Since the United States declared a state of national emergency due to the outbreak of the Corona epidemic last March, President Donald Trump has taken advantage of the new situation to implement a range of measures aimed at accelerating and supporting his anti-immigration agenda, which was one of the main pillars of his presidential campaign.
The Spanish newspaper "Poblico" published a report in this context, confirming that the US President's anti-immigrant policy has recently reached its climax, and quoted a Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Gonzalo Santos, that "the Corona epidemic was an opportunity for the Trump administration to continue to tighten the screws on immigrants." To introduce more stringent procedures. "
In late March, Trump announced the closure of the borders with Mexico and Canada, and stopped the passage of tourists and travelers, a measure that would later include other countries.
Despite the epidemic, he continued to arrest and deport illegal immigrants who crossed the border, denying them the right to seek asylum under US law and international treaties.
Santos believes that "under the Public Health Act of 1944, Trump prevents refugees from applying for asylum, whether those trying to enter legally or illegally, leaving around 80,000 asylum seekers stranded on the Mexican side."
Political goals
Researcher at Amnesty International, Dennis Bell, who is assessing immigration procedures and conditions affecting refugees and immigrants inside America, confirms that Trump's executive orders to deny asylum to refugees and migrant children who are not accompanied by their families constitute a "violation" of the current legislation, and that it uses them as a "pretext" "To reach political ends, as well as to end the American refugee system as it stands.
She adds that activists also claim that the Republican president uses the health crisis to "intimidate" and "blackmail" the families of undocumented immigrants and end up in US detention centers.
In its report, Publico considers that the Trump administration violated the Flores Agreement signed in 1997 between human rights organizations and the Bill Clinton government at the time, which stipulates that undocumented minors cannot remain in detention for more than 20 days.
She asserts that when families of migrants are currently arrested, parents can release the child to remain with a sponsor or relative, but they must in return sign a decision to deport them.
"If there is no sponsor or they have not signed the deportation decision, they will remain in custody indefinitely, under the pretext of protecting Americans from the epidemic ... The government is using children as hostages to force parents to accept the deportation."
In view of this situation, human rights researcher Dennis Bell notes that Amnesty International was able to access documents submitted by immigration authorities before the judicial authorities, and its argument was to justify the indefinite detention that "parents do not want family separation."
In recent weeks, other controversial measures have been added, such as the temporary suspension of court hearings for undocumented migrants, the exclusion of incentive assistance for taxpayers without documentation, and restrictions on the issuance of some visas to foreign workers.
Racist decisions
For Trump, it is here to protect the American workforce from the specter of unemployment, but the opinions of activists on this matter are mixed, as attorney Alan Diamond believes that "in the midst of the epidemic, there were many racist and anti-immigrant decisions ... where the visas of people with specialized jobs were suspended Provision for qualified workers who may constitute essential workers "in the future.
He adds that requests to obtain a residence card for the same category of workers are also rejected "because of mistakes made by the current administration."
Early this week, the US President signed a new executive order broadening restrictions on more than half a million immigrants looking to obtain a permanent residence or work visa.
The issuance of green cards has been frozen until the end of the year, restrictions on obtaining specialized workers' visas, the visa for spouses and the visa for non-agricultural temporary workers have been restricted.
"What happens is like a collective amnesia ... Most people do not realize that the Barack Obama administration, in turn, was not in favor of immigration, and all they remember is calling for human rights, as Obama deported dozens of immigrants and allowed family arrests," Bell said.
Researcher Gonzalo Santos believes that a historical and objective review is necessary to realize the fact that xenophobia, white race superiority, anti-immigrant, and racism are all rooted in the United States for decades, not so recent.
He adds that what Trump did was only to continue what his predecessor Obama and previous administrations were doing, from the Clinton era until now, as both Republicans and Democrats encouraged anti-immigration, stressing that if Republicans embodied the "devil", then the Democrats betrayed the immigrants and handed them over to that "devil" Since years!