GOP Anti-Immigration Reform Bill
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Republicans and undemocratic Dems share blame on Washington’s deplorable mistreatment of unwanted aliens.
Separating parents from children is one of countless abuses committed against defenseless, needy, in many cases oppressed people deserving much better.
Equity and justice for all is rejected by both right wings of America’s one-party state, serving privileged interests exclusively, disdainful of everyone else, notably the nation’s most needy along with unwanted aliens from the wrong countries.
Neoliberal and immigration harshness has bipartisan support, Dems pretending to be kinder and gentler than their GOP counterparts, proved otherwise during the Clinton and Obama years in power.
On June 19, House Republicans introduced so-called HR 6136: Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2018.
The bad news is it has nothing to do with responsible immigration reform. The good news is it’s highly unlikely to pass and be enacted into law, nor a Senate version.
Leaving the immigration quagmire festering unresolved is further bad news. The House measure could be voted on any time in the coming days.
Instead of protecting alien minors (so-called “dreamers”), along with ending family separations, it continues both unacceptable practices.
If enacted into law, dreamers would face a long, protracted gauntlet of deplorable challenges to become citizens, far too few having a chance to achieve their goal.
Harsh refugee and asylum provisions would facilitate holding parents and children in concentration camp detention – most subject to deportation and/or prosecution for wanting to live free from horrific repression or risk of death in a US war theater.
The House measure calls for wasting $25 billion on an oppressive, easily circumvented border wall by going around, beneath or possibly through it.
The bill makes it easier to incarcerate unwanted alien families under oppressively harsh conditions, denying them fundamental rights everyone everywhere deserves.
Trump regime “zero tolerance” policies would remain unchanged. His DHS secretary Kirstjen Nielson lied, claiming:
“For those seeking asylum at ports of entry, we have continued the policy from previous administrations and will only separate if the child is in danger, there is no custodial relationship between ‘family’ members, or if the adult has broken a law.”
She’s charged in an ACLU class action lawsuit, representing separated families by the Trump regime.
According to the American Immigration Lawyers Association associate director of government relations Kate Voigt:
The House bill “would be terrible for the children brought across the border by their parents. They could and would still be separated from the parents. They would have less protections than under current law, and they would be subjected to prolonged detention.”
The measure ends diversity visa and family reunification programs, along with other harsh limits on legal immigration.
The Trump regime is militantly hostile to unwanted aliens because of their race, ethnicity and/or religion.
On April 6, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the regime’s new “zero-tolerance policy,” prohibiting what he called “attempted illegal entry and illegal entry into the United States by an alien.”
On May 7, he said the DOJ and DHS would partner to detain, prosecute, and deport unwanted alien families coming to America, saying:
“If you don’t want your child to be separated, don’t bring them across the border illegally.”
Unwanted immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers are unwelcome in America. Treating arrivals harshly is to discourage others from coming.
Because of jobs-destroying trade policies, along with US wars of aggression in multiple theaters, Muslim countries targeted, the human tide of desperate people is unstoppable.
So is the Trump regime’s hostility toward world peace and stability, democratic values, and equity and justice for all.
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