Crossing the U.S.-Mexico border is a misdemeanor offense. “Being illegally present in the U.S. has always been a civil, not criminal, violation of the Immigrant & Nationality Act (INA), and subsequent deportation and associated administrative processes are civil proceedings.” So says the Congressional Research Service in a report for Congress in 2006. Unlawful presence is not a crime, it is a civil violation.
On June 25th, 2012, the Supreme Court stated in a 5–3 decision that, “as a general rule, it is not a crime for a removable alien to remain present in the United States.” This ruling was part of an appeal to Arizona’s SB 1070, a law that allowed police to detain anyone that is suspected of being in the U.S. illegally, and required that any immigrant carry identification which allowed them to be in the country legally.
What the Supreme Court ruled, exactly, was that three of the four provisions of the law were preempted by federal law. The Court struck down the requirement of legal immigrants to carry documents at all times, that police are able to arrest anyone suspected of being an illegal immigrant, and that illegal immigrants are not able to search for, or hold a job in the state of Arizona. The Court did, however, uphold the law stating police can investigate the immigration status of anyone stopped, detained, or arrested if there is a reasonable suspicion of illegal status.
None of this has changed since then in the rule of law. The only thing that has changed is the memo sent by Attorney General Jeff Sessions on April 6th, 2018, which directed all U.S. Attorneys to adopt a “zero-tolerance policy for all offenses referred for prosecution…(that) shall supersede any existing policies”, essentially removing “catch & release” and literally removing children from their parents, who are being prosecuted for crossing the border illegally, and sending them to makeshift detention centers where kids sit in cages. We don’t know where the girls and toddlers are since we have only seen pictures of the boys and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen doesn’t even know why, or at least she isn’t telling us.
Secretary Nielson conducted a press briefing on Monday June 18th apparently to try and provide answers to the people about these children being removed and detained. She lied repeatedly, at one moment claimed the children were allowed to contact their parents by phone, then said parents are able to claim their children once they are released, which seems pretty far-fetched considering the adults are detained in immigration detention and eventually appear before an immigration judge before they rule if they will be deported or be sent to federal prison. The only way these children are reunited with their parents is if the adult(s) are deported.
If you look at the administration’s media wing, Fox News, there are disturbing narratives being pushed forward such as Laura Ingraham saying detention facilities are essentially summer camps. Summer camps that the parents did not sign up for, nor can they come and pick their children up.
Tucker Carlson said, “You think any of these people care about family separation? If they did, they’d be upset about the collapse of the American family, which is measurable and real. They’re not. They welcome that collapse, because strong families are an impediment to their political power.” He went on, “This is one of those moments that tells you everything about our ruling class. They care far more about foreigners than about their own people.”
Tucker, the ruling class is this administration.
The executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, Mark Krikoiran, went on the President’s favorite TV show Fox & Friends to say falsely claimed children can just leave, and that the detention centers are a big step up for the children being detained. (By the way, the Center for Immigration Studies was founded by John Tanton. Tanton is an ophthalmologist (eye doctor), opposes immigration based on race, and also formed groups designed to advocate for English as the official language of all levels of government in the U.S., and the Southern Poverty Law Center had declared one of his groups, ProEnglish, a hate group. Look it up.)
These are all lies. Everywhere you look in this administration, there’s lies.
The President has, of course, tried to say that Democrats are the ones responsible for this policy. Secretary Nielson even blamed loopholes created by previous administrations as well as Congress and stated there is no other option but to process immigrants crossing the border through the criminal justice system.
There is no law requiring immigrant families be separated. These are all policies and decisions that the Trump Presidency has adopted on their own accord, voluntarily. The fact that Secretary Nielson instructed Congress to act on this is appalling. All that needs to happen for this to stop is the President needs to make one phone call to Jeff Sessions and order him to rescind the memo sent on 4/6, and to inform the U.S. Attorneys on the SW border to stop the zero-tolerance policy. But he won’t. We all know he won’t. Instead, the President is using these children as chess pieces.
On Monday, Trump stated “The United States will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility,” digging in on a hardline stance because he cannot back down without losing political support from his base. Being a decent person would piss off his supporters.
What is wrong with a path to citizenship? Why can’t we agree that providing immigrants with a way to be a legal United States citizen is the right and just thing to do? Surely, providing these human beings with a way to be a person with legal status in this country, to be able to find work and provide, to pay taxes, to vote, to be able to get shitty American health care, is what we should be doing. Instead, this administration is detaining children, putting them in cages, and prosecuting their parents for crossing a border. For trying to reunite with their families currently in America, for trying to make a better life, for leaving a no-win situation for a seemingly better one only to be either thrown in prison or sent back to their shitty situation.
For all the hand wringing and pearl clutching about immigrants stealing jobs, committing crimes, taking advantage of our health care system, and God knows what else people use to justify less brown people being allowed into this country, what are you so afraid of? Do you really want to work at Ashley Furniture or Gold’n Plump, or work as a farmhand, because these are the jobs illegal immigrants take in this area. Do you really think illegal immigrants are stealing good paying jobs with benefits and sick pay? They’re not even taking the jobs Americans don’t want. In addition, crimes are predominantly one sided — whites commit crimes against other whites, blacks commit crimes against other blacks, and hispanics commit crimes against other hispanics, all at an extremely high rate.
We don’t know how to be a community of people with different backgrounds and ethnicities, and at the very least we don’t act like it even if we are able to coexist. A lot of people would rather be surrounded by people that are like them in every way.
What the fuck is wrong with people?
