Street roots., July 27, 2018, Page 5, Image 5

Street Roots • July 27-Aug.-2, 2018
Commentary
EL PASO, from page 4
facially profiled, because of racism on the
part of police and immigration agencies,”
García explained in his office, making room
for this interview in his especially busy
schedule these days.
“This border is now one of the most
militarized in the world with thousands of
border agents, with high-powered weapons,
unmanned aircraft systems. All this
comprises a war in a country where there is
no conflict, in this case with Mexico, but
that war is against the migrants, especially
during this administration of President
Trump,” García said.
He describes how the situation on the
border worsened with “President Trump’s
campaign promise.” As. a candidate, “he
used Mexicans and migrants in his
Campaign in an extremely negative way.” He
started a narrative in which he said that
those who crossed the border were
criminals, were rapists and promised not
only the wall, “it is important to say that he
promised the deportation of 5 million
people who lived in this country,” Garcia
said.
García analyzes that, from the beginning,
Trump connected with those in the country
who have “an anti-immigrant and racist
agenda,” getting many votes from the “most
conservative and extremist.”
Touting his anti-immigrant agenda, Trump
began pressing for money to build the wall,
which has not happened, but “takes away or
wants to take from the Dreamers their
dream. He tries to eliminate the Dreamers,
to p u t th e m B ack in to a n Tiiegal s t a t u s , b y
taking away the DACA(Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals) program.”
Then after his inauguration, Trump
“began ordering his immigration officers on
the border and inland to raid across the
country, frying to arrest people without
documents. But since he does not have the
money to, get more agents for the raids, he
promotes a new policy to rely on local and
state police to do immigration work,” Garcia
said.
García points out that state laws started
to pass, as has happened in Texas, where
the police are given the authority to ask for
papers. “Then Trump’s starting to have his
deportation force to include the local police,
which should instead be protecting the
safety of everyone. Right now in Texas those
police officers can request papers under a
law called SB4,” he adds. “Also, the National
Guard has been deployed at the border.
“All this is part of a complete agenda, but
what made the glass overflow, the drop that
overflowed the glass, was the
implementation of this program called ‘zero
tolerance,’ which essentially says (and the
administration talks about it like this), that
anyone who crosses without documents
between the ports of entry, those people are
going to be criminally prosecuted. They’re
going to send them to court, and they’re
going to have charges filed against them.
That’s where the Justice Department comes
in, which now puts its resources towards
prosecuting each person.”
“Even if it is the first time you enter, or
even if you come asking for political asylum,
you are charged. The truth is that under
current immigration laws, crossing the
border without documents is an
administrative violation, such as running a
stop sign or going over the speed limit.
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P H O T O B Y M O N IC A L O Z A N O
Ralliers took to the dried up Rio Grande at the “Abrazos no muros” celebrated last May.
However, what Trump is doing is
criminalizing the act of crossing further.
“It is no longer an administrative matter
but a criminal issue. Therefore, each person
who passes will be stopped. We will put him
in jail and we will prosecute him criminally,
García said. “The consequence of this is
that complete families are being detained.
“Yet Trump is not
satisfied. He said, T
am going to separate
the children frotn
those families who *
a r e d e t a i n e d / p u ttin g
García laments.
“It does not stop there. It turns out that
after Trump’s reunification announcement,
the administration realized that it does not
have a plan, that some parents have already
been deported while the children are still in
cages and that the administration does not
know how to find many of the parents.
Parents and children
are still in detention.
But after having
separated them, they
" W ith th is we w a n t to p r e s e n t
to th e co u n t r y th e r e a l im a g é
o í th e se p a ra tio n , We w ill tr y
do n o t have an
e ffe c tiv e s y s te m to tie
each father or mother
the parents in some
with their children, A
prisons and the
to d o th e n o i l o ne ("A b ra z o s
disaster.
children in other
“I think thè
prisons. They did this ho m a r e s " " H a g s n o t w a lls " !
intention of the
to try and dissuade
in O ctober^ d e p e n d in g o n th e
administration has not
other families that are
c o n d itio n s ^ o l c o a rs e . T h a t is
really been the
going to cross. It is an
a th o r n la th e s y s te m th a t does reunification of
inhuman, harsh,
H ot w a n t it s to d o i t , h a t w t w i l l families,” García said.
aberrant strategy.
“To top it all off,
t r y to o o n tln a e d o in g i t . T h e y
That is what made
Trump announces
this anger rise in the c o H tia n e s e p a ra tin g fa m ilie s ?
that he will continue
U.S.,” he said.
w e a re g o in g to bee p u n ify in g
to prosecute them
García said that
th e m so th a t th e y e m b ra c e ,"
criminally, and in
this is hot the first
FERNANDO GARCÍA addition, he will use
time that they have
BORDER NETWORK OF HUMAN RIGHTS
military bases as
separated the parents
detention centers.”
from their children
One of those bases
and then detained
is in El Paso, Fort
them, when families
Bliss,' where it is
crossed the border.
expected that between 7,000 and 12,000
“This phenomenon of the separation of ,
families will be kept under guard. “Instead
families has been constant in U.S.
of solving it, what he does is expand the
immigration policy,” said García, who
detention of families, but now in military
maintains that it is now happening in a
centers. How does one see that, having
broader context of harsh anti-immigrant
families in military centers?
policies.
The perception that it may give you is
But now, “the country discovered that
that they are criminals, that they are a
there are children who were in cages
threat to national security, when really, they
separated from their parents,” which,
are workers. They are migrants, like when
according to García, “touched a nerve in the
those who came to Ellis Island a long time
country and people started to react There
ago, because that is why they are coming
has been a very strong reaction from all
here.
sectors of the country to an inhuman policy.
“They are looking for a better Kfe,” the
“Trump backs down a little bit and signs
activist asserts, García explains that fair
an executive order, which says, OK, I’m
immigration reform is needed, starting by
going to reunify them. But it does not stop
legalizing the 11 million to 12 million
die zero tolerance program nor the
undocumented immigrants working in the
detention of families. The only thing that
United States.
Trump is proposing is to reunite those
“You have to make them citizens, because
children who have been separated, but keep
that is the tradition of the United States, to
them in jail. They will continue to be in jail,
implement programs of workers who cross
but now, together with their parents,”
the border legally. We need workers. It is
not true that if there is unemployment in
New York, New Yorkers will come here to El
Paso to pick tomatoes. It is not true. This is
only going to be done by immigrant
workers. The problem is that now there are
not enough visas. There is no worker
program that provides them with fair wages
and rights even to those that come to work
temporarily. There are not enough visas for
that,” Garcia said.
So people come between the ports of
entry to pass undocumented or ‘illegal,’ as
they call it. We have to fix the political
system, Garcia said. “There is no other
option. We have to change it.
“But Trump goes in the opposite
direction. He does not want those who
already live here to be legalized and become
citizens, and he wants to cut the legal
migration in half.
“It is an agenda that has a clear
component of rejection and hatred towards
Latinos, Latino immigrants, immigrants
from the south, because it does not have as
much problem with Anglo immigrants.
Obviously, this whole policy has a racist
tinge.
“What we are betting on is that the
country, not Trump, the country is realizing
that these policies are aberrant. It is going
to be the country. They are not going to be
even the Democrats, nor any party. It is
going to be the country. All sectors of the
country are going to realize that it is not
possible for the U.S. to defend the policy of
imprisonihg chftdren, ofIfttiTdittg'Walls’
p e r se c u tin g fa m ilie s. T h a t is n o t w h a t
America, the U.S.A., has been,” Garcia
continued.
“Are those values we cherish? Is not the
unity of the family an American value? Don’t
we see Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty
that says, give me your tired, your poor,
those who are persecuted, give them to me?
This was the idea of America in the 19th
century. America was created as a country
of migrants, that those who come seeking
refuge, fleeing from persecution, find that
this is their country, a land of opportunity,
the promised land, just as when the
Europeans arrived.
“This is why these new generations of
migrants are coming. This border is the new
Ellis Island. The emigrants arrive with that
hope.
“I think that most Americans understand
that the policy of imprisoning children is not
what America represents. I believe that they
are going to change this situation. I am not
betting on the parties, nor Trump, not even
the Democrats. I believe that the common
American is the one who is going to say, we
are more than that, or better than that.”
The bittersweet balm of the World
Cup on the border of horrors
It is eight o’clock in the morning on the
American side of the Chihuahuan Desert, El
Paso, and a dozen women and some men
drink beer in the tavern, The Tap, where
they arrived early on Tuesday, June 26 to
watch the World Cup match between Mexico
and Sweden.
“What do I serve you, handsome?” asked
Mariana in Spanish. I order some huevos
rancheros and coffee. An octogenarian
gringo with a cap the colors of the Mexican
See EL PASO, page 13