I am posting early this week. I wanted to write
about the America-North Korea peace negotiations but a far more important and
immediate issue has arisen. The Trump administration is engaged in enforcement
of an old immigration policy which forcibly separates immigrant parents from
their young children at the US/Mexican border.
The President is
playing political football, saying he will not change the policy rules until
Congressional Democrats agree other changes to immigration laws. These include
funding The Wall, curbing and reducing legal entry and tightening border
enforcement rules. To be fair, Trump is also pressurising GOP politicos to vote
for compromise measures. However, he concentrates blame on Democrats. In a
tweet last week, he wrote: “The Democrats are forcing the breakup of families
at the border with their horrible and cruel legislative agenda.”
The attempt to gain
political advantage from a practice the American Academy of Paediatrics has described
as “causing children irreparable harm” is yet another example of the high
stakes political game Trump revels in, as his rhetoric on immigration increases
in harshness.
The policy enforcement against children is challenging the often-united Republican
conservative base, as a wide array of religious leaders and groups denounce it.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Southern Baptist Convention have
issued statements in the past week, critical of the practice.
According to
Republican Senator Bob Corker, “It (immigration) is becoming a cultish
thing. Officials claim that the government had the divine right to ‘rip
children from their parents’ arms at the border. Officials have justified
taking infants from parents and warehousing children in tent cities and an
abandoned Walmart by saying they are doing God’s will.” Another Republican
Senator, Ben Sasse, was more succinct, attacking Trump as “wicked.”
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has joined
in: “I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command
in Romans 13 to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained
them for the purpose of order. I am not going to apologize for carrying
out our laws.” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, asked about
Sessions’s remarks, backed him up: “It is very Biblical to enforce the
law.”
Now this is just a personal view but if
people will invoke religion, they need to appreciate that there is a gulf
between people who do God’s work on earth and those who pervert God’s word to
justify inhuman acts. Is the American government following the behaviour of
ISIS?
Interestingly, former first lady, Laura
Bush, felt sufficiently incensed to add her views: “I live in a border state. I
appreciate the need to enforce and protect international boundaries but this
zero tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart.”
However, before we start accusing the
President and his executive colleagues of unspeakable acts, let’s remember that
many of the people being rejected entry have no legal right of entry. Also, the
Obama administration’s law on illegals was not so different. A CNN report cited
events two years ago when the separation practice was common. The difference in
the actions of the two administrations is the treatment of children. Now it is
not only dire but systemizing something known to be incredibly harmful and
cruel.
America has a history of picking on
minorities and making lives difficult, if not impossible. In the 20th
century, there were three “Red Scares” leading to countless unfair
imprisonments and suicides. Who will forget McCarthyism, a witch hunt based on
innuendo but no evidence? In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the House
Un-American Committee wrecked countless lives, not limited to Hollywood stars
and writers. University professors and academics were forced to give up their
careers.
During the civil rights campaign in the
early 1960s, Bull Connor, the sheriff of Birmingham, Alabama, had his men set Alsatian
dogs and water cannons on young black children who were just standing on a
road. They were not demonstrating. In 1941, immediately after war was declared,
The Roosevelt administration rounded up the Japanese community in San
Francisco, forcing people to sell businesses and homes at knock-down prices.
Husbands were forcibly separated from wives and children. All Japanese were
interned, mostly Western states like Wyoming, or in the mid-West states like Wisconsin.
These people were American citizens with Japanese forbears. It took decades
until Bill Clinton apologised for what was an unprincipled and illegal act.
Before we Brits get on our high horses,
let’s remember the Conservative/Liberal coalition policy on illegal immigration
under the then Home Secretary, Theresa May. She was proud of creating a
“hostile environment” for people desperate to find a better life. Is this a way
for a principled nation to behave? I have written on “the Windrush generation”
in my blog, “People in Glass Houses,” posted on 30th April, 2018. In
this country, we can’t hold our heads high these days.
Illegal immigration is a difficult
subject and political dynamite but if you live in western society, whatever
government rules exist, you should not act in a hostile way towards children. Is
not the Trump administration aware that its actions resemble those of the Nazis
in the 1930s and 40s? Zero tolerance should not mean zero humanity. Using
children as pawns for political gain is as despicable as it gets but I very
much doubt Trump will change his mind. It seems a Wall is far more important to
him.es strangers
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