Migrants And Asylum

Recently Florida Governor Rod DeSantis and Texas Governor Greg Abbott conspired to trick migrants from Venezuela and fly them unannounced to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. No one in Martha’s Vineyard was informed of this, and there are no available facilities to receive unhoused migrants there.

The people of that small community rose to the moment and welcomed the migrants, housing and feeding them until the Governor of Massachusetts arranged for transportation and housing at a base on Cape Cod.

It turns out that prior to being flown to Martha’s Vineyard, the migrants were assigned locations to check in on the following Monday morning that were scattered across the country everywhere but Massachusetts, thereby ensuring that they would miss their asylum appointments and be in violation of the terms of immigration under that provision. This seems to have been done intentionally to ensure that all of these asylum seekers would be returned to Venezuela – the place they were fleeing out of fear for their lives and safety.

It is plain to the eye that Governor DeSantis was foisting these asylum seekers on states he perceives as Democratic (though the Governor of Massachusetts is Republican) in an attempt to create a crisis for political purposes. He even sent along an official photographer to capture the chaos and outrage he expected.

The position from the Republican party is that migrants seeking asylum and refugees are an annoyance and burden on their states and communities, and that Democratic politicians have failed to address the problem, seemingly to allow unfettered access to the United States by any number of people from Latin America, regardless of national laws.

I’ll note right here that Democrats have comprehensive immigration reform on the table and ready for votes, but these solutions have been blocked in Congress by Republicans. This suggests that Republicans are not interested in solutions to immigration issues, but only chaos and crises to use as political tools in upcoming elections.

I’m going to talk about humanity in a moment. But first I’ll say some words about race and ethnicity.

Over the last twenty years it has become clear that demographic shifts in the US population has Caucasian people (white people) will lose their majority status in the United States around the middle of this century. That is +/- thirty years. This appears to be a real problem for some in this country. I should be more clear, it is a problem to those in the country who believe that skin color is a marker of nationality. That is to say that these people believe that America is and ought to be a white majority country.

While most Republican politicians refrain from saying this outloud, it is clear from their response to immigrants from Latin America and from Africa and Asia are negative, while little if anything is mentioned of immigrants from northern European countries. Black and brown immigrants are identified as invaders, while white immigrants are positive infusion of new people to our melting pot.

The punditry of the right is less guarded. When they speak of brown and black immigrants they use words like dirty and criminal. They speak about how “real” Americans didn’t get to vote on the changing demographics, and that these changes are ruining the greatness of the country.

Awash in all of this is what is referred to as The Great Replacement Theory. A conspiracy theory that claims Democratic politicians are encouraging the immigration of brown and blacks to replace the white majority with a population more compliant to Democratic agendas.

Yes, Great Replacement Theory is entirely racist. There isn’t a single reasonable argument supporting it, either in fact or intention.

Simply put, the world over we see non-white skinned people are increasing in numbers, and white people have decreasing birth rates. Because the US has a majority white population, and because white birth rates are slowing, the population of the country has slowed its growth. In fact, were it not for immigration, the US population would be shrinking.

While the white population will not be the majority in the future, it will remain the largest category of race. We will become a majority minority country. Which is to say there will be more non-whites than whites. (This includes black, brown, Asian, etc.)

The answer from the right is predictably racist. Slow the immigration of non-whites, and try to increase the birth rates of whites. Of the latter, one can see the right-wing attack on abortion rights as one piece of evidence. Though black and brown people have abortions too, the vast majority of advertising against abortion show pictures of white babies and white parents.

There are several avenues to immigration into America. One is applying for immigrant status. Another is coming on a temporary work permit. Another is as a refugee from conflict. Another is seeking asylum from threats of persecution based on politics, race, gender, sexual orientation, or economic condition. All of these are legal, and make up the bulk of those who enter the United States.

Of those who come on work visas, some number of them remain in country after their visa expire, making them undocumented persons. We may add to that the numbers who cross into the country without permission at all.

The political right treats all brown and black immigrants as if they are in this last category, and they refer to them as illegals. I have never heard them mention a single white person as such, even though there are numbers of them too.

But in all of these cases we are talking about people. Actual people making tough choices about how they are going to survive in this world, and how they will provide opportunity for their children. No one is bringing their children and what belongings they can carry across hundreds or thousands of miles for any other reason than they believe it is necessary. Whether people are allowed in is a matter of law.

The laws of the United States permit both refugees and asylum seekers. The former must be declared refugees before coming, while the latter must first enter the country before asking for asylum. This is legal.

Those who came from Venezuela recently, and were tricked into agreeing to be transported by DeSantis’ agents were here in this country lawfully. And the federal government has systems in place to process and register these people, who will then have their claims of asylum investigated and reviewed. Some certain numbers are turned away if found that their claims do not merit our protection.

But at the very start of this we have people who are desperate enough to pack up their belongings and traipse across the continent to our border and ask for protection and help. It seems the obvious humane thing to hold out our hands for others in need. We certainly have the room, and we certainly have the need for more people, and we certainly can afford to help them.

So this action by DeSantis seems plainly cruel and indecent. It shows a disregard for the suffering of the people and the willingness to use them as pawns for political gain. The claim that these asylum seekers would find welcome services in Massachusetts and therefore are being helped rings untrue in light of the surreptitious way in which they were transported, and the attempts to sabotage their asylum claims.

What we have today in the Republican party is not simply people who have a different idea of how government should work, or how immigration should be managed. What we see is intentional cruelty. And it is cruelty based on race and ethnicity. The Republican party has picked a favored race, a favored gender, and a favored religion. They are cruelly using the tools of state to harm and punish those who seek our help, and discourage the shift in demographics that the world is experiencing.

It appears that Governor DeSantis has violated federal law in this action. Whether he faces legal consequences or not, we can hope he at least faces political consequences.

And we can also hope that Americans broadly recognize that it isn’t skin color that makes one American. And it isn’t religion or ethnicity either. Hopefully the people will agree that our diversity is a good and great feature of this country.

And hopefully we can keep this fascist Republican party from regaining power and implementing their racist and theocratic agenda.