By Partha Banerjee
Against any common decency, ethics, and morality, let alone due process and legal procedures, Trump and his administration is destroying lives of poor immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico borders, by separating children from their parents. This is unheard of in the modern history of America.
Here’s the most recent story from New York Times.
Yet, there is very little outcry outside of the New York Times beltway. As if the entire country that brags itself to be the Land of Immigrants, went into deep slumber. The world-famous liberal American leaders such Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama are yet to be seen with their fiery human rights speeches! Sure, I know the first ladies denounced it. But their cry is feeble, and not making any impact at all.
Americans have lost their humanity, it seems, when it comes to undocumented, poor immigrants and their children. They do not matter to them much. Life goes on.
Trump is a known racist. He called immigrants “criminals” and “rapists” many times during his election campaign. He even called them “animals.” And corporate media and the big politicians did not come out strongly enough against his obnoxious racism.
Democratic Party and its pro-Clinton corporate leaders — not much different from their Republican counterparts — did not want to deal with the sensitive issue of immigration, for the fear of losing American votes. In fact, Clinton and Obama both deported undocumented immigrants in very large numbers, and Clinton passed one of the most brutal anti-immigrant laws in U.S. history.
Democrats lost anyways, and Trump’s policies after he became elected as the president, moved so far to the right that even the moderate Republican leaders now cringe.
But it’s too late for them to turn the clock back.
Meanwhile, at the borders, hundreds of thousands of poor children and their parents are being forcibly separated by U.S. border security forces. A country that brags about its Christianity and religious morale, is blatantly putting countless children in serious jeopardy. It is impossible to know how many children and their parents will be lost in this horrific brutality, and in that extreme heat and waterless, shelterless situation in the desert.
I have been there. I was a part of a pro-immigrant group of activists. We visited the borders of Arizona, Mexico, and the perilous Nogales desert trail many immigrants use, with help from often dishonest agents called coyotes. American media never report what kind of risks these people take to save their children’s lives. Many women and children drop dead, and then they bring their bodies, if recovered, to morgues for identification.
It’s an unbelievably inhumane situation down there. It’s a war zone. I have seen it.
American media and politicians also never discuss in what circumstances immigrants leave their own countries to come to America. The war, dictatorship, police brutality, land grabbing, loss of farms, loss of small business, any livelihoods — destruction of which is often inflicted by American powers — directly or indirectly. There is never any comprehensive discussion on the above on big media. Nobody knows.
Millions and millions of people are losing their lives because of a brutal and inhumane American ruling class. Now, the ruling class has a president who is as ruthless as Hitler.
Hitler separated Jewish parents from their children. We know the history.
Trump is repeating the history. Yet, there is so little outrage!
