Inequality in current immigration policy

This is one of the main reasons it’s time for the U.S. to completely scrap current immigration laws; they’re designed to discriminate, and they’re only getting worse.

Consider this. You give up everything you have and risk your very life to get to the “land of opportunity.” You’re a refugee, desperate. And you make it. Despite all odds, you manage to survive the journey … only to be sent back.

On Day 10, they ran out of food.

The 102 Haitians — many bruised and scraped from the crowded conditions aboard their flimsy 40-foot sailboat — endured their perilous journey for 12 more days with toothpaste and saltwater, all anyone had.

The famished migrants, 12 children among them, spotted the pre-dawn glint of Hallandale Beach’s high-rise condos on Wednesday. As the boat lurched closer to land, some jumped off, sloshing through waves and staggering ashore.

…

The migrants told authorities they had spent 22 days aboard the vessel. Their landing spurred local Haitian leaders to protest what they say is unfair treatment of Haitian migrants, who typically are returned to their impoverished homeland. [Full story]

Mexicans and many Central and South Americans face similar treatment. Some even face being ripped away from their legal-citizen children and being deported, leaving them alone to fend for themselves or end up in foster care.

But that’s not how the U.S. treats all “illegal” immigrants.

Unlike some other immigrants, Haitians are not eligible for Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, which temporarily suspends deportations and enables recipients to get work permits. [Source]

In this particular case, they are compared to Cuban refugees:

Unlike Cubans, who are generally allowed to stay once they reach U.S. soil due to the ‘wet-foot, dry-foot’ policy, most Haitians who illegally make it to the U.S. are sent back.

…

“The administration says that if it awards Temporary Protected Status to Haitians, it will open the floodgates. Our argument is that denying TPS is a sure way to get people here as the ones who came today,” she said.

Activists outside her offices Wednesday afternoon held signs with the words: “This is not a wet foot-dry foot policy. It’s a
black foot-white foot policy.”

The group said that President Bush’s immigration policy continues to deport non-criminal Haitians who have lived in the United States for a dozen years; who have U.S.-born children, own houses, and pay taxes; and who send money to Haiti ten times a year which sustains hundreds of thousands of relatives there. [Full story]

The same problem occurs with undocumented immigrants from other “Third World” countries, especially Mexicans. They are demonized, and they are the focus of a media and political anti-immigrant push … but the thousands of illegal Irish and Eastern European immigrants who have come to the U.S. are rarely discussed.

Also not mentioned is the fact that so many of the non-white immigrants we are so quick to demonize are from countries that are still recovering from U.S. and European interference.

The U.S. has a long history, for example, of manipulating Latin American politics to benefit large U.S. corporations at the expense of the people of those countries. See, for example, the Spanish American War, the Mexican American War, the support of the Contras in Nicaragua, and other similar “interventions.”

In Haiti, the former slaves of the French were forced to pay 150 million gold francs to keep their freedom after the Haitian Revolution. The U.S., Spain, Germany, and England continually interfered in Haitian politics after this, and occasionally demanded their own “reparations,” sending a flotilla until Haiti complied.

The poverty of Haiti today are directly linked to U.S. and European “intervention” in the past and corporate greed in the present. Yet, somehow, Haitian refugees have no right to seek safety on U.S. soil.

And this current group of refugees faces deportation.

ICE spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez said at least 30 of the migrants were transferred from local to federal custody and were undergoing medical screening.

Gonzalez said the department currently had no plans to move the migrants but declined to speculate about future plans.

“All will have due process under law and will remain in ICE custody awaiting the outcome of their case,” Gonzalez said. [Full story]

Haitian refugees, including women and children, the Mexican women in New Bedford, the immigrants in San Rafael, Hmong veterans who fought for the U.S. during Viet Nam … the Bush administration has made it very clear that if you’re brown or black, you aren’t welcome here in the U.S.

And rather than cop to racism, they prefer to couch the debate in terms of protecting the U.S. from attack.

Unlike Cubans, who are generally allowed to stay if they reach U.S. soil illegally, most Haitians who make similar trips and land on U.S. shores are sent back. And unlike Cubans, Haitians are generally detained until a decision is made either way. The Bush administration - citing national security concerns - instituted that policy after 200 Haitians landed just off the coast of Miami in 2002. [Source]

So much for the land of equality and opportunity.