Another American Caught Up In Immigration Hell

I have made it well known that the basic premise of my book, “The Dishwasher’s Son” is about an American teenager being deported from the US under our extraordinarily lax and dysfunctional Immigration system. In the dedication to that book, I also mentioned this has happened Approximately 20,000 times since 2003. Just today, I read a report from GQ magazine that the

Border Patrol Has Kept a Teenage U.S. Citizen Locked Up for Nearly a Month.

“Customs and Border Protection (CPB) stopped two brothers at a checkpoint in Texas on June 27. The younger one, Marlon Galicia, was born in Mexico and entered the U.S. illegally; the older one, 18-year-old Francisco Erwin Galicia, was born in Dallas. CBP took both brothers into custody.”

Erwin Galicia had a wallet-sized copy of his birth certificate, his Social Security card, and a Texas ID that’s only available to citizens with Social Security numbers, on his person at the time of the arrest.

Now, whenever a specific portion of our society finds it necessary to carry around all of this identification on their person wherever they go, just to keep from being arrested, that should be a red flag for everyone to see. This is America, not a Nazi-occupied country.

No community of Americans should feel the need to carry around this much ID just to prove they are here legally. As many of us already know, if you carry this much identification around with you at all times, there is a good chance you will become the victim of identity theft. If Erwin were to be robbed, someone could not only steal his money, watch, cell phone, car, whatever– they could also open credit cards, buy items online, and many commit many other crimes in his name. This is the whole reason none of us carry around our Social Security numbers, birth certificates around with us. It is just too easy for someone to steal our identity, and then we would be in a form of hell that can take years to clean up. The fact that this American citizen felt the need to do this just to protect his American identification is just too sad to witness if it weren’t for the fact that even carrying all this ID didn’t help him. He still is in custody for something he isn’t capable of committing. a

The Republican party has already shown its true anti-immigration colors after years of rebuffing any and all attempts to repair our broken immigration system, and, most recently, by making asylum claims practically illegal and after yesterdays announcement of making stipulated removal a nationwide procedure, instead of just along a 100 miles of the US/Mexico border. This change also enables low-level officials to decide if someone should be deported and give them the ability to proceed with deportation immediately.

When I think about reading the news about several CBP facebook groups, from the very people our nation has entrusted to carry out our immigration policies, that was full of anti-immigrant messages and photos, and then hearing about the stipulated removal changes and then reading about this incident of an American citizen getting caught up in the anti-immigration hysteria, I had to ask myself,

“is this improving our immigration system, or making it worse?”

One thing is for certain: when the bottom of this garbage can full of ideas comes off, we will be left with a huge mess and Donald Trump will be blaming the Democrats for the problem as well as the lives that will be broken and lost.

 

The Invisible Wall

Recently Trump claimed to have begun building his big beautiful wall and even had a plaque dedicating this section to himself as the first section of his border wall.

Now, as a point of fact, this section of the wall was built in place of an older barrier that was dilapidated and in need of replacement and was ordered to be rebuilt by then President Obama, who also authorized the funds.

This is not a new wall.

This was not his victory.

Since we cannot trust what Trump says, let’s look at what he’s actually done.

Trump has taken money from the military budget, against the objections of the Pentagon, and is trying to repurpose those funds to build the border wall. My mother taught me that when you take something that doesn’t belong to you, without being asked, It’s called “stealing.” It also makes you wonder how much of the new and highly expanded military budget, money the Pentagon didn’t even ask for, might also be “taken” to build his wall in the future.  I thought the whole big idea of building the wall was that Mexico was going to pay for it. That’s where he got his big applause. Apparently, that line was just a ruse. We are going to pay for this wall, and we aren’t going to have a say about it.

I guess we’ll just send Mexico an invoice or something.

Without a doubt, the Trump administration cannot be trusted.

Trump has put up some pretty impressive invisible barriers, though, while at the same time built a big beautiful door to which he invites conflicts on the world stage, including the possibility of wars on various fronts.

He has reduced funding to the United Nations, tried to leverage our allies, you know the ones we worked with to keep fascism from taking over the free world for 70 years or so, into contributing more toward the UN based on his vast and highly unsuccessful Real Estate experience. The United Nations is what you would call an invisible barrier, stopping would-be dictators and fascists from invading and taking over other nations. Russia, obviously, isn’t a member.

Trump also withdrew the US from the Human Rights Council, an organization that America used to pride themselves as being a part of to make the world a better place to live. This actually paved the way for America to befriend dictators and despots who live outside the law.

Which brings us to the fact that Trump has insulted and infuriated our allies, while at the same time tried to build relationships with the world’s most notorious dictators.

Talk about a destabilizing influence.

Another invisible wall Trump has recently torn down is his threat to withdraw Hundreds of Millions of dollars of aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, with the expressed purpose of trying to get them to stop the asylum caravans coming to our southern border.

Trump, if there was a fire in your kitchen, would you turn up the heat to the stove? Grab a can of gasoline, perhaps?

People are fleeing these countries because of poverty and crime. Taking money away from these governments will NOT make this problem go away–it will make it WORSE!

What we should be doing is giving more money or support to these countries. If we could help train their police departments and help them reduce crime, while also increasing investment in these countries to fight poverty and promote a happy and thriving middle class, then fewer citizens of these countries will want to walk for months to get here. Let’s face it, walking for thousands of miles is not anyone’s Plan A–it’s a last-ditch effort to stay alive.

The money we send to these countries is an invisible wall, keeping other nations out of our back yard. Right now, without our support, these countries are open for business to any other country that wishes to help support them in their effort to create a better economy.

Now that this invisible wall is collapsing, we are going to have Chinese and Russian influences and whoever else wants to encroach upon our sovereignty at our southern border, and our former allies are going to watch from the sidelines because you told them our “Patriotism” was all we needed and they could just go jump off a bridge.

Nice Trump. What are you going to do for an encore, play the fiddle as our nation burns to the ground?

AS you can see, international relations, or a lack thereof, form an invisible barrier to threats from foreign nations. We had some pretty good ones, but Trump doesn’t like those. He likes the ones he can touch and put his name on. The problem is, those kinds of walls don’t work like you think they will. Just ask Rome, China, or Germany, and all the other countries that tried to build physical barriers to keep threats out. Invisible barriers work better than physical ones. They also make more friends, and that’s one thing we could sure use more of these days.

 

The Real National Border Emergency: Brought to you by Trump & GOP

There is a real national emergency at our southern border with Mexico, but it’s not the one Trump is promoting—it’s the one he is creating himself. The fact that the GOP is backing him up on his wild lies makes them complicit.

Many news reporting agencies have documented that in 2018 the Trump administration introduced a “zero-tolerance” policy calling for the prosecution of all individuals who illegally enter the United States. The devastating effect has been the following:

  • Parents have been separated from their children.
  • There was no plan to reunite children with their parents until after a major backlash from the public.
  • Minor children were locked up far longer than legally allowed.
  • More than 4,500 incidents of child abuse against minors in immigration custody have been reported.
  • Twenty-two immigrant deaths in US immigration custody in the past two years has also been documented.
  • The emotional effects of this separation and abuse on these children will be revealing itself for decades to come. Traumatized children tend to exhibit mental and emotional problems as adults. This horrific abuse will likely affect their entire lives.

As if these tragedies weren’t bad enough, the Trump administration continues to persecute immigrants and asylum seekers by:

  • Reducing the number of courts and judges that hear asylum cases which increased incarceration periods and reduced asylum approvals to hereto unheard of numbers.
  • Denying an overwhelming majority of asylum seekers cases making it almost impossible for asylum seekers to achieve protection against threats back home.
  • Sending asylum seekers to a foreign country that we have no control over housing, feeding, medical care or even communications to await their status hearings.

The thinking of the Trump administration with this policy shift was that by destroying families, the will of people to come here would be reduced. Breaking this logic down, it reads—if you are afraid for life as well as that of your children, don’t come here.

The big question is; since when did women & children become a threat to national security? 

Well, they aren’t, which is why Trump makes up lies about MS13, drugs and human trafficking adding into the mix. To gain more support for his border wall, he tries to frighten us with the bogeyman. 

No one cannot trust a pathological liar for a President. But he is much more than that. He is also a Hypocrite, just like all the other sons of immigrants who call for an end to “Chain Migration.” 

If Chain migration is so bad for America, as Donald Trump states, then as our elected leader he should be willing to send his wife Melania’s parents back to their home country. That is what great leaders do; lead by example. The fact that he won’t ever do this proves that either he is not the great leader he thinks he is, or Trump does believe in uniting and protecting families. Instead of promoting an immigration policy that is in conflict with his personal history and making him look untrustworthy, Trump should embrace family-based immigration policies. 

Trump also employed many undocumented workers at his golf courses, and probably in his construction crews as well, so his stand against illegal immigration falls flat. If it’s okay for him to do it, why should it be illegal for others? The fact that he fired these immigrants recently is only for damage control. He has never even apologized to the American people for the “oversight”. Let’s forget it ever happened, right Donald?

Donald Trump has stated on many occasions that our immigration laws are highly broken. Focusing on a wall instead of immigration reform is just a political ruse. 

Walls don’t work. Ask China or the Romans, two famous examples of militarizing borders. Walls didn’t stop the Huns from invading China or the Barbarians from invading Rome. We could also ask the Germans why they tore down their wall, the most fortified and guarded wall in recent history. Thousands of people escaped East Germany in spite of those efforts. All walls are breach-able. Building a wall won’t stop immigration by itself. Walls are tools, not solutions.

In truth; a set of fair and just immigration laws in conjunction with support for our neighbors to combat gangs and crime would go a lot further to slowing down immigration from our neighbors into our country. 

Improved investment in jobs and a stable economy would further reduce strain at our southern border. Families and a rich history with the geography that gave them birth are a huge reason most people love the countries they already live in. Why would anyone want to make a long and treacherous journey to live somewhere else if they could live free and happy lives at home?

America has spent Billions of dollars and thousands of American lives defending citizens of foreign nations from oppression and death around the world. We should be able to do better for our neighbors here at home for less money and with far less human casualty. 

We are the great United States of America. Shouldn’t we expect more from ourselves than just a simple wall?  

Even US military Generals agree there is no military threat at our southern border. On the insistence of Trump and with the full support of the GOP, the only military at the border is ours—we are literally at war with ourselves. 

Trump and the Republicans should be ashamed of themselves. Real people are dying, families are being destroyed, and young lives are being permanently damaged while Trump tells us that fictional bad guys are storming our borders and a wall will fix everything. Only an idiot would think that solving all of our immigration problems were really as simple as building a wall.

The national emergency at the border is real; Trump created it, the Republicans support it—only we can end it. 

Donald Trump is a huge anti-immigrant President- Huge

Donald Trump is running headlong towards the Guinness Book of World Records for what the US administration that hinders immigration, legal or otherwise, into this country. He has done so much to undo our progress on the immigration problem in the year he has led our nation that it is anyone’s guess how far this man will go to make this country White again.

The US has historically produced some pretty horrific immigration legislation over the years, including; the 1798 Aliens and Sedition Act that required immigrants to have lived in this country for 14 years prior to being allowed citizenship, the 1892 The Geary Act that Prohibited the coming of Chinese Persons into the United States for an additional 10 years, the 1917 Asian Exclusion Act that created an Asian ‘Barred Zone” that excluded people from certain asian countries from coming into the US, and many more.

Don’t be surprised to see some of these ideas return to the discussion of what to do about our “immigration crisis.”

IT should stand to reason that this administration may want to actually roll back our immigration laws to 1790 and re-establish the 1790 Immigration act that establishes citizenship to free white persons who have established residency for at least 2 years and have committed no crimes.

How far will Trump’s insanity go towards changing our political ideology

Trump has influenced our current political landscape in so many ways its hard to keep track. Americans don’t seem to care if he knows what he’s talking about, or if he just makes things up in order to get his agenda across. There are websites dedicated to counting his many lies, The Washington Post has listed over 3000 of them, CNN too, as well as the Washington Post, NY Times and many, many more. Evangelicals,  like Rev Jerry Falwell Jr , Franklin Graham, and  others, who often used to keep politicians in line with theology on things like divorce, infidelity and honesty are now just fine with anything Trump wants to do that they don’t even whisper foul when he commits an act against the ten commandments, let alone morality in general.

But the reason many Americans can so easily overlook Trump’s many lies and indiscretions is simple: he’s only human (Republicans are allowed that, Democrats are vilified for it) and he’s not lying as much as he’s telling people what they already believe, so to them, he’s the only one telling the truth.

We have become a nation that no longer looks to the news for truthful information. We are now a society that looks to the news to tell us what we already believe. And the politicians know this, so they are free to lie to us all they want as long as they tell us what we already think the truth is, not matter how far from the truth that idea is.

So what is the next logical step? Americans hopping on the Trump bandwagon and boldly espousing hateful, prejudicial, un-American views.

Current Georgia Congressman hopeful Brian Kemp has just released the video below showing him holding a gun and espousing his Trumpian values completely unafraid of any counter reaction this may bring, just like his idol, Donald Trump.

And its only going to get worse. How much more is this going to spread before we stand up and say we’ve had enough?

America is uniting for immigrants

Labor unions, women’s movements, muslims and more are marching together to stand with their immigrant friends and relatives to show support against an antagonistic President who has recently enacted an unjust travel ban, ended Michelle Obama’s “Let Girls Learn” program and has just begun a push to build his oppressive and highly un-neighborly Wall.

The president seems to be trying very hard to disassociate America from so many of the people that make up this country one has to imagine what country he thinks he is the president of.

And the people of this nation are rising up against his idea of what makes America Great.

If you look at the makeup of people who are uniting against him, one thing is going to be certain; making America great will mean getting a new president.

The Problem with Travel Bans

I read an article on Forbes about Trump’s travel ban and what struck me most is how people are looking at this issue. These lawyers are arguing about how it can be legal or what the legal problems are. Unfortunately, if you’ve ever had to deal with the courts you will understand that lawyers can remove all the humanity of an issue in short order.

Why is nobody looking at the usefulness of the order or how it affects people?

By broadly discriminating against a religious group the effect is obvious. If we are to believe most terrorists are Muslims, why are we not also telling Catholic priests they cannot work with children? I know to Christians that sounds like a horrendous proposition. The Muslim travel ban would sound equally as despicable if you were Muslim. We know not all Catholic priests are pedophiles, so we don’t even talk about such an idea, yet how can we so easily talk about Muslims like we are with this travel ban? I personally know many, many muslims and I know they are not terrorists. Many are some of the nicest, most generous people I know. A travel ban based on a religious basis is most incredibly insulting, insensitive and ultimately non-productive.

Many people are also discussing how it is NOT a discriminatory edict by reflecting on many Muslim nations that are not on the ban list, yet within all of the countries on the ban list we are clearly targeting Muslims. Saying we are not targeting Muslims from Pakistan so therefore we are not targeting Muslims is senseless. Why are Pakistan and Iraq NOT on the list? We know many terrorists train or are funded by some Pakistanis and ISIS is based mainly in Iraq and Syria. This makes no sense at all. We are targeting Muslim majority countries in conflict, yet we are not including Pakistan and Iraq, two of the most violent and troubled nations on earth? Clearly we are making this stuff up as we go along and trying to justify our actions based on not including a few very controversial nations. If we are just trying to make America safe, shouldn’t we also have a ban against white supremacists in public schools and movie theaters?

And since most people on earth are not terrorists, because if they were there would be terrorist events happening in every country every day, how is this affecting people and families who are not terrorists trying to come to this country, or especially those trying to flee the conflicts in their own home nations? It could be devastating for many very innocent people.

Then there are those who say people with citizenship, dual citizenship, visas, green cards, etc in the countries on the list are not affected. Why not? The people who flew into the twin towers had American visas. In England, many of the terrorists were citizens or had visas too. In the most recent attack in England, Khalid Masood was an English citizen. Why is England not on the no fly list? He could have flown here and committed his crimes. Look at France, Belgium and Germany. Citizens, visas all.

This brings up the usefulness of such a ban. We know that religion is not the perpetrator of terrorism. Christians and Muslims are listed in atrocities all over the globe, yet because we are a “Christian” nation, we are focusing only on the Muslims. This is blatantly discriminatory. You cannot argue otherwise without omitting many obvious and convenient facts.

Terrorists are Zealots. They are willing to go to extremes to get their message across. They use whatever facts they wish to use to carry their anger and hate to a broader audience. If we truly want to make the world safer, we need to work with all communities to disarm the hate, and disarm the individuals who would harm innocent people.

A real war on terrorism would put a ban on installing dictators and government that persecute their citizens in other countries just because they would work favorably with us. This would go far in removing hate against a nation because of how they are being treated by us. We also need to persecute organizations, companies and the very laws that make it easy for them to acquire weapons and the tools to carry out their crimes.

We need to reduce  the access to weapons as well as the ammunition of hate. This would be more effective than a travel ban. Unfortunately we love our easy access to weapons, and our greed keeps us producing hate around the world. We should stop blaming others for our problems and start taking the blame ourselves. Only then can we work towards making our nation and the world safer.

Stars and stripes on gun

3 easy steps for a better immigration system

Alex Nowrasteh   wrote a piece for USnews.com outlining 3 easy steps for a better immigration system that the next president could do to help with our highly problematic  system. It is a wonderful article, but I wonder about the third suggestion of having states create their own visa programs. He makes several wonderful points about states having differing needs for guest workers, and therefore would be in position to create the most beneficial types of visas for the industries that need guest workers most and that are not currently offered by the federal immigration visa system, but you have to wonder about competing visa programs and how difficult it would make  it for guest workers to change jobs, move to another state, or transfer when a company moves and the new state does not offer the same kind of visa program. This could be fodder for new problems and a more difficult situation for companies and immigrant families.

Still, it is a wonderful article and well thought out, and at least somebody is looking at positive ways to mend our broken immigration system. Please take a look for yourself and let me know what you think.

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2016-11-01/three-steps-to-immigration-reform

The Immigration Force

FWD.US gives us a peek into what would it look like to have an immigration force rounding up people and disrupting businesses, familes and society in general.

 

The battle for the 14th Amendment

For as long as our constitution has been around, certain members of our community and their hired guns in Washington have tried to change our immigration laws in an effort to “keep our country white.” The 14th amendment has been under attack since it’s inception during the civil war.

This infographic helps to demonstrate the effects on such an attack.

14th Amendment2