Lost In Detention and the GOP Debate

All because of political and bureaucratic pressures to “get tough” on immigration which trickle down until the immigrant pays the bill. Politicians don’t want to lose their positions of privilege and power so they demand the departments they fund achieve record enforcement goals. Departments in Washington don’t want to lose their funding so they privatize detention programs and start corralling mothers and fathers who have never committed a crime. Local officers don’t want to lose their jobs so they follow suit and start bringing in “collateral” detainees when they sweep through a neighborhood.
Immigrant activists have been pressing the White House to reverse this dangerous course, but have been stonewalled by a President that once promised to defend the rights of immigrants and the unity of their families. President Obama was elected into office on a message of hope, change, and a “yes we can” sentiment that promised to overcome obstacles and fight for reform. He promised to take that energy and apply it to immigration reform. It was a sharp contrast to the message coming from the administration’s spokesperson last night. Leaning on the obstructionism of the Republican party, Cecilia Munoz displayed how the White house has given up on alleviating the suffering of families torn apart by its senseless use of enforcement to reach arbitrary numerical goals. The disappointment in the Latino community was palpable, and will come back to bite the President in his reelection campaign.

And speaking of campaigns, last night’s documentary was not the only sad display of low moral standards. There was another sorry spectacle involving immigrants: the GOP debate. No one individual immigrant was featured, but as a group they were tossed across the stage as a political football, and then sacrificed on the altar of vicious politics as economic scapegoats. GOP candidatesRomney accused Perry of attracting “illegals” to the state of Texas, Perry accused Romney of employing “illegals” to work on his lawn, and Bachman said she would build an East Germany styled “double wall” to keep them out and revoke birthright citizenship. Herman Cain refused to answer whether he would indeed electrify the border fence so that it would kill people who attempted to cross, an idea he proposed at a rally in Tennessee.

Along with “terrorist”, “illegal” has become the most toxic word in our political lexicon. This rhetorical abuse, along with the “other” mentality it creates, paves the way for the abuse documented in the Frontline report. First, we begin by separating hard working immigrants into a separate class of “illegals”. Then we strip them of their humanity by criminalizing their presence on this soil. Then we justify their complete lack of rights by arguing they forfeited them when they crossed the border. And so they become subhuman, and our behavior towards them is no longer bound by the rules of morality and justice.

We need to reverse this trend immediately. The moral character of our nation depends on it. We need both a radical shift in our political discourse that preserves the dignity of hardworking immigrants and we need institutional changes that ensure enforcement is humane and in keeping with international standards and human rights.

Join the conversation PBS is hosting today at 1 PM with the show’s producers and stay in touch with LIRS by subscribing to this blog and our social media outlets. In the coming days we will be releasing a report that details some immediate changes that can be made to the detention system that will help protect immigrants from abuse and unnecessary detention while we try and find a path back towards reform. Learn more about our work with detention HERE and help us protect both the immigrants in our communities and the character of our nation.