A haven for the oppressed

A huge part of the nasty guy’s campaign speech and of his actions in the White House is immigration and how he is going to stop it.

A UN report on refugees was released yesterday. Jamey Keaton at the AP summarized it this way:

A record 71 million people have been displaced worldwide by war, persecution and other violence, the U.N. refugee agency said Wednesday, an increase of more than 2 million from a year earlier — and an overall total that would amount to the world's 20th most populous country.

Also in the news was a statement by Mark Morgan, new new leader of Immigration and Customs Enforcement that they will target immigrant families who have received final orders for removal. Said Morgan:

It's going to send a strong message to those individuals contemplating coming here illegally not to do so. Not only will we be enforcing the law, maintaining the integrity of the system, but we're also going to send a powerful message to individuals in the northern triangle countries: Do not come, do not risk it.

That prompted Melissa McEwan of Shakesville to reply:

It is a risk to stay. It is a risk to leave. There can be no effective "deterrence" when there are no good choices.

This is indefensible child abuse. Nothing more.

John Stanton, formerly of BuzzFeed, tweeted a thread:

There are countless reasons why the people who are fleeing their home countries come to the southern US border, it's mind boggling. But 1 thing always sticks out when you talk to these people, who come not just from Central America, but from Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Every asylum seeker I've interviewed has always said the United States is a beacon of hope for them. A Somali I interviewed in the El Paso detention center told me as a child he'd learned about the US as a haven because of the branding we put on the sacks of rice his family ate.

Others — from Ghana, Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras — they all mentioned that for them, the United States was a shelter in the violent, deadly storm of their lives. And it's because we've told the world, loudly and uncompromisingly, that we are a haven for the oppressed.

Obviously those of us who live here know this is a lie. It's a lie we've told ourselves, and the world. But it's a lie that's worth trying to make true. And through much of history, even when we explicitly knew we were lying, as a society we still wanted it someday to be truth.

While the IDEAL of America and the REALITY of America have never, ever matched up, at least on some level it was the goal we strived for, even if halfheartedly. And we have lorded that purpose, however disingenuous, over the world.

We have defined ourselves as this shining beacon of hope for a better more just future, and DEMANDED that the rest of the world do so as well. So of course the poor and oppressed now turn towards us.

Which is what makes so much of what is happening here so insane. Because the same people who insist the world treat the lie as true also demand to openly act in direct contradiction to it.

It's a salve for their guilt. Racists hate being called racist because they know it's wrong. But instead of trying to change their ways or keeping their mouths shut, they are emboldened to require us to accept both the noble lie and their evil actions.

Meanwhile, the poorest, most disenfranchised, most terrorized people on earth continue to turn towards our nation, hoping the lie has become truth and they will find a place of peace and calm for themselves and their children.

But instead they find brutal, state sanctioned hate. The same thing they fled from. their children are taken from them. their children are treated like animals, sexually assaulted, and left to die. We have beckoned them to us, only to turn out to be exactly what they fled.

We have become the cruelest joke.