(Nov 17, 2025) I grew up near Pakistani refugee kids for half the time before we moved to America. Sometimes we'd play football in their small concrete courtyard, get it stuck on their neighbor's shanty roof, and stick 25 cent Spiderman toys to the ceiling. One would ask if we knew "the American zombie" and we'd say no cuz most American culture's too satanic for mom, and then he'd roll his eyes back into his head and chase us around like that somehow.

We first met them in Istanbul and learned of how their niche religious faction had to flee persecution in Pakistan, then they left cuz of some shit with our Mafia landlord and we assumed we'd never see them again. Then, when we decided to move to Gaziantep, we found out they just happened to have moved literally down the street from our apartment. I remember two of their adult kids helping carry a couch up the stairs to our floor.

We moved away to Germany and Macedonia, then to America after too much respective government beef. And once again assumed our only contact would be Facebook. Then, we randomly found out one day that, after over a decade of knowing us, and of incomprehensible Turkish and American legal bullshit, they sucessfully immigrated to Texas. Two of them drove up to see us again. One of the kids from earlier's studying art now and my parents were worried he wanted to marry my sister when they talked, lol.

Whenever they come up, my dad repeats that Trump won't deport them after everything they've been through to get here. Trump won't deport them Trump won't deport them. Not all of them know English, and dad pushes them to learn, but it sounds like lots of circumstances seem to have led to them complacently falling into recent immigrant communities where it's not required.

My off the cuff reactions to border issues are hyperwoke cuz of my past. Apparently they're now moving from Texas to a rural town in Indiana, all white except for them, cuz they found a really big and cheap fixer-upper there. Maybe its easier to hide from things that far out. I hope so.