Independence Day Rage
How can I express my feelings about what my country; under the 50 Star Flag, in the name of its citizens, in my name; is doing to migrants on the border? What can I write that can possibly explain the horror, the frustration, and the disgust l feel in what my fellow Americans are allowing in El Paso, the Rio Grande Valley, and probably all over the United States? How can we respond to a Border Patrol (CBP) that views migrants as less than human, treats them like cattle to be warehoused, and jokes about it on Facebook?
It’s Our Emergency
Why is this not a “national emergency?” Where are the buses, the emergency shelters, the MRE’s (meals ready to eat used by the military)? Hell, there’s a Subway Shop just down the street, they should send a six-footer over and knock on the door. This is not out in the desert, hidden from view. This warehousing of humans is occurring in plain sight, right in the middle of our towns.
This is not a “necessary” outcome of more migrants coming to the border. Republican Congressman Will Hurd of Texas, claims that some of the fault lies with the “traffickers” or “coyotes.” He’s right, those folks are profiting from getting migrants across the border. But no matter how you slice it, it’s not the “traffickers” or “coyotes” that are being held responsible in this mass incarceration. We aren’t holding the traffickers, we have their victims.
We are holding those VICTIMS in mass detention.
Government Created
Many migrants coming to the border is not a new problem. The problem is the Trump Administration response. They determined that migrants crossing the border were criminals to be jailed: jailed without hearing, without due process, and without legal recourse. The regular places to hold folks in detention, many of them run by private contractors (the same ones who run private prisons) and not the government, are filled.
This left the overflowing backlog to sit in the “holding cells” at the Border Patrol stations. No one provides a place, so they just stack up to capacity, then over-capacity, and then even more. We now have rooms literally full of people, so full that they can’t lie down to sleep and can’t move. The migrants call them “ICE boxes,” and not just because are in Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, buildings. They are kept so cold that the migrants feel like their freezing to death. I suspect it’s to keep the smell down, since it may be months between showers, or a change of clothes.
We are doing this to men, women, and children. The “rules” say that these migrants should be in “holding” for seventy-two hours, there are now many who are exceeding forty days. Children, by Federal Court order; cannot be held by Homeland Security for more than three days. They must be turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services.
But the children aren’t processed fast enough, and their overwhelming numbers have swamped the Border Patrol, grinding the process to a halt. There are relatives who could take the children; there are HHS shelters available for them. Instead, they are trapped in rooms, sleeping on floors, no showers, no clean clothes, for weeks.
Fix This!!
No matter what, it will take some time to alleviate this catastrophe. Even if the Trump Administration came to their senses, and allowed the migrants parole to humanitarian agencies or relatives, it would take a while to process the requests. But it would be a start, and an eventual end, to the atrocity that the Trump Administration is committing now.
In the meantime, there are still quick and effective solutions to the detainment problems. Call up the Texas National Guard. Use their armories as temporary shelters. There’s one in Corpus Christi, one in Laredo, and two in El Paso. There are showers, and gyms were cots can be put in, and ready food available. Use the guardsmen to help supervise, not just guard. We do it all the time in hurricanes and other natural disasters. We should be even faster to act when it’s a manmade one.
The Fourth of July
Today is the Fourth of July, Independence Day. We celebrate the “immigrants” coming to America who, to quote Hamilton “…get the job done.” We talk about patriotism and pride in what our nation has accomplished. But it’s hard to take pride when it’s our nation, in our name, under our flag, doing this today. Independence Day is a day to highlight with fireworks. What is happening on the border is so shameful that they tried to hide it from us all. They should, because it’s wrong.
