Purpose in print

Every now and then when things seem to get a rut, things get busy again at work. And usually in those moments something gives me a boost. Almost always that boost comes from knowing that there was purpose to my job that day.
No other time in my professional career, have I probably felt such purpose than this week.
A former Spain Park track and field captain named Imad Mohammad, 18, and his mother spent five days in the LaSalle Detention Facility in Jena, La. They had been in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody since Jan. 12. I learned of the story this past Monday, three days after they were taken from the Perry County (Ala.) Jail to LaSalle.
While yes, here is a family who is here illegally after their visitation visa expired in the 1990s, they have been appealing their request for asylum for more than a decade, working, paying taxes, getting involved in their community and local school and living a clean, American life. All of a sudden, they were picked up by ICE - nine years after they were told they'd be deported.
While the Immigration Board of Appeals will decide what happens to the family, it was still our job to report what the family and lawyers were seeing as injustice - being detained all of a sudden by the government, while knowing that they had no country to send the family to.
On Wednesday afternoon, that purpose moment came when Imad and his mother were released after an inquiry by U.S. Congressman Spencer Bachus.
The words of encouragement and thank yous coming from the family and friends of the family are better than any award that can be won for a story. Hearing a father say through tears, "You brought a mom home to her children again," leaves you speechless.
Not only has this week brought a renewed sense of humanity to the father of the family and teachers at Spain Park, but hopefully to Imad, who was beginning to believe that he can not trust anyone in this world. Trust is exactly what he needs to have in his family, friends and government - even if by law it is not his government yet.
Here are the stories so far from this week.

1/28 - Mohammads released from jail

1/26 - Former Spain Park runner faces deportation