Francisco Aguirre fled El Salvador to save his life in the wake of the civil war there when he was a teenager. He has since become a much-loved labor organizer in Portland, where he lives with his wife and children. ICE is trying to send him back to El Salvador. His son was killed when he went back, and this is the fate that Francisco expects for himself if he is forced to return. On July 16th at 10 am he is scheduled to appear at ICE in Portland on Macadam, and we'll be there, too. unitedwithfrancisco.org
Francisco was born in the moments before
The bloodbath that became the Civil War
Most of his family fled to the north
As a teenager he set forth
Spent a year kidnapped by men
Who he hoped he’d never see again
He got out by any means that he could
Just as any other human being would
Like his namesake he wasn’t trying to find
Fortune was not on his mind
In Oregon soon was known to his neighbors
As a fighter for day laborers
To organize, for their rights
As human beings, believing despite
All the things they say in DC
No one is illegal in any country
And he has only served the people
No matter what they say
Francisco is our neighbor
And our neighbor he’ll stay
He faced consequences in kind
For being the sort who could not turn a blind
Eye on injustice, on suffering he
Saw among workers all over the city
No doubt among anyone, he was targeted
And when Ice came, he was deported
He didn’t wait to be shot dead
He came back to organize instead
Chorus
For his son, the pressure was too
Much to take, when he knew
DHS could come, hold him in a cell
A horrible fate he already knew well
So he decided he’d go back in the hope
He could live in Salvador, somehow cope
With the violence, but instead grief filled
Francisco’s heart, when his boy was killed
Chorus
His asylum case canceled despite
All the evidence supporting his right
To live in this world without being tortured
Somewhere where people are slaughtered
But such ideas now appear to be
Old-fashioned ones in the land of the free
They’d rob him from his children
Send him back to that country again
Chorus
