A Guantanamo Bay for Children on U.S. Soil
As my faithful readers know, this blog is about my love for art and archaeology. But I cannot stay silent as a great crime is being committed on American soil: the forceful separation and detention of children of immigrants, including those who are undocumented and those seeking asylum, so that they can be interned in separate camps, away from the scrutiny of American media.
Like many of you, I have been appalled by the steady decline of civility in American political discourse, in which it is now permissible to smear elected officials, including a former Vice President, with such epithets as crooked, lying, sleazy, or moronic. Apparently, these politicians have neither the intellect nor the inclination to plead their case with facts and evidence, preferring instead to sling mud in the hope it will stick. In the Trump Era, nothing is surprising any more, not even the debasement of the office of the U.S. Presidency.
But when a President uses the forceful detention of young children in off-limits camps to score political points, all Americans, regardless of party affiliation, should stand up and say, enough is enough. This is not what American values, and indeed Christian values, are about. To detain illegal immigrants while their case is being heard is lawful; to tear families apart is not.
Of course, we all know what Mr. Trump’s intentions are: to pressure the ultra-conservative wing in his party to agree to pending legislation that would provide for funds to build a wall while at the same time offer a path to citizenship to “Dreamers.” To the hard-right wing of the GOP, the idea of such an “amnesty” is anathema. Hence, the President’s use of strong-arm tactics, by using the psychological trauma of young children separated from their mothers as leverage. How much lower can this administration go?
To add insult to injury, the Trump Administration tries to provide political cover to its base by claiming that “this is all the Democrats’ fault.” Perhaps some gullible souls will believe that false claim, but the facts are otherwise. Just to be clear: the current U.S. immigration law, which is the result of bipartisan legislation dating back to the 1980’s (including the Immigration Act of 1990, signed into law by George H. W. Bush, a Republican) does NOT allow for the separation of children and parents. Instead, the separation policy is the direct and explicit outcome of the “zero tolerance” policy that Attorney General Jeff Sessions promulgated on April 6, 2018.
On May 7, 2018, Sessions made it crystal clear that the policy of tearing children from their parents was an initiative of his U.S. Justice Department, and not “the Democrats.” “If you smuggle illegal aliens across our border,” he said in two speeches to law enforcement officials as reported by NPR, “then we will prosecute you. If you are smuggling a child, then we will prosecute you and that child will be separated from you as required by law. If you don’t like that, then don’t smuggle children over our border.”
This claim, as required by law, is entirely baseless. There is no U.S. legislation that requires illegal immigrants to be separated from their children. This is pure fiction. But then again, over the last two years, we have often seen how fiction can displace the facts if it serves a specific political purpose. In fact, we have to go back to the Nixon years to see similar falsehoods being peddled by a politician claiming to be the highest justice official in the land.
What astonishes me above all, however, is two things. One, the surprisingly muted protest from the GOP, which has always prided itself as the party of family values, and always upheld the sanctity of the family unit against such pernicious attacks as gay marriage. It took a courageous outcry from a former first lady, Laura Bush, in a Washington Post editorial to say what few men in the GOP dare to say, for fear of invoking the wrath of Trump’s Kremlin-like camarilla. This comes, of course, in the wake of the Trump Administration’s attack on another cherished Republican value, that of free trade. Apparently, GOP values don’t count for much anymore if one’s Congressional seat is at stake.
The other thing that amazes me is how some Christian leaders continue to support Mr. Trump in this most base attack on the core of the Gospels. It exposes what we have suspected all along: that Mr. Trump is merely stringing conservative Christians along with the lure of anti-abortion legislation, so that he can do deep and lasting damage to the fundamental tenets that Jesus taught us: to feed the hungry, to protect the vulnerable, and to build a just society as a Kingdom of God. Lest anyone, including Mr. Sessions, be in doubt about what Jesus wants us to do, read what he said at the outset of his ministry, citing from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18; Isaiah 61:1).
This text is quite unambiguous. It clearly specifies what Jesus’ ministry and his sacrifice on the cross was about: to urge us to build a better world by releasing the captives, to letting the oppressed go free, and to heal the broken-hearted. That used to be the bedrock of American values. But today, that part of the Bible is all but ignored by Beltway politicians eager to wear their Christian credentials on their sleeve. Please note: if we truly want to be disciples of Christ, we must do what he urged us to do. And that means to stand up against this grievous injustice perpetrated on American soil. Today.
