Caravan of fear
If you have been listening to the news lately, you might have heard about the Caravan of immigrants coming to the U.S., and President Trump’s response to it. He is sending National Guard troops to the Southern border to help support Customs and Border Patrol.
Just as former President Obama reacted to the influx of child migrants in 2014, this President is reacting to a potential arrival of a large number of people. According to the news and conversations with representatives of the Caravan, they are coming to the U.S. to seek protection from persecution in their home countries. Truly a Caravan of Fear – and the fear of those coming in this caravan has got to be increased ten-fold when they hear that the Trump Administration is sending National Guard troops to the border to greet them.
International law prevents the United States from sending asylee applicants back to the place where they could be killed. Our government is supposed to provide these immigrants with an interview to talk about their fear, and a hearing with an Immigration Judge. Sometimes, they are released on a bond or GPS tracker, so that they can appear at a Court hearing later. This is the process that President Trump is hoping to discontinue – so that, instead of “catch and release”, the Government will catch and detain until the case is over (months or years later). Deterrence is the goal. However, when a person is fleeing for their life (or the life of their child), often times they are willing to take extraordinary risks to seek safety.
Who wins in this scenario? The private prison industry is making a ton of money from the detention of non-criminal, asylum-seekers. We are the losers – we are paying the extraordinary detention costs and helping with the inhumanity of detaining children and separating families, while violating U.S.’ obligations under international treaties.
If you care, take a stand and leave a message on Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ public comment line at 202-353-1555.
