August 14, 2019
It is easy to feel as though we all have plummeted, en masse, to Dante’s 10th circle of Hell. We are subjected, on a daily basis, to acts of unspeakable depravity, cruelty and violence, led or inspired by this administration. There appears to be no level to which this administration will not sink.
Mere days after watching Latinx people murdered in cold blood in racially targeted mass shootings, this administration carried out a raid on chicken processing plants in Mississippi on the first day of school, in keeping with their guiding principles of governing through “fear, cruelty and chaos.”. The DHS raid rounded up nearly 700 undocumented workers, some of whom have been in this country for 19 years. To this regime, though, there was no escape from the crime of being Brown. A callous federal prosecutor responded to multiple tales of traumatized children by analogizing crossing the border with drug abuse or tax evasion and claimed that the government had no choice, (Source: “Their parents were taken in Mississippi immigration raids. For these kids, the trauma is just beginning,” by Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN.com, 8/11/19).
Interestingly, no one involved with the management of the Koch Foods plant was arrested, even though the raid occurred a year after Koch paid nearly $4,000,000 to settle an EEOC action alleging multiple labor law violations, including sexual harassment, exploitation and intimidation of Latinx workers, (Source: “Allegations of labor abuses dogged Mississippi plant years before immigration raids,” by Mica Rosenberg, Reuters.com, 8/9/19). Among the alleged abuses, supervisors groped women workers and hit others, threatening any who complained with “turning them in to the immigration authorities.” Evidence that Koch Foods management was supremely unbothered—five days after the raid, Koch held a job fair down the street from where the raid took place, (Source: “Job fair after ICE raids: Here’s who showed up for Koch Foods plant jobs,” by Justin Vicory, Mississippi Clarion Ledger, 8/12/19).
As if that calculated sadism were not enough, on Monday, Acting Citizenship and Immigration Services Head, Ken Cuccinelli, announced new rules for green card eligibility that radically alter the definition of who is considered a “public charge.” The “public charge” rule, which has been in place since the 1880s, deems those who are primarily dependent on the government for support, as evidenced by their receipt of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or Supplemental Security Income as “public charges,” (Source: “Frequently Asked Questions: Proposed Changes to the Public Charge Rule,” National Immigration Law Center, nilc.org, November 2018).
The new rule, which is poised to go into effect in October of this year, expands the criteria to include receipt of Section 8 housing vouchers, participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and various healthcare programs. The mere announcement of the proposed rule has had a chilling effect, with immigrants foregoing necessary healthcare or other benefits for fear of jeopardizing their ability to secure permanent residence or citizenship. If implemented, it stands to impact up to 26 million people, (Source: “Why the Trump administration is going after low-income immigrants, explained by an expert,” by Aaron Rupar, Vox.com, 8/12/19).
The architect of this rule, Ken Cuccinelli, is an avowed racist with a history of opposition to birthright citizenship,(Source: “Trump Expected to Pick Ken Cucinnelli for Immigration Policy Role,” by Maggie Haberman and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, The New York Times, 5/21/19). This administration is dedicated, with messianic zeal, to building a white supremacist state. They won’t rest until every nonwhite person in this country is rendered a stateless nonentity, doomed to be nothing more than the victims of lawless and state-sanctioned violence. If we hope to stop them, neither can we.
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