For some time now, particularly during the four years of Donald Trump’s presidency, the Republicans have led an orchestrated attack, not only against the undocumented, but against immigrants with documents and asylum seekers. This, in a country like the United States, which prides itself on being the beacon of hope for the needy and persecuted.
Suffice it to remember that around November of 2019, still in the Trump government, the most anti-immigrant of the modern era, those who had applied for asylum exceeded 24 a thousand at a time when the imposition of the “Stay in Mexico” program was maintained ; however, the sad reality was that only 117 of the applicants received asylum, that is, 0.4%!, according to information shared at the time by Syracuse University. Things currently, of course, have not changed much, despite the initiative of the Biden government to speed up asylum processes, since there are still at least 1.5 million cases pending.
In that sense , the attack on asylum laws is real. Perhaps you, a relative or an acquaintance is a beneficiary of asylum and perhaps you think that what happens from now on does not matter to you, since you have already secured your stay in the United States. But you should remember that life is like a wheel: sometimes we are up and sometimes down. And it may not be you who requires asylum, but some other family member, acquaintance, compatriot or any human being from other latitudes, because the instability in many parts of the world, including Latin America, is still latent.
You can see it in the thousands of migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Haiti and other nations who have been stranded for months on the US-Mexico border trying submit their asylum applications, but prevented from doing so due to Title 42, that health measure that allows the expulsion of migrants without the possibility of requesting asylum because the Trump administration, and then that of Biden, they decided that the Covid-19 pandemic merits the implementation of said program.
Added to this is the fact that that for more migratory policies tending to dissuade the undocumented, the reasons of origin that expel thousands of them from their respective nations intensify every day every day, from poverty and lack of employment, to the endemic violence that consumes entire populations.
It is a vicious circle that those who simply and from the comfort of their home refuse to analyze and understand. Twitter or Facebook account condemn the right of those thousands of human beings to exist and support their families; vicious circle of which the United States has also been responsible, after the continuous invasions of the last century in the Central American region, but of which very few remember when it comes to justifying the safeguarding of the American way of life.
But, at least, the Biden government announced that as of May 23 it will stop implementing the Title 42, which generated reactions in favor, but also against, of those who argue that the United States will not be able to maneuver the increase in migrants that is anticipated in the border strip, once the restriction of the Title is lifted 42.
In Congress, moderate Republican and Democratic legislators have joined forces to prevent Title 42 from being eliminated . Democratic Senators from Arizona, Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly, introduced a bill that seeks to delay by 60 days the date to eliminate the Title 24. The measure is co-sponsored by Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.), John Cornyn (R-Texas.), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Jon Tester (D-MT), Rob Portman (R-OH), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and John Thune (R-SD).
On the other hand, recent polls indicate that Americans seem to favor keeping Title 42 in the face of the Republican-fueled perception that what will come will be an “invasion”; the other perception is that a power like the United States will be unable to handle the increase in migrants in the border area. Those same Americans, 56%, support Central American migrants seeking asylum.
Let’s say that The Title 42 controversy has come in handy for Republican plans to continue undermining asylum laws, this time with the excuse of the pandemic, which they use politically when they It is convenient, but they protested angrily and fanatically when it was recommended that for public health they use face masks and give them the vaccine; They argued that this was “an imposition” that “violated” their rights, as if the world revolved around their endemic selfishness and lack of global understanding of the real meaning of a pandemic.
But those who have benefited from asylum, including many Latin Americans who support the Republican Party, should question the real intentions of the politicians to whom they support and vote. Because the citizens of countries like Venezuela or Cuba who have managed to flee and have found asylum in the United States that has allowed them to continue with their lives, contribute to this nation and, in many cases, fight from here, should not support policies that in In reality, they seek to limit other people like them, including their own nationals, from having the opportunity to request asylum.
That would be a contradiction that would directly damage the very philosophy of broad and unrestricted aid —which has promoted United States throughout its history—and that is provoking an inevitable clash of forces between those who strive for the country to keep its arms open to the underdog and those who grotesquely close the doors on them, turning this nation into a kind of anti-immigrant stronghold.
The true intention of the Republicans is not to limit immigration for economic reasons, as they always argue, because in fact It has just been revealed that the limits imposed on such migration during the Trump administration produced a shortage of workers —after the loss of 2 million immigrants who are currently lacking—, which in turn caused a drop in supplies and resulted, logically, in increases in the prices of products.
The Republican plan is more Machiavellian, since it consists of limiting the entry into the country of migrants who they consider to be an attempt against their goal of preventing this nation from continuing being diverse and inclusive. Their false theory of “cultural replacement” reveals nothing more than an obtuse fanaticism with which they show a deep anti-immigrant sentiment and execrable racism.
Those who have benefited from asylum and those who defend that this nation continue to be that beacon of hope, they must raise their voices and not overlap those who promote nativist, discriminatory and racist agendas.