If you can call a person “illegal,” then you can begin to
take away their human rights.
This has been happening for years to adults who trek through
the unforgiving desert, crossing from Mexico into the United States without
inspection. When Border Patrol agents apprehend these crossers, they often
strip them of their jackets and sweatshirts, shove them into crowded holding
pens, and turn the air conditioning on high, leaving them to shiver all night.
A Tucson, Arizona, organization called No More Deaths documented this practice,
based on multiple reports from detainees, in a 2011 report called “Culture of Cruelty.”
Now fast forward to 2018 and 2019, when a surge of desperate
families from Central America seeking asylum in the U.S. – a legal right – are overwhelming
our ports of entry. Where to put all the people while they wait for their day
in court? If they have family or sponsors in the U.S., it makes sense to let
them travel to join them. But too many men, women and children are crammed into
Border Patrol stations, set up only to process and hold people until they are
deported or sent to court. They get only water, crackers with peanut butter,
and juice in boxes – and no real medical care.
The overcrowding is unintentional, but the policy of yanking
children away from their family members and warehousing them is deliberate. Their
cries and suffering have touched the conscience of most Americans and a federal
court ordered those families to be reunited. Many are still held in camps. Their
“crime” is knocking on our southern door to ask for asylum. In our jails and
prisons, citizens accused or convicted of serious crimes against persons enjoy better
conditions of confinement.
Many of us are descendants of people who escaped persecution
and famine in Europe, boarded ships to America, and labored at menial jobs to
create a better life for their families. Except for political changes in our
immigration laws, how are these would-be immigrants fundamentally different
from our ancestors?
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