Tag Archives: Immigration rights; immigration to US from Central America

The barbarity of European Union immigration policy

African immigrants at Melilla August 13 2014

Undocumented immigration from the four corners of this planet is one of the greatest crises of this generation exposing the wretched underbelly of neoliberal capitalism, the barbaric phase of capitalism. Who can count that high, but there are an estimated 200 million immigrants traveling enormous distances & treacherous routes to find rest & work in the plundering countries.

On the southern US border with Mexico, there is a massive influx of unaccompanied children from Central America, estimated at nearly 60,000 children just in the past ten months. The phenomenon of unaccompanied immigrant children exists on every single of the well-traveled routes: from Zimbabwe, children cross a crocodile-infested river into South Africa; from Afghanistan, they travel in engine compartments of cars to sneak past immigration controls; young people from all over Africa attempt to scale barb wire fences, beaten by Moroccan cops on one side & Spanish cops on the other, to enter the north African enclave of Melilla where they can try to claim refuge in European territory. Israel appears to be the only country African immigrants are trying to escape from because the racist violence is so severe. Some of the immigrants are from places like South Sudan & Congo where Israel has massive investments for plunder.

There’s more rubbish written about these immigrants than a sane mind can grasp. There’s that Indian parable about the blind man trying to determine what an elephant looks like by feeling different parts of the elephant’s body. Most anti-immigration polemicists apparently never make it past the elephant’s ass. US politicians claim the children are associated with drugs & prostitution; some say they’re fleeing from gang violence in their own countries; some claim they’re part of organized crime cartels (when in fact most are too young for US government employment); & there are always the schnooks who claim they’re coming here for welfare benefits like food stamps even though largesse is not a quality of social services in the US. If you’re lucky, you get fifty cents a day for food stamps.

The conduct & policies of European Union border patrols in the Mediterranean region are as criminal as it gets, making the sea a graveyard for thousands of immigrants, with politicians incapable of the higher human emotions trying to cover their crimes with ceremonial crocodile tears. Officials from the Obama regime put on a sad face talking about the humanitarian crisis here & then propose legislation to fast-track deport the kids in violation of every standard of child welfare & sanctuary.

It’s quite observable that children are the primary victims of neoliberal plunder & military policy. Just as the children of Gaza are exposing Israel, the children of Central America & Africa are exposing the plundering countries. Child welfare recognizes no boundaries; human solidarity doesn’t either.

These young men are trying to cross into Spanish territory in north Africa at Melilla where there is a refugee center. We wish them solidarity & Godspeed on their journey.

Open the damn borders! No human being is illegal!

(Photo by Jesus Blasco de Avellaneda/Reuters)

The idiocies of U.S. politicians and the plight of undocumented child immigrants

Unaccompanied minor immigrant July 23 2014

How old do you think this little girl is? Nine or ten years old at most? She’s an unaccompanied minor on a freight train in south eastern Mexico waiting to depart to the US border. She has over a thousand miles left to go on her own & is very likely to encounter one or more forms of violence including rape, kidnapping, assault, dismemberment from hopping on & off the train, disappearance, execution, robbery. If she makes it across the border she’ll almost certainly get picked up by border patrol agents & put in immigration jail in squalid conditions.

Now two Texas politicians–one a Republican & one a lesser evil guy–have the wretched temerity to claim she got here through trafficking & is associated with prostitution or drugs. They are sponsoring a bill in Congress which they sarcastically call the HUMANE act to whisk those kids in & out of immigration court in 7 days & send them packing back to Central America.

Most of us know by the time we’re out of kindergarten that you can’t reason with idiocy–not of that scope. When you deal with politicians you have to bully them into submission with power politics. If you try to reason or negotiate with them, you end up with hemmorhoids & a concussion from banging your head against the wall.

That’s why massive social change & justice have always required massive social movements that won’t take no for an answer. The entire Obama regime & every single bozo representing it from Obama & Biden down to Homeland Security are out to get these little kids. They talk about the “humanitarian” crisis at the border but that’s a concept they can’t get their pea brains around & only use to promote the most violent solution possible–sending all the kids back to an uncertain future.

It cannot be said enough that child welfare doesn’t honor citizenship or borders.Their humanity & vulnerability are sufficient to grant them asylum. But if you listen to these politicians talk about these little kids, you would think it was a swarm of locusts coming across the border.

Do you think this too harsh a judgement of the politicians? On the contrary, it flatters them & leaves out the worst of their traits. Though we should at least give passing reference to that stupid smugness that seems to come with the distinction of politician. Don’t wish it on your worst enemy. If you get to your grave without ever having to listen to them blither, count yourself a lucky soul. Their blighted victims will earn a special place in heaven. Amen.

Immigration is a human right! Open the borders! Close down the immigration jails! Grant asylum to all who come.

Immigration to US from Central America fraught with hazards & violations of human rights

This is another immigrant arrested yesterday along with 79 others in McAllen, Texas. Media reports the border patrol “swooped” in on their encampment, handcuffed them, & took them off to detention before deportation. Swooping is a thing fully-armed US cops do to scare the hell out of people. Is such machista peculiar to US cops or do the rest of you also have to suffer this crap? This guy is a US Border Patrol but Texas Rangers have a machista style all their own, including never removing their foolish 10-gallon hats, even when they’re using the loo or making love. That’s why their divorce rate is so high. Nobody can tolerate them, least of all their spouses.

This young man doesn’t seem to be impressed with all the machista. But he must be very scared & uncertain of his fate. Our fullest solidarity with him since it is scary as hell to get caught up in an unjust & rotten judicial system, pickled to its gills in racism. We aren’t told this man’s name or his country of origin. We don’t give a damn where he’s from. He’s one of ours, he’s a brother. Our land is his land. Open the borders!

Immigration is a human right!

(Photo by Gabe Hernandez/The Monitor/AP)

Immigration is a human right! Open the borders!

This man is Everado Sanchez, an undocumented immigrant from Honduras who was arrested yesterday near here with 79 other immigrants from Honduras, El Salvador, & Guatemala. Most of them traveled nearly 2,000 miles, some paid thousands of dollars, & most have gone through unspeakable suffering to find work in the US. Many have come to locate or reunite with family members.

US immigration arrested 132 others this week in a location just miles from where the others were found. They were living in what is called a stash house until their transportation further north past border patrol stations on the highway could be arranged. Senor Sanchez & the others were living in the scrub under tents camouflaged by cacti & mesquite trees, sleeping on cardboard, & with little food or water for at least a week. After being arrested, they were all handcuffed & herded on to buses as though they were criminals.

All in all, the US border patrol boasts of over 154,000 arrests last year in this part of Texas–mostly immigrants coming from Central America, & thousands of them unaccompanied minors. Most of the children will be stuck in detention centers, including abandoned military bases; most of the adults will be dumped back in Mexico to fend for themselves. Every morning you can see border patrol buses dropping them off on the Mexican side of the bridges. Most of them have exhausted their resources for survival & wouldn’t be coming here if they could find work in Mexico or in their home countries. Many will attempt to cross the Rio Grande again but on their own, without “coyotes” to guide them. If they are picked up a second time, the border patrol will simply dump them further south in Mexico.

This is barbarism. If neoliberal plunder, including US corporations, were not laying waste to their livelihoods they would not be forced to leave their families & cultures to move here. The grief on Senor Sanchez’s face says everything we need to know about US immigration policy. Let it be damned! And let us do our utmost to join with immigrants in demanding the US open the damn borders. This land is our land; this land is their land. Immigration is a human right!

(Photo by Gabe Hernandez/The Monitor/AP)