When a Valuable Resource Becomes a "Danger"
President Trump signed an executive order titled “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States” only five days after taking office three years ago. It broadened the scope of who could be deported: “We cannot faithfully execute the immigration law of the United States if we exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement,” said the order. Consequently, people who were living here as citizens, or as refugees, or with other types of legal documentation, were redefined as “law breakers.” Recently this comment was posted on Facebook: “They broke the law. Punish them.”
People cannot be fairly re-categorized as “illegal aliens” for having been born in the United States of foreign parents. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution says, “No!” They have lived, studied, and worked here all their lives. Culturally they are American. That new interpretation of law or regulation would ironically include President Trump as he would then be an illegal alien because his mother was not born in America.
Recently a father has been deported because his two-year old daughter had a fever. This is not a legitimate child welfare concern. Deporting the father will not cure the sick child. An American military veteran has been deported because he suffers from PTSD he developed from one of our wars. These are real cases currently contested in the courts.
The administration recently announced a new rule that replaces a 1997 court settlement known as the Flores agreement, which limited detention of children to 20 days. This new rule permits the permanent separation of children from parents. No state welfare system would accept this kind of decision for permanent separation.
The Trump administration was issued an injunction last year to stop separating families. However, that injunction is not being observed. The current count of children separated from families at the border has now reached over 5,400 children!
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Southern Poverty Law Center are fighting for the constitutional rights of American and foreign families who are protected by these rights. Babies are not a danger. Separation is simply trauma and cruelty.
This is America. If “Liberty and justice for all” is to ring true, we must not put children in dog pens, not separate families, nor abuse those in detention. The only ones who benefit from such cruel policies and illegal actions are the owners of private prisons as well as unprincipled politicians, who pander to constituents who are white supremacists and nativists. They hate and fear others whom they think of as different, and not worthy of the consideration they expect for themselves.
World-wide, countries benefit economically as well as socially and spiritually from immigrants. We are hurting ourselves every time ICE separates members of a family, every time a person is unjustly deported, every time a plea for sanctuary is denied. Fairness is our strength.
Sources:
Common Sense for the Eastern Shore
