Attacks on Legal Immigration and Even Children Show the Administration’s True Intent

This administration’s continued attack on the legal immigration system shows the true intent, to make this country’s immigration policies biased towards Northern Europeans in ways not seen in over 60 years. The ongoing mass deportation campaign is breaking records, separating families, ripping people from their homes and the broken windows of cars. Recent reports show a spike in illegal deportations of people pending asylum applications. In the last several weeks, the administration has begun targeting even the unaccompanied children by shifting funding for legal services away from the respected non-profit Acacia Center, forcing babies to 7 year olds to face judges without representation, fewer than one in ten migrant children succeed in being able to legally stay in the country.

The administration has ended Temporary Protected Status for ten countries, including 300,000 Haitians, who are now being sent into harm’s way.  It is a moral travesty to send people back to unsafe conditions that could have fatal consequences, yet we see this happening daily funneling people into horrendous detention conditions as a strategy designed to manipulate people into signing voluntary departure papers, and are even sending people to third countries of which they have no ties.

Meanwhile it is getting more difficult for those applying for a green cards as the administration issued new rules forcing humanitarian parolees to go back to the country they fled to await the processing, and now excluding applicants who have taken public benefits, of which 22 states are currently challenging through litigation. The U.S. refugee program, renowned as a global leader in resettlement, has been reduced to primarily receiving White South Africans as new arrivals. According to the Rainbow Railroad, the unwelcoming policies have heavily impacted the LGBTQ+ community with a record number moving from the U.S. people seeking asylum in other countries, and virtually no path to asylum or refugee status for those fleeing repressive anti-gay policies in their countries of origin.

These policies have never been about legal versus unauthorized migration, but about this administration’s creating a blatant white supremacist and inhumane immigration system that values patriarchal norms. What we see in the media, is largely the violent arrests of our immigrant neighbors, but this administration continues to eviscerate the legal immigration system as well with the goal of negative immigration numbers tending to go unnoticed by many passive observers. Those impacted by these actions deserve vital lifelines, not the callous denials of an administration determined to abandon our moral compass. We must reverse course and set a standard towards a higher calling of principled compassion and human rights prioritizing inclusivity and belonging, not an outdated vision of white supremacy. For these reasons, we have a moral responsibility to act and organize. The UCC Nurture the Soul webinar recently focused on what we can do to stop detention, with almost two hundred people participating (find the recording here). We must make our voices heard at the ballot box at Our Faith Our Vote and serve as poll chaplains, while also continuing to let Congress know our support for things like an extended TPS for Haitians (see Action Alerts from the UCC and Church World Service). Sign up with the UCC National Collaborative on Immigration for continued updates.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Noel Andersen is Minister for Immigration Justice for the United Church of Christ.

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