JAZZMAN CHRONICLES IN THE AGE OF TRUMP.
SEEKING ASYLUM IN THE
TWENTY FIRST CENTURY:
THE NORTHERN TRIANGLE
By Jack Random
The crops are all in and the peaches are rotting
The oranges piled in their creosote dumps
They’re flying ‘em back to the Mexican border
To pay all their money to wade back again
From Deportee or Plane Wreck at Los Gatos by Woody
Guthrie
Once upon a time it was all about the Mexicans. Farmers in California, Texas, Arizona,
Colorado and New Mexico opened their arms to welcome the hard-working migrants
from below the border. Whole
families worked long hours at minimal pay for as long as the picking season
lasted. Then they returned to their
homes.
On occasion, when the farmers got greedy or their expenses
ran greater than expected, they called in the Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) service to round them all up for immediate deportation
without collecting their final paychecks.
Usually they made it home to their friends and
families. Though disappointed at
how they were treated, they would head north again when the time came. It was a way of life. It was the way of their fathers and
mothers. It was the only life they
knew.
Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria
You won’t have your name when you ride the big airplane
All they will call you will be deportees
The farmers knew it was wrong but they did it anyway. They did it because they could. They did it because they knew their
migrant labor force would return next harvest. Many were the same people and the same families. They knew the jobs and could do them
better than anyone else.
The truth is the farmers didn’t
consider them equal human beings.
They were illegals.
They had no rights. They had
feelings, sure. They cared about
their families and friends. Some
of them might even care about the farmer and his family. But when it came down to it, they were
something less than true American.
They were Mexicans. They
were wetbacks. They didn’t belong
in this country beyond the picking season.
But every once in a while
something would happen to remind the white folks that they were real human
beings and they deserved better than what they got.
The sky plane caught fire
over Los Gatos Canyon
A fireball of lightning that
shook all our hills
Who are all these friends all
scattered like dry leaves?
The radio says: They are just
deportees
It’s not about the Mexicans these days but in many ways it’s
the same story. It’s about how we
regard other human beings.
Those who are familiar with Central America call it the
Northern Triangle. Consisting of
El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, the United Nations estimated it was the
source of some 294,000 refugees in 2017 alone.
They scatter over the borders and migrate to neighboring
Belize or head south to Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and Columbia or north to
Mexico and the United States. For
a time some nations like Belize and Mexico offered shelter and made some effort
to accommodate their needs but the wave of migrants keeps coming and
coming.
They are fleeing a place where the police and the government
cannot be trusted to protect them.
Too often they are in the pocket of the gangs and cartels that run the
streets and neighborhoods. If they
ask you to join them you have a choice:
join or face the consequences.
They will take whatever money you have. They will rape your daughter. They will decapitate your son.
The American Department of Justice has ruled that facing
terror and oppression from gangs and cartels is no longer grounds for
asylum. If you are a woman, being
raped and beaten by your husband is no longer grounds for asylum.
To qualify for asylum you must belong to a victim class – an
oppressed race or religious group.
Strangely, the Justice Department does not seem to consider that same
status grounds for special treatment of any kind within our borders but it is
essential to foreigners seeking refuge in our country.
A former British colony, Belize has a population of
360,000. Its official language is
English. The first wave of
refugees, fleeing wars fueled by American imperialism and corporate interests
in the 80’s and 90’s, increased the country’s Spanish-speaking population by
some 30,000.
The new wave began around 2011 and intensified in 2014,
spurred by an explosion of violence, extortion, rape, kidnapping and
murder. It includes street gangs
like MS-13 of El Salvador (by way of Los Angeles) that are trying to establish
a foothold in Belize. The
authorities in Belize are resisting.
They do not wish to assimilate any more refugees so the asylum seekers
move on.
Mexico expected 20,000 asylum
applications in 2017. Beyond that
they too are unable to accommodate the wave. But the wave keeps coming.
After a long hard journey coursing
thousands of miles, some of the refugees finally reach the southern border of
the United States of America – a nation that once took pride in being a nation
of immigrants – only to find that they are no longer welcome. The American president has warned us
that this wave of refugees consists largely of criminals, rapists, killers and
kidnappers posing as asylum seekers.
They are no longer considered equal human beings deserving
of fundamental human rights. They
are to be treated as animals, the children separated from their parents and
shipped hundreds of miles away with little hope of being reunited.
The Trump administration ordered the border patrol to turn
away asylum seekers at the ports of entry so that everyone crossing over to
American soil would be considered criminals – having broken the law by crossing
the border. The Trump
administration ordered a policy of “zero tolerance” so that everyone crossing
would be arrested and detained.
The Trump administration ordered its agents to separate the children
from their parents and informed the disbelieving American public that they were
not really parents.
Fortunately, some enterprising journalists took pictures and
recordings of the children so victimized by this inhumane treatment and the people
reacted as people do.
This is not America!
This is not what we stand for!
This is not what Americans do!
We will not tolerate separating a child from her parent. We will not place a toddler in a
cage. We will not imprison people
for the crime of fleeing intolerable conditions.
The sound and images informed our hearts what our minds
could not process. Our minds are
obstructed by our prejudice. Our
minds did not object to the president’s hardcore policies but our hearts
did. Our hearts reminded us that
we were not dealing with scum as the president misinformed us. We were dealing with real, feeling
human beings – parents, children, families and friends.
The policy of zero tolerance was rescinded but the attitude
of intolerance remains. Now that
public attention has shifted – as it inevitably does – the administration will
be inclined to return to its former policies. Reuniting families will give way to mass deportations.
We need to delay action until the November election. We must hope that the new congress will
be inclined to new policies and a new approach. Constructive recommendations include the creation of Safe
Zones strategically located in Central America so that refugees have somewhere
safe to go while they await adjudication of their status. We should provide funding for Mexico’s
asylum program along with any other nations willing to accommodate legitimate
candidates. We need to expand the
criteria for asylum to include spousal abuse and gang violence. We need to provide asylum for worthy
candidates.
Fundamentally, we need to regard the people of the Northern
Triangle as human beings deserving of justice and freedom from harm.
Jazz.
JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR
OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES AND PAWNS TO PLAYERS: THE CHESS SERIES – A TRILOGY OF
NOVELS.
“Central Americans flee homes in record numbers: ‘The level
of violence is brutal’” by Tom Phillips, The Guardian, 22 May 2018.
“Central America’s refugee crisis fuels anti-Hispanic
backlash in neighborly Belize” by Nina Lakhani. The Guardian – US Edition, 31 May 2017.
“What I’ve Learned Living on The Border Between the US and
Mexico” by Alex Zaragoza.
BuzzFeed, June 30, 2018.
Deportee Lyrics:
Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc.
