THERE IS a humanitarian crisis in the U.S.-Mexico border as President Donald Trump declared, but what is ironic is that he caused this crisis.
Yes, there has been an influx of people coming in from Central America — thousands more are arriving as families with women and children in tow to seek refuge from violence and hunger in America. But the way the Trump administration has been trying to address this problem exacerbates the situation and created the humanitarian crisis we now face.
While Trump has the right to stop the illegal entry of immigrants coming through the southern border, this president chooses to violate the law by not only reinstating but expanding the policy that has lead to the mass separation of families, with more than 2,700 children being separated from their parents who were taken into custody for criminal prosecution.
These refugees took a long journey through Mexico to save their families and took the risk of crossing the border illegally to seek asylum in the United States.
This is a LEGAL recourse according to our laws and our treaties, and the asylum seekers can apply for asylum either when they enter the legal points of entry or through the border.
Trump chose to call the asylum program a “scam”, and said asylum seekers are some of the roughest people you’ve ever seen…”
During the campaign and up to last year, Trump has been demonizing immigrants coming from the southern border, calling them “animals,” criminals, who are invading the country to destroy America and steal American jobs.
True to his record, Trump never owned his culpability on this crisis, blaming everybody else except himself.
On Tuesday, Trump pivoted back to his default excuse and lies, saying it was former President Barack Obama who had the [policy of separating families and building cages — an allegation already debunked many times. Trump went further to say it was he who in fact ended family separation.
“The Obama administration did not do that, no. We did not separate children from their parents,” former Obama domestic policy adviser Cecilia Muñoz told NPR in May 2018, as reported by credible and independent news organizations.
Muñoz said this “zero tolerance” policy “puts us in league with the most brutal regimes in the world’s history.”
It was then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions who instituted the “zero tolerance” policy at the Southern border in April 2018 and many children up to now have not yet been reunited with their families because the Trump Administration implemented this policy WITHOUT A PLAN on how to reunite the children from their parents.
It was only when a federal judge allowed a lawsuit to challenge the policy in June 2018 that Trump issued an executive order to end it.
Relentless, Trump pushed for the construction of the border wall to please his base, at the expense of shutting down the government after an impasse with the House Democrats who would not fund the border wall.
Trump then declared a national emergency when in fact there is no emergency that would require a massive expensive wall to be built, because otherwise, he would have asked for it when the Republicans controlled both the Senate and the House before the 2018 midterm elections.
However, Americans living at the border, including many Filipinos, as well as state and military officials who oppose funneling money allocated for military projects and disaster relief operations, contend that what is urgently needed now to solve the humanitarian crisis in the border is NOT the wall. But rather, more people are needed to help speed up processing the asylum claims, and a decent living condition at the border that will keep family together while ensuring their safety and basic needs are met.
Even worse: CNN reported that during a visit to Calexico, California on Friday, Trump told border patrol agents behind the scenes not to let any migrants in and, if ordered to by a judge, to respond, “Sorry, judge, I can’t do it. We don’t have the room.”
According to the report, “When the agents later asked their commanding officers about the remarks, their superiors said [the] policy was to obey the law and that they would face personal liability if they complied with Trump’s orders.”
Then during Friday’s trip to the border, Trump reportedly ordered Homeland Security Secretary Kristjen Nielsen and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to shut down the port of El Paso on March 22, with plans to close other ports later.
Trump asked Nielsen to resign after she argued that closing down the ports would simply shut down legal commerce and travel while migrants entered between the ports. Trump reportedly responded “I don’t care,” two people in the room said, according to the CNN report. Nielsen allegedly tried in vain to explain to Trump that migrants from Central America are legally allowed to apply for asylum.
CNN further reported that it was Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney who was eventually able to talk Trump out of the plan, that was why Trump shifted gears and resorted to refusing entry to asylum seekers.
Trump then ordered that asylum seekers be denied entry to the United States and to just wait in Mexico. But as the Washington Post reported, a federal judge on Monday blocked this policy that requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their asylum claims are processed.
However Trump would like to spin this issue and lie to the American people about his true intent, NBC News reported that Nielsen’s resignation Sunday night was largely due to Trump pressuring her to resume the separation of parents from their children at the border.
Trump argued, “family separation was the most effective deterrent.”
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
