No room for humanity in Abbott’s policy

The tractor-trailer had become a hellish furnace. Dozens of bodies overwhelmed first responders.

“It was like nothing anybody had ever seen before,” San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said.

The survivors found in the back of the rig were “hot to the touch,” Fire Chief Charles Hood said. They were “too weak to get out and help themselves.”

But Texas Gov. Greg Abbott chose to frame this humanitarian crisis through a political lens.

“These deaths are on Biden,” he tweeted hours after the bodies were discovered June 27 on the outskirts of San Antonio. “They are a result of his deadly open border policies. They show the deadly consequences of his refusal to enforce the law.”

Before we focus on what Abbott said in the immediate aftermath of tragedy — one in which 53 people died — let’s focus on what he did not say.

He did not offer prayers for the people who died seeking a better life here. He did not offer condolences for their families. He did not acknowledge why immigrants might flee their home countries and entrust themselves to human smugglers at grave peril. He offered no recognition of their humanity.

Borders define nations, but humanity is transcendent and borderless.

That people would uproot and risk their lives to come here should be viewed as a blessing. In the United States, we are fortunate not to have to seek refuge in another nation.

In today’s politics, though, the far right frames immigration as a burden, an invasion that requires a militaristic and dehumanizing response. In reality, what the nation desperately needs is comprehensive reform, which includes security but also recognizes the humanitarian and economic reasons for immigration and the uplift that comes from a functioning system.

This brings us to the absurdity of Abbott’s tweet.

Yes, Biden has been hapless on border and immigration issues. But if the border were open, migrants would not take their chances with smugglers, trekking through the desert, wading across the Rio Grande or climbing into the back of tractor-trailers.

That people do take such risks is a byproduct of the broken immigration system Abbott exploits. Title 42, the Trump-era public health law used to circumvent asylum claims, has spurred the very border crossings Abbott decries. Why? Because, as Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior policy counsel with the American Immigration Council, told me in May, it carries no immigration consequences.

“The most likely outcome of an expulsion under Title 42 is simply going to be a bus ride back to Mexico, if you are caught. And that incentivized a lot of people to start crossing the border repeatedly, rolling the die every time,” he said.

If asylum-seekers could present themselves at the ports of entry, many of these dangerous, repeat crossings would eventually abate, he said.

To the degree Abbott has a defining “immigration policy,” it is one that amplifies deterrence and denies basic humanity — at

any cost.

This can be seen in Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, which has deployed more than 10,000 National Guard soldiers, as well as Department of Public Safety troopers to the border, and has cost some $4 billion.

Operation Lone Star, now under a Department of Justice investigation, has been plagued with pay issues and suicides among guardsmen. Many migrants, arrested on trespassing charges, have languished in detention without representation.

The lack of humanity — the pointlessness, suicides, alleged denial of civil liberties — is layered.

The hypocrisy — in April Abbott shifted mental health funding to support Operation Lone Star, which is plagued by suicides, and then in May sought to prioritize mental health care after the Uvalde massacre — is self-evident.

But perhaps Abbott’s denial of humanity is best crystallized in his response in May to the baby formula shortage.

“While mothers and fathers

stare at empty grocery store shelves in a panic, the Biden Administration is happy to provide baby formula to illegal immigrants coming across our southern border,” he said in a statement. “Our children deserve a president who puts their needs and survival first — not one who gives critical supplies to illegal immigrants before the very people he took an oath to serve.”

The babies, of course, are in federal custody and have to be fed. Once again, we see an othering of people, denying the inherent humanity of immigrant children while framing immigrants as taking something away (in this case formula) from American citizens.

I am reminded of Matthew 25:34-36:

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

On Thursday, Abbott, citing the deaths of 53 immigrants

here and responding to rhetoric of an “invasion,” issued an executive order for Texas National Guard soldiers and DPS troopers to arrest immigrants for violating federal law and return them to the ports of entry.

Immigration is a federal issue, not a state one. And while this order might push that question, it also carries potential legal risk for the guardsmen and troopers, just as the rhetoric of invasion stokes anti-immigrant sentiment.

Immigration does not begin and end at the border, which is why a political response focused on deterrence fails. That’s not to say that border security isn’t a crucial piece of comprehensive reform. It certainly is.

But solely focusing on deterrence will never address the root causes of immigration — the push and pull factors that inspire people to take enormous personal risks in search of opportunity and safety. To not see this — to frame a humanitarian crisis through a political lens — is to invite more tragedy.

Eric Gay/Associated Press “It was like nothing anybody had ever seen before,” San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said after dozens were found dead. What Gov. Greg Abbott did not say was telling.