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BY: SAHER AL KHAMASH, SUMMER 2020 COLLABORATOR AT POWER IN PLACE
As the child of immigrants, I have witnessed some of the struggles, cultural and financial, that immigrants face in the U.S. Based on what my parents have told me, the process of entering the U.S. and becoming citizens did not seem to pose as much of a challenge as the processes of assimilation, settling down financially and raising a family. For many migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers the process of entering the U.S. has gotten significantly harder and more violent. In a time when migration throughout the world is rapidly increasing due to the harsher conditions of our global context, such as violent war, terrorism, and environmental catastrophes caused by climate change, now is perhaps the worse time to close off and militarize our border. Time and time again, U.S. policy has shown that it does not value the lives of migrants. For example, in his book The Land of Open Graves, Jason de León explains how the U.S. method of Prevention Through Deterrence uses the potential for death as a deterrent for people considering crossing the border. Since the 1990, PTD has strategically and deliberately funneled people into the dangerous, hostile terrain of the Sonoran Desert [1]. This strategy has failed to stop or even reduce illegal immigration. The fact of the matter is that people cannot be deterred when the push factor for leaving their home land is the fear of death. In his book, The Dispossessed: A Story of Asylum at the US-Mexican Border and Beyond, John Washington explains this dynamic: “Draconian deterrence policies push asylum seekers onto the horns of a horrible dilemma, but it is the immediate fear of death that typically overrides the fear of flight. If you are on a burning boat, you’re probably going to jump into the water even if you don’t want to get wet, even if the water is cold, and even if there are sharks swimming beneath. If you make it into the water, at least you have a chance” [2].
Not only has the U.S. government revealed its disregard for migrant lives through its Prevention Through Deterrence strategy, but through ICE, detention centers, and family separation. Many have demanded the release of those detained especially because they are at greater risk of contracting, spreading, and dying from COVID 19. Instead, ICE continues to detain and deport people - sending even those infected back to countries less equipped to deal with the virus [3]. Due to the unsanitary and negligent conditions of the detention centers during COVID 19, detained migrants have been holding hunger strikes to potentially obtain better conditions [4]. Also in recent news, the U.S. Border Patrol conducted a military-style raid of the aid site of No More Deaths, an advocacy group that provides medical aid, food, and water to migrants crossing the desert regions of Arizona. They also detained 30 migrants, whose whereabouts remain unknown. Humanitarian aid worker for the group, Montana Thames, described the violent event: “after they [Border Patrol] seized 30-plus migrants that were seeking food and medical attention, they proceeded to completely trash the camp. They slashed all of our tents. They slashed people’s personal tents. They overturned anything that we had. They slashed open cots. A complete ransack of the place. They took all of our medical records and all of our phones that were in the office and on volunteers, for evidence. They disconnected the only water source that the camp has...” [5]. Perhaps the greatest irony of the United States’ blatant disregard for the lives of asylum seekers, is that U.S. interventionist policies sanctioned and supported the violence which migrants from Central America are fleeing [6].
Although my parents were immigrants, they were fortunate enough to stay in the country safely with their family. For those of us privileged enough to not have our human rights stripped away and experience violence at the hands of the state, it is urgent we are informed of and fight against the injustices committed by our government. The United States is a state which calls out the human rights offenses of other states when it is in its interests, but it will not recognize or change its own violence unless we take a stand against it together. The first step is to educate ourselves of what is going on, to fight for migrant rights in the ways we can, and to remember that humanity should always comes before nationality.
References
[1] De León, Jason. The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail. University of California Press, 2015.
[2] Washington, John. The Dispossessed: A Story of Asylum at the US-Mexican Border and Beyond. Verso, 2020.
[3]"'Release Them All': Calls Grow to Stop Jailing Immigrants as Transfers and Deportations Spread COVID." Democracy Now!, 4 Aug. 2020, www.democracynow.org/2020/8/4/ luis_angel_reyes_savalza_immigration_detention. Accessed 8 Aug. 2020.
[4]"'It's Basically a Death Sentence': Hunger Strikers Demand Release as Virus Surges in ICE Jails." Democracy Now!, 4 Aug. 2020, www.democracynow.org/2020/8/4/ luis_angel_reyes_savalza_immigration_detention. Accessed 8 Aug. 2020.
[5]"Militarized BORTAC Border Patrol Raids and Ransacks Medical Camp on U.S. Border, Arrests 30 Migrants." Democracy Now!, 4 Aug. 2020, www.democracynow.org/2020/8/4/ no_more_deaths_aid_camp_raid. Accessed 8 Aug. 2020.
[6] De León, Jason. The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail. University of California Press, 2015.
Saher Al Khamash is a rising senior at Middlebury College, where she majors in Global Security Studies. She also loves studying Spanish, Arabic, Religion and Art History.