Resist immigration polices on many fronts
The sheer ugliness of President Donald Trump’s immigration policy finally is receiving the coverage it deserves. The photograph of a crying 2-yearold girl, her mother being searched just before the two are separated, is seared into our collective brain.
The pain and suffering that is going on along the southern U.S. border is front and center, with officials so defensive that they are sending out statements that no, the children aren’t being caged, they are just behind wire enclosures.
This justification is horrifying in its attempt to obfuscate the truth: “These are not cages. They are enclosed spaces made with chain link fences.”
This outrage is necessary and right, so that citizens of this nation can force our leaders to change our immigration policy. We ask again, what do we do? There are more answers today than last week.
First is to demand that Trump stop separating families at the border. This has to be the immediate goal to end needless suffering. Next, of course, is to reunify families already affected — some 2,000 children have been placed in U.S. detention facilities as a result of the “zero-tolerance” policy. The government is even building a tent city near Tornillo, Texas, to house children. This is but one portion of our immigration challenges.
From 5:30 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, immigrant rights lawyer Allegra Love — director of the Santa Fe Dreamers project — will host an educational class on Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy at First Christian Church, 645 Webber St. The class is in English and a Spanish-language class is being organized; attendees are asked to email info@santafedreamersproject.org to let the group know who will attend.
Education is the key to understanding this complex issue.
Love, writing on Facebook, is honest about what is happening, tracing the roots to a 2014 crisis under President Barack Obama, when the administration began detaining families. Love wrote of a president she supported: “I know we all want to believe that [Obama] didn’t hurt immigrants and refugees but he did and it was as hard to deal with then as it is to hear now.”
To protest, resist and call for change, a lot must happen. Efforts need to take place legislatively, through donations and civil protest.
On the legislative front, there are immigration bills before Congress. The House will be debating the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, DACA, recipients — moderate Republicans have said they want to stop these young adults from being deported.
The catch is that both of the two bills under discussion — one more conservative and one moderate — also tighten standards for asylum, end the diversity visa and limit numbers allowed through family immigration. It’s unclear whether either has a chance to pass since Democrats oppose many of the provisions and Republicans may not have the votes to pass the legislation.
In the Senate, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has introduced a law designed to prevent family separations such as the ones occurring now. The key to any legislative success is for citizens to push Republican lawmakers to side with Democrats — the Senate bill currently has no GOP co-sponsors, and that is something pressure from voters could change.
Donations can go to groups working on the ground, whether providing supplies to refugees or to help pay for legal assistance. There are many ways to help out. What citizens must remember is they — we — are not helpless. Over the weekend, hundreds of people marched to Tornillo to protest Trump’s immigration policies. Many New Mexicans were on hand — the border city is just 40 miles from El Paso. Protesters showed up to let the president and the world know that these atrocities will not be done in our name. Widespread protest has and will again change bad policy. Trump could stop these detentions this minute, if only he would, and citizens can make that happen.
More broadly, the United States does need immigration policy reform. There needs to be security for DACA recipients, a path to citizenship for good people, even those who came here illegally, protection of asylum-seekers, dollars for border security and a less cumbersome system for people to come here in the first place.
Despite Trump’s nationalist, anti-immigrant policies, the United States is and always will be a nation where people come seeking refuge and better opportunities. We cannot let one man subvert American values.