I did not have the experience that I hear many of my fellow community members did. I wasn't distraught about it, I wasn't timid about it. It wasn't gloom and doom for me because I was educated.
ICE Barbie was backed into another perjury corner after Rep. Dan Goldman (D-New York) her to confirm that immigrants with ongoing asylum cases are here legally. (As she affirmed, they are.) "If your department deports anyone with an ongoing asylum application, you are violating the law," Goldman then said. "But the problem that we are seeing around the country is that you are not following the law." Ouch.
Most of our family's income comes from federal funds. My husband and I both have military retirement checks, and he's a federal civilian. Our retirement pensions are not affected by the government shutdown, but my husband's paycheck is. We're on day 37 without his income, and honestly, it's surreal. While our retirements and my job will get us through, the loss of a paycheck has prompted some adjustments in our spending.