Archive | Historical Interest: Helen’s Place LLC March 25, 2021
President Biden mentioned in his first press conference on March 25, 2021 that he inherited an immigration mess from the Trump administration. This included the policy to stop, repatriate and deport illegal non-immigrants.
In the interest of readers who may not have known what President Biden was referring to, Helen’s Place LLC is reposting the article that appeared on August 12, 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Helen’s Place LLC Update: August 12, 2019 Trump Policy:
Since the original posting on 6/28/19 10:00 PM, the situation for non-immigrants continues to worsen. In addition to raids at homes, schools and places of employment, I.C.E. is speeding up the roundup of non-immigrants for deportation.
Additionally, the Trump administration has reached a deal with Guatemala to prevent non-immigrants from traveling to the U.S. to seek asylum, and the Supreme Court has allowed a stretch of the border wall to be built.
The Trump administration’s three-pronged strategy against non-immigrants appears to be working to: STOP people from entering the U.S. at the southern border, REPATRIATE people from U.S. detention facilities back to Mexico, and round-up and DEPORT people from across the U.S.
The administration continues to find workarounds to immigration laws and court injunctions, in order to carry out its plans.
Stopping Southern Border Entries:
Fewer non-immigrants are being allowed to reach the U.S. southern border to apply for asylum.
Even before December 2018, as Kirstjen Nielsen (former Department Head of Homeland Security), visited detention facilities at the U.S. Mexican border, and reassured Americans that detained children would receive better medical care, the Trump administration was working hard to ensure that children received no medical care at all, because they never reached U.S. custody in the first place.
Reports of Mexican officials stopping people crossing bridges at U.S. ports of entry, and turning them back or arresting them, are now commonly being carried out by the Mexican National Guard and other Mexican law enforcement agents.
The policy of allowing only a trickle of applicants to apply for asylum at the border, a practice referred to as “metering,” is causing havoc at U.S. Mexico border ports of entry, like Ciudad Juarez, for thousands of people stacked up waiting for their turn to enter legally.
President Trump stated that “we are full,” and that the process of applying for asylum, “is a scam.”
As a result of administration policies, thousands of non-immigrants are hiring smugglers, and/or setting out on their own to find remote border areas to cross illegally into the U.S.
Due to harsh conditions in the desert, dangerous river crossings, and violent treatment, the number of non-immigrant deaths, including children, is staggering. The exact number is unknown due to inadequate statistical records.
In his address to the nation on January 8, 2019, President Trump said that it was inhumane to allow non-immigrants to seek asylum in the U.S. because of the way they were being treated enroute to the U.S. (by smugglers, sexual assault perpetrators etc.)
He used this rationale to justify U.S. actions to try and stop non-immigrants from traveling to the U.S. for their own good.
Most recently he has threatened to close border checkpoints if Mexico doesn’t stop migrants from entering Mexico enroute to the U.S. Mexican Officials are cracking down on border crossers into Mexico under pressure from the U.S.
Repatriation of Illegal Non-residents:
President Trump said in his address to the nation in January 2019, that “ he was working a deal with Mexico” to return non-immigrants to Mexico to wait for asylum hearings there, a deal referred to as “Return to Mexico.”
In March 2019, it was reported by the Wall Street Journal that a total of 240 people had been repatriated back to Mexico to wait for asylum hearings, based on the new agreement with Mexico. On June 25, 2019, A CBS report put the number at over 15,000. This number is likely to skyrocket in coming years.
Deportations:
Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) is running operations to round up illegal non-immigrants from within the U.S. and send them to detention centers to hold for deportation, including those with no criminal record or minor offenses such as driving with an expired license.
Just as the government reported that the separation of children from their parents stopped in June 2018 when it hadn’t, likewise, deportations will continue by ICE, as “routine,” even after Trump announced he stopped it.
The lucky ones:
For those non-immigrants somehow making it to the U.S. to be held in U.S. detention centers and released, aid groups report that many are in terrible physical shape, after trekking across Mexico from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Some people, including children, have died in U.S. custody.
Those who survive might consider themselves the lucky ones because they are on U.S. soil, even though they are processed through the system, frequently dumped at bus stations by U.S. Border Patrol and I.C.E. officials without food or money, to await their immigration asylum hearings in the U.S.
But if Congress fails to act, and the Trump Administration is allowed by U.S. courts to continue its zero tolerance policies and make repatriation deals with Mexico, it’s only a matter of time before this loophole is closed too, and all non-immigrants are repatriated back to Mexico to wait for asylum hearings.
If and when this happens, the Trump administration will be able to speed up the round up of non-immigrants from around the country, and then fill up the detention centers as people are repatriated back to Mexico, in a revolving cycle.
It appears that administration plans are working well so far, as people are distracted by the controversy surrounding the border wall, and divisive politics to stop a pathway to citizenship of any illegal non-residents, including Deferred Action Childhood Arrivals (DACA), also known as the “Dreamers,” (children brought to the U.S. by non-immigrant parents).
Court Actions:
Currently, the courts are struggling to keep up with the Trump Administration legal actions against non-immigrants. Examples include blocking a law from taking effect that would make non-immigrants ineligible to apply for asylum if they entered the U.S. illegally.
A judge also ruled that children separated at the border from their parents and taken into U.S. custody must be returned to their parents. Other temporary court actions have made it possible for Dreamers and people in Temporary Protection Status (TPS) to remain in the U.S.
The Trump administration is continuing to make deals with Mexico to prevent people from making it to the U.S. border to seek asylum. This is where Trump may have the biggest impact, because people kept outside the U.S. and out of reach of the U.S. court system, are out of sight and out of mind of the American people.
But it remains to be seen if Mexico will cooperate with U.S. demands, even if the price is right. It’s clear that while detention centers are being created in the U.S., the Trump administration would prefer to fund refugee camps in Mexico and other countries, if it could reach a deal.
Stopping border entries, repatriation, and deportation are the reasons that if Trump gets his border wall built, the wall may come to symbolize the wall of death, not only of the American dream, but also of the cruelty and violence Americans have inflicted on their own people and other cultures throughout its history.
One needs only look at the treatment of Slaves, American Indians, Chinese, Jews, Muslims, LGBTQ, and others to see the truth about the way that Americans have treated minority groups.
Solutions:
Currently some Americans don’t care about the inhumanity and harsh treatment of non-immigrants due to the existing problems in the U.S. – especially racial inequality, poverty, crime, mental illness, drug and alcohol addiction, and financial stress.
Even those who aren’t prejudiced may be driven by economic fear against non-immigrants, because they are or know someone who has a job but still not making ends meet. It’s impossible not to recognize economic turmoil when you drive across America and face the rural and urban blight.
This is why some Americans feel no empathy and believe that non-immigrants have brought misery and death upon themselves for attempting to enter the U.S. illegally.
Plainly stated – some Americans aren’t in a humanitarian mood at the moment, which allows Trump’s “zero tolerance” policies to gain traction, and the reason he could win the presidency again in 2020.
It appears that the humanitarian crisis at the southern border will not be solved politically, because Democrats and Republicans would have to give up the immigration outcomes they want most.
In order to forge a compromise — Democrats, for example, would have to find an alternative to a pathway to citizenship for non-immigrants, and Republicans would have to find an alternative to a physical border wall and locking people up.
Perhaps a federal compromise would have a chance if the government was focused on existing labor shortages and creating economic opportunities for disenfranchised Americans, but these actions are unlikely in the age of political paralysis.
In April 2019, Trump threatened to release non-immigrants in sanctuary cities as punishment, because of the resistance to cooperating with Immigration Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) and Trump immigration policies.
Taking a different look at this idea – perhaps helping non-immigrants get to sanctuary cities isn’t such a bad idea at this point in time. A few governors and mayors say non-immigrants are welcome, because they need workers to fuel economic growth and to replace aging, retiring workers, as well as for humanitarian reasons.
According to Wikipedia, there are currently more than 500 sanctuary cities in the U.S., and this number is likely to grow as Congress fails to enact immigration reforms.
Just as the decision to legalize marijuana appears to be better suited to each state, it’s likely that cities, states, companies and individuals would better manage the illegal non-immigrant problem instead of the federal government.
Related audio/video interview recording:
Documentaries highlight the Trump Administration immigration policies:
Videos, Frontline, April 22, 2020, “As President Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Continues, 4 Documentaries to Watch”
Other related article you may be interested in:
Proposed solutions from Helen’s Place LLC:
The Solution to Illegal Immigration Right Under America’s Nose
Lost children in America Join DACA Orphans, Future Workforce.
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