Forest Fires and Tear Gas
This weekend the President of the United States got what he wanted. The “caravan” of migrants arrived in Tijuana, Mexico. Five thousand men, women, and children; fleeing their homes in Central America, all seeking asylum in the United States. The President has ordered the “…border held at all costs!” He must feel very proud, defending our nation and using that old dog whistle to racism – “America First.”
As the migrants stack up in Tijuana, already one of the most dangerous cities on the continent; some have decided to try to cross illegally. Trump has rallied the border patrol to stand against them, preventing the migrants from getting to stand in the US to ask for asylum. Men, women and children (children) were first confronted by the Mexican police, then when they rushed the border; US “forces” fired tear gas at them. Thirty-nine were arrested in Mexico, forty-two made it across the border to be arrested in the US.
The pressure on the border is going to continue to build. With thousands of migrants in Tijuana without shelter and with nowhere else to go, there will continue to be outbreaks of violence. Sooner or later, someone is going to get killed. The US is trying to force Mexico to move the migrants away from the border, to take charge of them as they are slowly processed for possible asylum. Mexico, reasonably, thinks this is more the US’s problem than theirs, and wants the US to get to the root of the problem in Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala rather than deal with people at the border.
The United States cannot solve the migrant crisis at the border. As Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama all realized: the problem is what’s going on in Central America. The US has to impact the gang violence and poverty and try to change the conditions where the migrants live, rather than wait for them to show up at the Southern Border. But making the migrants want to stay home is a difficult task, requiring America to commit to solve the problems of others; other brown people.
It is similar to the Administration’s approach to the forest fires in California and rising tides on the coasts. President Trump states that if we “raked the forest floor” we could avoid the conflagrations that are becoming so commonplace. He ignores the real problem: extended drought, high heat, continuing winds; all caused by the shifts in global climate, the real cause of the fires. If we don’t find some way to alter those changes and reset the “world,” then we will continue to face this destruction, as well as rising tides, and extreme weather throughout the nation.
Sure, California can use more fire fighting planes. Sure, many parts of Florida will need to build up their dunes to protect the coast. And sure, we need more judges to adjudicate asylum cases at the border (rather than troops and tear gas.) But all of these are not solutions, they are only temporary band aids that will ultimately cost more and do less. We need to reach to the heart of the problem.
But California is the “Great Blue State,” voting Democrat through and through. Is the President really committed to helping a state led by Jerry Brown, with Diane Feinstein, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff all representing them? Or is he OK with letting them burn?
And then there is the final, more insidious question. The racists’ echoes in “America First” leads to questions about our current President’s motives at the border. Does he want to solve the migrant crisis, or does he want to encourage more confrontation with “brown people?” Does he have an interest in making the world “better,” or is he only interested in encouraging his political base by demonstrating his “resolve” against an “invading brown horde?”
Like it or not, the President of the United States represents us all. We – yes we – are firing tear gas at the migrants: we are creating this confrontation at the border. This, and the ridiculous Administration stand on global warming, and the clear choice of money over morals in the Khashoggi case, is what the United States is today. What WE are. That is the real challenge going forward for all of us today.
