Seeking asylum in another country is the last refuge of desperate people. Leaving one’s home and fleeing with just the possessions one can carry, often with children in tow and traveling through dangerous territory where criminals can take advantage of your desperation, is not a decision that people make lightly. Hence the right to seek asylum is one that should be protected for the sake of simple humanity. But decency and humanity are not words that racist Trump and his racist cohorts understand and so it should not be surprising that they have almost completely destroyed even the limited protections in the US that were in place to protect the right to asylum
John Oliver describes the appalling things that this administration has done.
As an example of the repercussions of these actions, the radio program This American Life had an episode this week about one couple from Nicaragua and their eight-year old daughter who made the dangerous trek through the desert to the US and surrendered to the US border patrol and asked for asylum. The couple had brought with them carefully collected documentation that showed conclusively that they had been specifically targeted for persecution for their anti-government political activity back in Nicaragua. Normally the US looks vary favorably upon people fleeing countries that it deems as hostile and Nicaragua under Daniel Ortega certainly fits that description. The family should have at least been given a hearing. But to their shock, not only did no one even bother to look into their case or their documentation, they were summarily put onto a charter plane with other asylum seekers and sent back to Nicaragua where they now live in hiding.
You can listen to that story here.
Every person in this administration should be sentenced to live the rest of their miserable existence in Nicaragua under the conditions that these refugees have endured. No parole, no escape, no mercy, no relief.
@1:
You’re being far too kind.
Also, Nicaragua has enough problems without a huge influx of @$$holes. What we need is a Golgafrinchan Ark B.
Nationalism is a crime.
“The way a government treats refugees is very instructive, because it shows you how they would treat the rest of us if they thought they could get away with it.” -- Tony Benn (One of the finest parliamentarians Britain has ever produced.)
I can’t decide whether the current wave of anti-refugee sentiment is simply because the right has always been terrible on the issue, or because they’re consciously preparing for the inevitable displacement of unimaginable numbers of people by the effects climate change.
Dunc @5: Why not both?
Fair point.
@ 1 johnson catman
Every person in this administration should be sentenced to live the rest of their miserable existence in Nicaragua
The Trump
regimeadministration and earlier ones have done enough damage to Nicaragua already. Why not just requisition a few of those cages got ICE has been using for those kids and park them somewhere in a nice Arizona desert?that not got.
I don’t know. Democrats and Republicans are basically the same. I’m still on the fence…