For many more smiles like little Wilton

June 2, 2021

Photo: ED JONES / AFP / Getty Images

For: David Torres 01 of June 2021

There have been so many contrasts that have been marking a profound difference between the last administration and the one currently occupying the White House, that a single and frank smile like that of the Nicaraguan minor Wilton Gutiérrez , captured in a recent image, could symbolize what has happened and what is happening, at least in the US immigration field.

It is not that simple, of course. And while the fact that undocumented immigrants are now receiving dignified and humane treatment at the border is plausible, in the end that was one of the promises of the current government; And fulfilling it, of course, is his obligation, politically and morally speaking.

But there is no doubt that after so many and such long four years of ignominy suffered as immigrants of color, especially those who have opted for asylum from the most impoverished regions of Latin America, to see the smile of that Central American minor multiplied in all the media and social networks means a lot.

And not just because Wilton, from 10 years old, he was found asking for help at the border just last April, alone, after being abandoned by the group of migrants with whom he came, but because of what his prayers and tears represented at that precise moment for millions of migrants from around the world who are outside their countries of origin in search of a better accommodation on the planet.

The figures more recent remind us that there are more than 270 million international migrants , which includes about 40 million children, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a number that could increase by leaps and bounds if the host nations do not begin to modify his relationship and his responsibility with the world migration issue.

Thus, Wilton’s situation was too serious, as he had not only fatigue on his shoulders physical and hunger, but the total ignorance of where he was. That is, he was a small human being lost in himself, with no other tools than the survival instinct and common sense, which for his age he knew how to handle very well.

The fact that your story ended well is also important, not because of the consequent news coverage of the “happy ending”, but because in other circumstances, if it had happened just a year earlier — during one of the most anti-immigrant and xenophobic governments in the history of the United States such as that of Donald Trump – little Wilton would have been ignored, sent to a detention center where he would go, caged, through the worst situations of neglect and, finally,

His deportation, of course, would have been a fact ; Or, he would remain for months, if not years, without the possibility of seeing his family again, as happened at the time with thousands of migrant minors who were separated from their parents at the border, many of whom are being still reunited with their relatives, at the behest of the special team created by the Biden government for that purpose.

What led to an administration like the of Trump to adopt xenophobia as an immigration policy, especially against migrant minors, and what leads the Biden government to counteract with more just and humane migration policies all that negative burden that still weighs on the national and international level in reference to the American society when it comes to migration?

That and many other questions remain in the air without a concrete answer, except that each of the parties give to justify their immigration policies, one against and the other in favor of their own immigrants tes. In fact, the final termination of the program “Remain in Mexico” , which forced asylum seekers to wait for a response for months in Mexican territory, or Biden’s plan to streamline and speed up the procedures migrations , or even TPS for the Haitian community, are the most recent decisions that suggest an even greater eventual benefit for millions of undocumented immigrants who have waited for decades to regularize their situation.

But while that comes, and even though there is still a huge debt with immigrants, it is comforting to see that something is you are moving to the right side of history. Because when was the last time we saw an undocumented minor smile as a product of their own history?

Those little things cannot go unnoticed . No longer.