’m especially interested in the “family separation business” because I’m in it.
I’ve been in this peculiar line of work since February 2022, when our two daughters moved from Alice Springs, Australia, to Florida, USA.
The sudden move came after they were told to take an experimental jab or lose their jobs—the now-familiar “No Jab, No Job” policy.
I told them, “You don’t have to put up with this bull$***! You’ve got US passports—you can leave.”
I continued, ‘You can live in our house in Florida. We’ll follow soon. Just gotta get mom’s green card renewed and we’ll be on our way.’
Delusion vs Reality
Yes, I had delusions. Delusions of getting out of the ‘family separation business’ quickly; delusions of getting a phone call from the US Consulate in Sydney, Australia with a friendly voice saying:
“Great news, your green card is ready for pickup.”
Delusions of being greeted by a US Immigrations official with a hot cup of coffee in one hand and a green card in the other saying:
“Welcome home. It’s great to have you back!”
And why not?
After all, my wife Marieta is a former green card holder; her card simply expired in 2003.
She’s a US taxpayer. We’ve filed joint tax returns every year since 1990 when we got married.
She’s the mother of our two US-born daughters—both born in Dayton, Ohio.
She’s a Florida property owner. She’s married to a US Air Force veteran.
I figured (with much delusion) once they take a look at our application, we’re in. It’ll be a slam dunk. We’ll be out of the ‘family separation business’ in no time. Six months, tops.
But, when delusion goes up against reality, reality wins every time. Reality rules and delusion drools.
The Long Wait
The reality: we’ve been in the family separation business for almost four years, and immigration tells us we still have a couple more years to wait.
‘Wait for what?’ you may ask. Good question. We’re waiting for a ‘decision.’ Not sure why it takes years to make a ‘decision’ but there must be a good reason. Right?
When I talk on the phone to my 93 year old mother, Lois, who lives in Nashville, and she asks, ‘When are you coming home?’
I reply, ‘We’re still waiting.’
Then she presses me, ‘Well, have you heard anything?’
‘No nothing.’
‘You’ve been at this for going on four years,’ she growls, ‘What’s taking them so long?’
‘I don’t know, Ma. We’re doing the best we can. Trying to follow the rules.’
Then she hits me with the emotional big-hammer, ‘Well, David, don’t take too long. I haven’t got too many years left and I’ll like to see you before I leave the planet.’
Here’s more reality. We could be in the family separation business forever. You see, US immigration has the authority to say, ‘Sorry about that, but your application is denied.’ Once they say that, we get to stay in the family separation business for life.
Ain’t it great?
I’ve Seen the Light
I used to be disappointed about being in the ‘family separation business’ but now I’ve seen the light. Having had four years to contemplate how such a ‘no-brainer’ case could take so long, I’ve come to the only logical conclusion - it has to take this long.
The process is playing out as designed. And the design is perfect.
Let me explain.
The Perfect Design
If you want to make sure people are properly vetted before entering the USA, you need a process—and it must be rigorous.
Watertight.
It must be overflowing with nonsense and never-ending red-tape to ensure no ‘shifty characters’ slip through.
And finally, the process must be identical for everyone.
No exceptions.
No taking into account special circumstances. No allowance for reviewing cases to see if they fall into the ‘no-brainer’ category.
It doesn’t matter if my wife is a former green card holder, a US taxpayer, a US property owner, married to a US veteran, and the mother of two US citizens. None of that matters.
Get in line pal with all the other suspects!
The Process Rules
What matters most - what matters above all - is the process. It must be followed, honored, obeyed—always. It takes precedence over everything else.
If American families are separated for years, or forever—well, too bad. The process has spoken. Critical thinking, independent analysis, and basic common sense must be discarded. Any disruption or deviation is unacceptable. The process must be allowed to march onward towards its useless, wasteful, magnificent conclusion.
I used to get angry and frustrated by this, but now I see it for what it is: perfect. It guarantees no ‘shifty-characters’ get through.
Sure, there’s collateral damage—the dragnet is so wide, indiscriminate, and destructive even the most obvious, no-brainer cases get trapped—but that’s the price we must pay. Keeping ‘infiltrators’ out is an expensive and nasty business, but worth every tax dollar I pay - and my wife pays - to fund this necessary and noble enterprise.
When it comes to US immigration, there’s one commandment: the process must be followed. Not streamlined. Not questioned. Not even understood. No - simply followed - faithfully and religiously, as if written on stone tablets and carried down from Mount Bureaucracy.
US families can be separated for years - sometimes for life - and the official response is, ‘That’s just how it works.’ Critical thinking? A threat. Independent judgement? Too dangerous. Common sense? A banned substance.
According to the ‘religion of bureaucracy,’ collateral damage is not evidence of failure, but rather, it’s evidence that the watertight, failsafe process is working as designed.
The process isn’t interested in reuniting US families. Instead, it prides itself on grinding applicants into fine bureaucratic dust. When the dust settles, the bureaucrats celebrate, ‘We did it! Another threat to the national security thwarted. Great job!’
And once again - Americans are safe.
The Price of Safety
The safety of the American people ain’t cheap. It takes resources. It takes our tax dollars working overtime to keep the ‘Family Separation Business’ in overdrive reaching maximum bureaucratic capacity.
There’s no other way. It has to be done. How else are we going to keep Americans safe?
It’s nothing personal. It’s policy.
The dutiful bureaucrats have their marching orders:
When it comes to the safety of the American people, we cannot and will not compromise. We’ll pay any price, bear any burden. Therefore, even if you’re a US citizen, US taxpayer, US veteran and your wife is a former US green card holder, a current US taxpayer, and the mother of your two US born daughters, you will receive the same mindless, third-degree, never-ending, bureaucratic brow-beating we provide for all our customers.
We’ll treat you with the same distain and distrust normally reserved for Cold War double agents.
By the time we’re done with you, our red-tape, meat-grinder will have you wishing you never heard the word ‘green-card.’ You’ll be begging us to take you off the ‘bureaucratic stretch rack.’
And, I get it. It has to be that way. Otherwise, too risky. The threat to national security, just too great.
Of course this top-level, distain and distrust is expensive. It requires an army of bureaucrats who have only one requirement: Keep requesting more and more meaningless paperwork - in triplicate - until the customer finally gives up or dies - whichever comes first.
By the way, bureaucrats are expensive.
Yes, the price to keep Americans safe is high. But so what, it’s worth every penny.
So what, if the process leaves US families broken—financially, emotionally, and spiritually—that’s the price of “safety.”
Makes sense to me.
When it comes to keeping Americans safe, there can be no compromise. Whatever the price tag, we must pay it.
Too Big to Fail
One thing is certain - the family separation business must be kept alive at all costs. It’s too big to fail. Too entrenched to question. Too inefficient to reform.
And, if it ever disappeared, thousands of government employees - who have spent decades perfecting the ancient and mystical craft of ‘requesting paperwork, misfiling paperwork, and waiting heroically for more paperwork’- would suddenly find themselves with no customers to torment.
That, my friends, isn’t just a threat to national security—it’s a direct assault on the sacred institution of government job security. And those are two risks no red-blooded American should ever be asked to endure.
And That’s the Business
And that’s the business we’re in - the family separation business.
And business is booming.
To find out more about our crazy ‘family separation’ story, read Chapter 10: ‘Lockout USA’ in my book, ‘Lockdown Australia: Pandemic of Madness.’
