Trump capitulates, but trouble remains
What our government is doing to families entering the country along the southern border — taking thousands of children from their parents — is despicable. It is also the inevitable outcome of years of xenophobic immigration policy and rhetoric.
The images, sounds, and stories of children being separated from parents and family members should break the heart of any feeling human. It’s the direct result of the Trump Administration’s zero-tolerance policy that arrests and prosecutes even asylum seekers.
Enormous harm has been done that requires remediation as well as accountability for those responsible. Trump’s hastily arranged executive order will likely face complications and pushback because it leaves in place the zero-tolerance policy and runs afoul of the Flores Settlement.
That settlement was an instance of the federal courts slapping down an Obama-era policy that saw migrant families locked up in detention facilities together. It ordered that children whose parents are detained be placed with a close relative or family friend “without unnecessary delay,” as opposed to being kept in custody and that those who are in custody be in “the least restrictive conditions” possible. It does not mandate that children be taken from parents immediately and regardless of the situation, as Trump policy dictated.
After weeks of claims that there was no such policy of family separation, and that it was the Democrats fault, Trump’s new executive order would allow families to be locked up together — but indefinitely. It will almost certainly be met with a legal challenge. Beyond that, it fails to address the poison at the core of American immigration policy: We treat all migrants as suspects, feed them into a system of mass incarceration, and often throw legitimate asylum seekers back into violent situations that have led to deaths.
Our broken immigration system and deportations have helped create the very gangs now driving families out of places like Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Trump’s favorite bogeyman, the rightly notorious MS-13 gang, was formed mostly by youths fleeing violent civil war in El Salvador, then run by a Reaganbacked right-wing military government.
The situation is the result of decades of both Democrat and Republican attitudes toward immigration. The current crisis at the border is the natural progression of a long-fraught approach that’s largely been fueled by misinformation, distrust and racism.
It didn’t start with Trump. The Obama administration was rightly criticized for its increased use of deportation. Further back, ICE was a creation of the Bush Administration’s newly formed Department of Homeland Security, an entire government office birthed of the post-9/11 anti-foreigner/ immigrant, “War on Terror” frenzy.
We need a new approach to immigration. To start, we should repeal laws criminalizing illegal entry and reentry, or at least bar the prosecution of asylum-seekers. Provide a clearer path to citizenship, with more training and funding for good immigration judges and lawyers. Reinstate DACA and support Dreamers.
People seeking a better life, willing to undertake the enormously stressful and often dangerous process of uprooting and moving to an unfamiliar place, to work hard to overcome the barriers placed in their way ... those are the folks who make America truly great.
When faced with these problems, and the horrific actions of our own government, we have to ask ourselves: What kind of country do we want to be?
Emily Mills is a freelance writer who lives in Madison.