Stanley Holditch
The Trump administration is quietly making moves that will forever change our nation. Our current treatment of immigrants was already a direct violation of the Geneva conventions and multiple federal laws. Yet Trump and team are tightening the screws further and the results are frightening.
The man pictured above is Marcos Baltazar, a board member of Birmingham, Alabama’s Adelante Alabama Worker’s Center, and during a routine check-in iwht ICE both he and his son were taken into custody and detained. Marcos and his son were caught crossing the border three years ago and released on recognizance with ICE. At the latest check-in ICE took both Marcos and his son into custody, and nothing has been heard of them since.
The New Desaparacidos?
The term “desaparacidos” applies to victims of of the Videla regime in Argentina or the Marcos regime in the Philippines who were kidnapped and never heard from again. These kidnappings are so labeled because there was never any official explanation of what happened to the people kidnapped – they simply disappeared and were never heard from again.
We don’t yet know if Marcos and his son will be heard from again. We know after the raid in Mississippi, 300 of 680 immigrants have been released with court dates, meaning an additional 380 still exist in what sounds like legal limbo.
“It is important to remember that while these facilities are administrative and not criminal, meaning people jailed there are not held for criminal charges and are not serving criminal sentences there, they are jails in nearly every sense,”
-Amelia McGowan, immigration attorney, as cited in the Clarion-Ledger
The above images are from Adelante Alabama Workers Center’s Facebook page, and you can click here to sign the petition and click here to donate. But by now you should be getting an uneasy feeling about what America is becoming in the name of fighting illegal immigration.
For decades we have operated under a wink and nod system. Marcos and Juan were working that system. They were caught, released, and told to check back in while they waited for their court date. The United States essentially allowed illegal immigration to happen, recognizing that immigrants in general were hard-working, more law-abiding than the native citizenry, and generally a good thing for the country. California used to heavily rely on seasonal migrant workers to harvest its crops. When rural states like Alabama and Georgia imposed their own stricter enforcement there were widespread reports of crops rotting in the fields due to inability to find workers willing to harvest. Prior to Trump, America enjoyed a technically illegal but imminently profitable relationship with immigrant labor.
Doubling Down on Obama
To anyone already horrified by the treatment of immigrants in our country during the tenure of Kirstjen Nielsen, the news that she was being ousted for being too soft was terrifying. Since her ouster, deportation raids like the one in Mississippi are becoming more common.
However Trump has not even scratched the surface of the three million mass deportations that occurred under his predecessor Obama. Detention facilities first came under fire during the Obama administration, but came under public scrutiny and awareness in 2018 and 2019.
Though deportations are low, the Trump admin led by Barr are making some very scary moves in recent days with regards to the legality and basic decency of our immigration system.
- Exercise eliminated for minors in detention (breaks Geneva conventions)
- Decertifying the union of Immigration Judges (removes accountability)
- Amending the Flores Settlement to allow for indefinite detention of immigrants (breaks Geneva conventions and Constitution)
- Eliminating a protection that allowed migrants to avoid deportation if they are receiving medical care
All of the above have been executed in August 2019. So you have private citizens, NGOs, and now states all petitioning or taking legal action against the federal government over how we treat migrants. But our system is obviously not fit for this type of fight. While challenges drag on through the courts, the rule changes go into effect and immigrant lives are irreparably damaged.
Enforcing the Law
Is Trump just enforcing the law? This has been the regular refrain of the Trump administration since it began its crack down on illegal immigrants. The law covers the detainment of Marcos Baltazar and his son Juan. Juan turned 18, which means legally Juan is no longer a minor and therefore both his and Marcos’s situation changed. But there was no crime committed, no damage done to anyone, and no change in the Baltazar’s immigration situation.
We know what is likely to happen to both Marcos and Juan: they will be shoved in an overcrowded cell, be put through a complex legal system neither of them understand or are equipped to interact with, and most likely deported. We don’t know if they will be able to reconnect here or in their home country.
We know that they can now be detained indefinitely, without trial or representation, and even if they do get a trial they are not afforded representation by the state, as all native citizens are.
Does this seem like a fit punishment for an 18th birthday? Or even an illegal border crossing (which is not why they were detained)? Does this seem like America? Or more like North Korea?
Dictators and the People that Love Them
Trump’s (and his supporters) open admiration for dictators and their regimes is manifesting itself in real changes to our legal system and the overall fabric of our country. CBP and ICE are increasingly part of an extralegal enforcement outfit that seem to take orders from no one but the President. Just yesterday a Harvard student was denied entry into the United States because of what his friends posted on Facebook.
Following all the changes to our legal system and general fabric is dizzying, but one thing is becoming clear: America is steadily becoming unrecognizable from its former self. Administration officials are literally attempting to rewrite our history, suggesting that the screed on the Statue of Liberty be rewritten to suit administration attitudes toward immigrants.
I’m not going to bore you with the lockstep with Orwell or how the Jews were initially persecuted under Hitler. You either see it or you don’t. What I am asking everyone to consider is where is the harm? Sure Trump loves playing up MS-13 and they are a vicious gang. Just like the vicious gangs here in the United States, which Hillary Clinton cited as super-predators in her husband’s Presidential campaign. But the stats are clear, according to the Cato Institute, and show that immigrants are in every observable way less crime-prone than U.S. citizens.
What we are doing now will not go away. Whenever America attempts to take a stand on human rights, our record of Japanese internment and our treatment of blacks under Jim Crow is brought up to delegitimize our arguments. What is being done to immigrants today, under the full light of day, will be a lasting stain on us as a people and a nation.
