How to stop ethnic cleansing

July 7, 2018

On Thursday, the steady drumbeat of stories of Scott Pruitt’s epic corruption finally forced the EPA head to resign. Over the last several months, there have been news stories on an almost daily basis, which detailed Pruitt’s narcissism, vindictiveness, avarice and dishonesty. Our glee over Pruitt’s downfall, however, must be tempered by the knowledge that his replacement, former coal lobbyist, Andrew Wheeler, will pursue the same environment-destroying policies, but with a veneer of professionalism.Before we could digest Pruitt’s ignominious fall, the despotic orange reptile in the Oval Office hijacked the news cycle with another disgraceful performance Thursday night. Because Trump has a bottomless pit of malevolent neediness where his soul should be, he continually stages rallies of his sycophantic white nationalist supporters in order to indulge his worst impulses. Thursday night was no exception. In the course of his unhinged rant, Trump mocked Bush 41’s Points of Light Foundation, Senator Elizabth Warren and the #MeToo Movement. With this vile and pathetic man, there really is no bottom. There is a danger, though, in getting so caught up in the offensive and outrageous Trump freak show, that we are blinded to the ethnic cleansing campaign being furiously pursued by his administration.Just yesterday, the administration asked a federal court to extend the deadline for reuniting the nearly 3000 families ripped apart at the border (Source: “Trump administration asks for more time to reunite kids and parents separated at border,” by Julia Ainsley, NBCNews.com, 7/6/18). This request arrives after we have learned that Customs and Border Patrol destroyed identifying records of some of the children and families, making it that much harder to reunite them. The report of the 14 month old child who was returned to his mother after 85 days completely filthy and covered with lice, is a frightening window into the rampant abuse these children are suffering at the hands of the United States government (Source: “‘My son is not the same’: New testimony paints a bleak picture of family separation,” by Lisa Desjardins, Joshua Barajas and Daniel Bush, PBS NewsHour, PBS.org, 7/5/18).Jeff Session’s Justice Department has also launched a task force to “investigate” allegedly fraudulent naturalizations, undoubtedly to strip citizenship from naturalized citizens of color. Like the fabricated issue of “voter fraud,” “naturalization fraud” is an invented problem that gives the government an excuse to target people of color and strip them of their rights (Source: “Trump Administration Launches Effort to Strip Citizenship From Those Suspected of Naturalization Irregularities,” by Elliot Hannon, Slate.com, 6/11/18).Lastly, in the ultimate triumph of racial animus over good faith, the administration has begun reneging on the agreement (under a program created by George W. Bush) to provide immigrant service members with a path to citizenship. In recent weeks, the Army has abruptly discharged immigrant service members from nations as disparate as Dominica, Brazil, India and Pakistan, claiming, without explanation, that they pose “security risks,” (Source: “U.S. Army quietly discharging immigrant recruits,” by Martha Mendoza and Garance White, Associated Press, ArmyTimes.com, 7/6/18).Given that Republicans control the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, we can hardly expect proper oversight of these actions. Given the presence of extremists like Steve King (a literal racist who retweets Nazis) and Jim Jordan (a Freedom Caucus hardliner who has recently been accused of turning a blind eye to rampant sexual abuse of Ohio State wrestlers during his tenure there as Assistant Coach), in that Republican majority, we should, in fact, anticipate enthusiastic support for these abhorrent policies. Conversely, among the Democrats on that committee are Pramila Jayapal, who has been a fierce critic of these forced separations, Luis Guitterez and Sheila Jackson Lee. It is clear that the administration officials behind these policies, and the Congressmen who support them, think that they can oppress and deport their way into a white nationalist ethno-state. We had better elect people who can stop them.

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