by Nomad
Justifying the Indefensible
When Attorney General Jeff Sessions used a Bible verse to justify separating immigrant children from their families, a milestone in America's march toward a Christian theocracy was reached.Instead of citing decades of legal precedent, Mr. Sessions quoted Romans 13.
Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.Later, Press Secretary (and uber-Christian) Sarah Huckabee Sanders endorsed Sessions by telling the shell-shocked White House news corp “it is very biblical to enforce the law.” And yet, at no place in the Bible does it say that splitting up families or caging children is a particularly Christian thing to do.
This administration demands only obediance, not conscience. From slavery to the Holocaust, history has shown us time after the dangers of unqualified obedience to governments. In fact, it is a supreme irony that early Christianity cults only flourished because of its believers' refusal to obey Roman religious laws.
Apart from Session's righteous rationale, the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments, is literally packed with passages that call for sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.
The parable of the compassionate Samaritan who comforted the injured traveler, for instance, stressed personal accountability- rather blind obedience to the local laws. Christians were called upon to ask themselves: Am I proving myself to be a neighbor to others, particularly those in need?
This is what the Lord Almighty said: 'Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.'Then there's Galatians 5:14
For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”And there's this passage from Hebrews 13:1-2
Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
American Jesuit priest, Reverend Jim Martin takes apart the dubious morality of Trump's immigration policies in the video below.
A Question of Survival
The reality of the situation is that the flood of illegal immigrants is a result of a humanitarian disaster that begin thousands of miles south of the US border. In 2016, The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported on the plight of children fleeing El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.As the report noted, these are countries with some of the highest murder rates in the world. They are also some of the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. Escaping from those conditions is really a question of survival.
Vulnerable children fleeing Central America, many traveling without adults, need protection every step of the way. They face dangers no child ever should: in their home countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras ...when they cross Mexico and when they arrive in the U.S. And those who are deported face the risk of being attacked or killed by the gangs they sought to escape.According to US State Department, public institutions in Guatemala are unable to target large-scale criminal enterprises or curb petty crime. The issue of impunity, coupled with the availability of firearms, allows for an environment primed for crime. In Honduras, crime is equally prevalent.
Violent, well-armed street gangs — 18th Street (“Barrio 18”) and MS-13 ("Mara Salvatrucha") being the largest — concentrate on street-level drug sales, extortion, arms trafficking, murder for hire, carjacking, and aggravated street crime.
Every month, thousands of children from Central America risk being kidnapped, trafficked, raped, or killed as they make their way to the United States to seek refuge from brutal gangs and stifling poverty.
These asylum seekers are already victims and under Trump's cruel policy, they face further victimization when they finally reach the border.
UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Justin Forsyth says:
A 2017 news piece on the ABC in the US described Honduras as the “most dangerous places in the world to be female”.
The situation in Central America is extremely complicated. Get tough policies espoused by presidential candidates might win over low-information voters in the border states.
One official from a humanitarian aid group described the situation as having "symptoms of an armed conflict." Not unlike the Syrian refugee crisis, these countries have essentially become uninhabitable and unsurvivable for families, for women and their children.
These asylum seekers are already victims and under Trump's cruel policy, they face further victimization when they finally reach the border.
UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Justin Forsyth says:
“It is heart-rending to think of these children – most of them teenagers, but some even younger – making the grueling and extremely dangerous journey in search of safety and a better life. This flow of young refugees and migrants highlights the critical importance of tackling the violence and socio-economic conditions in their countries of origin.”It's not only children who are at risk. Women too are under threat. According to the U.N., Honduras has the highest “femicide” rate in the world with one woman murdered every 16 hours.
A 2017 news piece on the ABC in the US described Honduras as the “most dangerous places in the world to be female”.
Doomed to Failure
Even before the president's sudden U-turn, Trump's zero-tolerance immigration policy- which included separating children from asylum-seeking families- was doomed to failure.
The reason? Attempts to curtail the influx of migrants have not addressed the underlying causes. Namely, Central America's failed states are incapable of dealing with drug-fuelled gang violence, organized crime and economic stagnation.