Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has taken Nick, one of the barbers at Frank’s Barber Shop at the Oak Park Arms, into custody and sent him to an Indiana facility. He sits in a jail cell while his family scrambles to prevent his deportation.
From Albania for at least 20 years, his name is Besnik Shembitraski. He has been at the Oak Park Arms location for more than 12 years and takes care of many of that facility’s older residents and walk-ins from surrounding neighborhoods. He has cut my grandson’s and my hair for the past 12 years. He lives with his wife and 8-year-old daughter in Schiller Park. They recently purchased a new home.
This is an outrage!
We have been told repeatedly that ICE is taking “the worst of the worst” for deportation. Actually, they are taking the “best of the best” immigrants. They are apprehending law-abiding, taxpaying, upright people to increase their deportation numbers. This is to satisfy Stephen Miller, architect of this despicable program who has a direct channel into Donald Trump’s brain. No due process, no bail, just rotting in jail. The more cruelty and meanness used, the better.
What is the result?
A partnership with his uncle Frank disrupted; a family broken up; their home probably lost and destroyed economically.
What as a country have we gained? Nothing — Nick is just a number.
Charles Chauncey Wells
Oak Park