My ‘thank you’ to Dallas benefactor for helping the Yourdkhanis

In my earlier post about the arrival in Toronto of the Yourdkhani family, I was not aware of the huge thanks due to Ralph Eisenberg, a Dallas property manager who has never met the family but decided to help after reading about their plight. He covered the $1,000 (U.S.) needed for travel permits while also offering to pay the legal fees of the family’s Canadian lawyers.

I had no time this morning to read about Ralph Eisenberg’s wonderful help with getting the Yourdkhani family back to Canada. My home-delivered paper copy of today’s Toronto Star (March 22) lay unread on my kitchen table. When I finally had time to peruse the paper, I came across this article way back on page A16. Subsequently, a commenter here also alerted me about Mr. Eisenberg’s beneficence.

Mr. Ralph Eisenberg, I would like to offer you my sincere, heartfelt — if somewhat belated — “thank you”! Your very kind gesture helped end a little boy’s and his parents’ living nightmare and gave them renewed hope for a better life. You are an exceptional human being! I wish you success in all your endeavours, especially with the huge undertaking of trying “to get all the kids out of the T. Don Hutto detention facility and force officials to shut it down.”

Our world would be a much gentler, kinder, better place if there were more people of means who followed your example.

…
In Dallas, a wealthy property manager who helped spring the family from prison without ever meeting them, said yesterday: “I’m so happy. I pray to God that Canadians welcome that family home. Now it’s on to the next family.”

Ralph Isenberg, 55, who said he has suffered his own immigration nightmare over the status of his Chinese wife, has vowed to get all the kids out of the T. Don Hutto detention facility and force officials to shut it down.

“The conditions are atrocious,” Isenberg told Canadian Press from Dallas. “When I see an injustice where I can do something, I step right in. I’m not afraid of these bastards. To hell with ‘em.”

Isenberg got involved after reading about Kevin Yourdkhani’s plight and covered the $1,000 (U.S.) needed for travel permits while also offering to pay the legal fees of the family’s Canadian lawyers.

He says the U.S. Immigration Control Enforcement is out of control. “They need to be put out of business.

“(They’re) creating terrorists of the future by jailing kids 9 or 10 or 15 years old.”

A colourful, blunt-speaking individual, Isenberg tears up when discussing how detainees are treated by authorities.

“I’ve seen the faces of the children who’ve been in there. Those kids are damaged goods,” he said.

“I may not have been in prison, but I certainly know what this government is capable of doing to anyone and everyone.

“If we do this to foreign nationals, it’s going to be us next.”

Read this Toronto Star article: Toronto welcomes detainees