https://socialistaction.org/2019/07/29/trump-launches-attacks-against-immigrants-on-many-fronts/
Trump launches attacks against immigrants on many fronts
/ 11 hours ago
Aug. 2019 Immigration NY (Mary Altaffer:AP)
Protest in New York City, June 29. (Mary Altaffer / AP)
By LISA LUINENBURG
As the 2020 presidential election draws ever closer, the Trump
administration has continued to ramp up its attacks on undocumented
immigrants and on refugees seeking asylum in the United States. The
president has launched attacks on immigrants across multiple fronts, and
when he is blocked by Congress or the courts, he issues executive orders
to accomplish his own agenda.
And what is that agenda? It is simply the aim of the ruling class. The
U.S. economy continues to depend heavily on the labor of undocumented
immigrants, a super-exploited class of workers who work the toughest
jobs for the smallest amount of pay. It benefits those in power to keep
immigrants afraid, too afraid to fight back, to demand better wages or
working conditions.
In a 2018 speech, Trump said, ???Illegal immigration hurts American
workers, burdens American taxpayers, and undermines public safety, and
places enormous strains on local schools, hospitals, and communities in
general, taking precious resources away from the poorest Americans who
need them most.??? But the actual numbers paint a much different picture.
According to PBS News Hour, undocumented immigrants contribute about
$11.6 billion dollars in taxes a year, putting more into the government
than they receive back in public benefits. Immigrants often take the
most difficult jobs, working as field hands, home-care aides, child-care
providers, and cleaning staff.
But Trump continues to spout off vile racist rhetoric attacking
immigrants, often tweeting his views. At the same time, his policies
targeting immigrants and refugees have gotten worse as his presidency
has continued. In June, thousands of people across the country protested
when the deplorable conditions that migrant children are being held in
along the U.S.-Mexico border were exposed.
In a June 22 article in the New Yorker, journalists interviewed a team
of lawyers who toured border patrol facilities in Texas where migrant
children who had been separated from their families were being held.
According to the New Yorker, ???The conditions the lawyers found were
shocking: flu and lice outbreaks were going untreated, and children were
filthy, sleeping on cold floors, and taking care of one another because
of the lack of attention from guards. Some of them had been in the
facility for weeks.???
Children were denied food, water, health care, and sanitation. These are
children who are already vulnerable and traumatized, after passing
through countless ordeals on their journey to the United States with
their families, seeking a better life.
When the story broke, the public was shocked, prompting a series of
protests around the country. A recent protest organized by grassroots
immigrant rights organizations in Minneapolis was attended by perhaps
5000 people. Around the country, Lights for Liberty held vigils in
hundreds of cities. Many of the vigils, such as the one held in Chicago,
were well attended. However, many of these events were organized by
Democratic Party leaders. Because the immigrant rights movement lacks
national leadership, local organizing efforts often get sidelined when
more moderate forces step in. This tendency will only increase as the
2020 presidential elections approach.
As a result of the public outcry, and under immense pressure, the Senate
passed a bipartisan $4.6 billion emergency funding bill to provide
humanitarian aide to migrants seeking asylum on the U.S.-Mexico border.
The money would be allocated to the Department of Health and Human
Services and the Department of Homeland Security, as these federal
agencies run out of funding to address the growing crisis.
But this is just a drop in the bucket in terms of what is actually
needed to address the growing humanitarian crisis at the border. While
much of the public spotlight has drifted away from the caravans of
refugees that continue to arrive at the border, thousands of migrants
are still waiting in terrible conditions in camps along the Mexican side
of the border, as they wait for their turn to plead their case for
asylum in front of an immigration judge.
The current situation is largely a result of Remain in Mexico, a new
program that Trump negotiated with the supposedly progressive Mexican
president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (known as AMLO to Mexicans).
Under the new agreement (signed by the Mexican president on June 7),
Mexico has agreed to house migrants in their country while they await
their asylum cases, while at the same time deploying their National
Guard across the country (with particular emphasis along the southern
Mexican border with Guatemala) in an attempt to halt the flow of
migrants coming into their country from Central America.
Before the Remain in Mexico policy was officially signed into law,
migrants were supposed to be able to stay in the United States while
waiting for their asylum cases to be heard. But now they must languish
in what amounts to concentration camps on the Mexican side of the
border, without access to proper food, sanitation, or medical care,
while they wait for weeks or even months for their cases to be heard.
The backlog of immigration cases has now reached a crisis point in the
U.S. court system. According to a National Public Radio report on June
4, the American Bar Association is saying that the immigration courts
are now on the ???brink of collapse.??? The current backlog has now grown to
almost 900,000 cases. With less than 450 immigration judges across the
U.S., some have as many as 9000 cases on their dockets and are
scheduling hearings years in advance. Judges are now required to reach
quotas of cases in order to get good job reviews, pushing many towards
the brink of burnout. The process is grueling for immigrants too, many
of whom don???t even have access to lawyers to help them through the legal
process.
At the same time, Trump is now attempting to deny Central American
migrants even the basic right to seek asylum at all. The Globe Post
reported on July 15 on Trump???s latest executive order, which would bar
migrants from applying for asylum in the U.S. if they have passed
through other countries first on their way there. Instead, they would
now be required to apply for asylum in the first country they enter.
This contradicts current U.S. law, which says that migrants have the
right to apply for asylum in the U.S. no matter how they arrived, unless
they traveled through a ???safe third country??? on the way.
While Canada is currently the only country designated as a ???safe third
country,??? Trump just strong-armed the Guatemalan government into signing
a deal that would give it this designation, although not explicitly. The
deal came after Trump threatened the country with tariffs and with
blocking remittances sent to Guatemala by immigrant family members
living in the U.S.
The ACLU has already sued to block the new rule from going into effect,
and it is unclear if the Guatemalan government will actually implement
the new agreement with the U.S., or even what that agreement entails.
But the entire debate around migrants denies the fact that people are
fleeing poverty, political unrest, and violence in their home
countries???conditions that more often than not are a direct result of
U.S. economic and military interventions in Latin American, which have
continued for decades.
While Trump is attempting to restrict the flow of migrants and refugees
into the U.S., he is also increasing attacks on the population of
undocumented immigrants already living in the U.S. and contributing to
the U.S. economy. Over several months, the Trump administration has been
battling through the court system in an attempt to get a citizenship
question added to the U.S. census, which is set to take place in 2020.
After an outcry that the question would cause many immigrants and their
families to avoid completing the census, the Supreme Court ruled in June
to block the question. After census forms had begun to be printed
without the citizenship question, Trump dropped his threats to continue
the struggle through legal channels.
According to CNN, instead, ???Trump issued an executive order directing
the Commerce Department to obtain citizenship data through means other
than the census. That includes documents from the Department of Homeland
Security, which houses citizenship and asylum services, and the Social
Security Administration.???
Real fear has continued to spread throughout the immigrant community
after the Trump administration announced a series of large-scale raids
that were to take place across 10 major U.S. cities in early July. As
reported in The New York Times, the raids were supposed to target
undocumented immigrants who had received final deportation orders.
However, ICE agents also anticipated sweeping up what they called
???collateral??? deportations, meaning family members of the person being
targeted who also happened to be on site during the raid.
After protests broke out across the country, ICE officials expressed
discomfort with the operation, and multiple cities and police
departments announced that they wouldn???t participate in the raids. Trump
then called off the raids at the last minute.
Meanwhile, Trump threatened to resume the raids in several weeks unless
Congress agreed to ???work out a solution to the Asylum and Loophold
problems at the Southern Border.??? Although the second round of
threatened raids also failed to materialize, the announcements had the
intended effect of spreading of spreading panic and fear throughout the
immigrant community. At the same time, the fact that Trump had announced
the raids beforehand (which never happened under Presidents Bush or
Obama) gave local organizers time to prepare the community. Around the
country, grassroots immigrant rights groups organized Know Your Rights
trainings and Rapid Response Networks.?? In the Twin Cities, hundreds of
Somali workers at a local Amazon distribution center also recently
walked out to protest working conditions.
While the grassroots organizing around the country continues on a local
level, the lack of a national leadership organization in the immigrant
rights community means that the Democratic Party will continue to exert
increasing influence over the movement as the 2020 presidential election
approaches. Immigration will no doubt continue to be a hot-button issue
in the upcoming elections, but the influence of the Democratic Party in
the movement will inevitably have a moderating and dampening effect, as
they suck the vital energy of grassroots organizers into the game of
electoral politics.
How can we combat this? First, we must continue to organize on a
grassroots level in our local communities, where we can meet the best
fighters involved in the movement in our area. Second, we can support an
independent socialist candidate who isn???t beholden to the Democratic
Party and its lackeys, who can expose the lies of the ruling class and
explain the system along class lines.
Consider supporting Jeff Mackler and Heather Bradford, Socialist
Action???s candidates for president and vice president of the United
States in 2020. They support an end to raids and deportations,
unconditional legalization for all immigrants, open borders, the closure
of all detention camps, and an end to U.S. military intervention in
Latin America and around the world. ??Ningun Ser Humano es Ilegal!
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July 29, 2019 in Immigration, Trump / U.S. Government.
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