Inhuman Border

It is promising that the House of Representatives has approved $4.5 billion to improve the health and safety of migrants.

The chilling image of a Salvadoran man and his daughter – who was less than two years old – drowned and floating on the bank of the Río Bravo is the best illustration of the huge human tragedy that is currently taking place at the United States’ southern border, and of how, when applied to immigration, the simplistic and radical solutions of populist policies do not fix the problem, but increase suffering.

From the moment he started his race for the White House, Donald Trump has appeared continually obsessed by immigration, which he considers to be one of the main national security issues for the U.S. Far from providing solutions or alleviating the problem, his proposals, however, first as a candidate and then as president, have only exacerbated the situation. Where those proposals have not created legal chaos, they have sparked unwanted diplomatic tensions, or, worst of all, have caused completely unnecessary suffering to those detained for trying to enter the United States, as well as their families. It is enough to recall the harsh images of children watching as border police handcuffed their mothers, or of minors separated from their parents for months.

None of this has altered the current administration’s stance. Migrant minors are still being treated in a way that constantly disregards international treaties which protect children from cruelty and neglect, particularly when inflicted by a country’s authorities themselves. The degrading conditions in which 300 minors were kept in a Texas detention center are beneath a republican democracy that was founded and built up precisely as a result of immigration. Trump himself could say a lot about this: his paternal grandfather and his mother were both immigrants. The resignation of acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner John Sanders – forced out by the outrage of many of his fellow American – is but a meaningless gesture if he is indeed succeeded by a representative of the hard-line wing of Trumpism, as appears to be the case.

In this bleak context, it is promising that the Democratic Party has taken the offensive. The passage of a bill in the House of Representatives providing $4.5 billion in order to improve the health and safety of migrants crossing the border is in line with both basic humane treatment and the U.S. tradition of welcoming immigrants. At the same time, the Democratic Party has started the process of selecting a candidate for the presidential election next year – a golden chance to show a viable alternative to Trump.