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I have nothing but disdain for Trump and I know the immigration policies in this country are abysmal. I saw it first hand when I worked for a USCIS call center.

The thing is though, you've done nothing here but give those who support Trump fuel for the "Fake news" fire and hurt your own cause. Your opening comment, once proven... I'll be generous and say "ambiguously true", undermined every word you've had to say after.

I would cut bait, delete this post, and try again with some sense of responsibility for upholding the truth and with a bit of journalistic integrity.

You don't help those you're seemingly trying to protect by using their pain as a smear campaign for a man who needs no help in looking like a moron and a petty idiot. You can tell this story without hiding who started the policies and then pointing out that it's worsened, if true that it has, or stayed the same. It's still a terrible situation, again, if true. You've made me doubt everything you've had to say... see how trust works? Once it's broken, even those who support your ideology don't believe you.

You have to be better than this.

Edit: I genuinely thought this comment was going to get blasted with downvotes and "cuck" comments. I am so pleasantly surprised and very grateful, especially for the gold. Thanks. (Also, I turned off inbox replies as soon as I posted this because I didn't want to hear all the hate. I apologize for not replying to any of you nice people because of that. I'll try to do that now.)

I worked at a gas station in a very low-income level area of Kentucky. One of the girls who worked at my store would be visited by her boyfriend on her shifts. He would play a little bit here and there on the scratchers when he came in.

What she didn't know is that he would come in when she wasn't there and go fucking hog on those things. I mean, like, bad. The worst was when I saw him put in well over a hundred dollars, I know they couldn't afford. The miracle? He gets an $800 winner. He then played more. He left there with, I shit you not, zero dollars.

Not a single goddamned penny.

I had a makeshift intervention with him before he left. (Something I wouldn't normally do. As I am not some morally superior person that feels that people's vices are all mine to correct and Lord knows I have my own that are no one else's fucking business. It's just that, in this one instance, I saw a guy who was foundering. He was right at that moment where he might be saved a lot of pain and heartache, and I genuinely cared about him and his girlfriend by this point. I thought it was worth the effort and time and possible consequences, as well as my silence not being worth the guilt I would feel if I did nothing.)

"Man, what were you wanting to do here?"

"I don't know man, I thought I could win big..."

"You did win big though. Do you know how many people come in here and win nothing? Some spend well over what you spent here tonight. They would each one be ecstatic if they got that much money. I don't want to tell you what to do, it's not really my business, but do you think that was the best thing you could have done?"

"Well... no... but I just couldn't help myself, really. I kept thinking that the huge jackpot was the next one. I couldn't leave knowing that it was in there. I was playing with won money, it's not the same as playing with money you come in with. What if I had won?"

"Then you would be the first person here to win more than a thousand bucks."

"I couldn't walk away man. I just couldn't..."

"... and do you think that might be signs you're having trouble you might need to talk to your girl about?"

"No! Fuck no! I can't tell her what I did! She would fucking leave me immediately. Please, I know you work with her but please, please, don't tell her."

"I want you to think about something for me, please. You've now asked someone to lie for you, lie to cover up something you just admitted you had trouble with being able to control. Do you not think that might be a sign that there is something going on here? Do you think that's a fair position to put me in?

Look, I try and be honest as much as I possibly can, sure I fail at it a lot, but either way you've now made me have to choose between getting you in trouble with your live-in girlfriend slash fiancee, who is home right now with your kids, and lying to a girl I work with 4 days a week. Which means that if I get caught lying to her, my work life is going to be fucking miserable. Especially if it's to cover for her boyfriend, who happens to be gambling money away from her kids. That's really not a cool thing to do to someone.

Here's what I'm willing to do for you though. I'm not going to go out of my way to tell her. I promise you I won't but I'm not going to lie for you. If she asks me for the truth of what I saw you spend I'll have to tell her. Not because I'm an asshole or anything but because if I don't and she loses her house or her kids because you took money from her to go gamble, I'll never forgive myself. I'm doing you a favor I probably shouldn't, by not going out of my way to tell her, if I'm being honest.

It would honestly be so much better if you just told her yourself, that you needed help, and to help maintain the finances and watch what you spend. Sure, she'll be upset if she hears you say what you'd spent but if it comes with a genuine commitment to get help, it will be a whole lot better. Sure, you'll have to fight the itch and will feel embarrassed but if she hears it second hand from me after she had to ask, she'll leave you. I can't know for sure but you have to assume it, right?

Think about all the reasons she'll have. You're not willing to talk to her, you're being dishonest with her, and you're taking resources she needs away for her kids. Man, that's the trifecta of "Get the fuck out of my life." don't ya think? I can't make you do that. I just hope you do. For both of your sakes.

You're good kids and you deserve each other and to be happy. Don't ruin it for something like this. You're better than that."

He sat there for a long, long time. Almost until my shift ended and the store closed. He wasn't pissed at me, he was really a good guy, and I tried very hard to keep any judgemental or condescending tones from my voice. I was trying to be factual not "I'm better than you!" I told him to take his time, weigh the pro's and con's and make a decision that he thought was right and what he wanted. He tapped on the table three times, stood up, nodded at me, and went out the door. It was clear from the look on his face that he'd made the right call.

The next day his girlfriend came into work and didn't seem the least bit upset, or yell at me, so I thought, "He's a good man, he addressed the problem, and now she's forgiven him. Good for them. Way to adult!"

He had decided to go to a different 24-hour store and buy tickets, after going home and taking money out of her purse.

Two or so weeks after that incident happened, she asked me. I'd not known about him going to the other store until then. When I found out what he'd done, I told her everything I'd seen him spend on which days and how much I'd seen him win and replay. I never mentioned my plea for him to get help or tell her but I didn't hold a thing back otherwise. I told her it wasn't my place to step in the middle by ratting him out and luckily she understood. I didn't tell her about the "intervention" because it wouldn't help her feel any better and would only feel like me trying to look good.

They split up. She took her kids and went to her Mom's place for a while and then got back on her feet. Dude kept spiraling until he had no one left to beg, borrow or steal from. I know I didn't do the right thing or handle it correctly. I should probably have said something to the girl immediately if I was going to get involved or even just said something about it out of the way as if I didn't know it wasn't something she knew already. "Wow, I bet your BF feels like a dumbass? Putting $100 in the machine, getting an $800 winner! Then losing that 800! Wow, that still hurts even thinking about it." It might have assuaged my guilt and given her the truth she needed without putting me in the middle of something and made my work life a living Hell beyond a simple "boneheaded" statement.

It's untelling the financial crater he could, and probably did, leave in her life. It could have been worse if she didn't find out so soon after my ultimatum to him. I still feel very guilty over that. The girl and I weren't romantically compatible. Just in case you think I was trying to sabotage the guy and "smash" with the girl. She was out of my age range, not really that attractive to me, and based on the BF I'm talking about, I was not likely her type either.

I was simply trying to do something helpful for a couple of people I liked and hoped would work it out. I hate that I couldn't.

Jesus Christ! I just did the "Have I been pwned" and used all three of my primary email addresses. All three were subject to being breached. One of them twice. WTF internet!

It's one of those things that's literally the least and the most you can do at the same time. (If that makes sense) It's the fear we all have. Alone and scared, knowing your life is slipping away and not a soul around to speak to, confide in, or just hold your hand. /u/rakki9999112's father did a gloriously brave thing. As most of us realize that holding the hand of a dying man is something that will stick with us forever. That it is going to be painful and in some cases dangerous. Yet, he did it anyway. It would be so easy and understandable to throw up your hands and say, "It's not my problem." to protect yourself emotionally.

I have a ton of respect for anyone who does the hard thing because it's the right thing. Who looks at injustices and says, "I can't fix it but I can do something." It's the best part of humanity in my mind.

I didn't do anything. You did it and if I did play any part in your desire to get help, even if it's only desire right now, then you couldn't be more welcome. I, too, am in recovery. You beat the fucking hell out of that shit man. You beat it till it's a bloody puddle on the goddamned ground. Then you piss on its old bones every day. Because YOU FUCKING CAN! Do you hear me? Fuck that life. Do what works for you but you own that mother fucker! Live again. Live.