I recently drove a friend about an hour to an appointment at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in Maine. We waited half an hour in a cold parking lot with about 20 other immigrants only to be told to return another day.

The ICE officers were brief, if not dismissive. They came out of the warm building, quickly took people’s papers, and went back inside. When they returned, they issued a fast instruction of what was next for the waiting individual, leaving some, especially those who didn’t speak English, in confusion.

Maybe they’re overworked — their desks piled high with regulations and documents. Maybe there’s no room or enough staff inside that large building for people to at least sit down and have a proper appointment.

But in that parking lot I witnessed patient, tired human beings, who had fled their homes in fear for their lives, only, when finally getting here, to face months of detention, more months waiting for a work permit, years waiting for an asylum hearing, and now a loud threat of deportation.

It may well be time to forget about “great.” Let’s just try to make America “humane” again.

Cathy Wolff
Kittery