Sunday Snapshot: On Immigration
I grew up seeing this bright yellow caution sign depicting an immigrant family running for their lives along the 5 Freeway in San Diego. I have a vague memory of asking my parents why people would be on the freeway, but mostly it's just one of those threads in the fabric of your childhood that you don't realize until later was really weird. (Mom and Dad, please add comments if you remember us talking about these signs.)
The sign was created in 1990 by a graphic artist and Caltrans employee named John Hood to decrease the number of pedestrian traffic deaths on the 5. Between 1985 and 1990, close to 100 undocumented immigrants had been killed crossing the freeway in San Diego. Why were people crossing a multi-lane freeway full of cars zooming by at 70 miles per hour? The answer to this type of question when it comes to the migration of immigrants and refugees is always the smugglers. Smugglers would drop immigrants off before the border checkpoint, forcing them to cross the freeway in order to enter the US and rejoin the smugglers on the other side. Only one of the original ten signs is left, and it won't be replaced because the high security on California's southern border has successfully discouraged most immigrants from attempting to cross there.
I have to admit that there was a slight undertone of prejudice against Mexicans when I was growing up in little seaside Carlsbad in the 80's and early 90's. I remember the slur "beaners" being used fairly casually. A friend of mine from the very south side of San Diego recalled with embarrassment but openness that he and his friends used to play "beaners and border patrol" instead of "cowboys and Indians". It's just what the game was called. As a kid he didn't even realize how extremely offensive and prejudiced it was.
I love the influence that Mexican culture has had on San Diego - architecture, food, language, art, the missions. It's what makes San Diego, San Diego. Donald Trump is trying to white wash America and eliminate these important cultural influences because of racial and religious prejudice. It's wrong, and it makes me really mad.
Last year he banned visitors and refugees from 8 countries, 6 majority-Muslim. He also cancelled the Central American Minors (CAM) program. CAM allowed children who were fleeing violence in the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador and had family in the US to apply for asylum from their home country rather than making the dangerous trip north with smugglers, called "coyotes", in order to enter illegally.
Earlier this week, Trump announced that protection for nearly 200,000 immigrants from El Salvador, many who have been here since 2001, will end in September 2019. People who have worked, paid taxes, had families, including 192,000 children who are US citizens, for the last 18 years will have to choose between going back to El Salvador or staying in the US at the risk of being deported. El Salvador is one of the most dangerous countries in the world due to gang violence and political corruption. (A situation that the US had a very heavy hand in creating, but that's for another time.) People will be forcibly separated from their children.
What he's removing is called Temporary Protected Status (TPS) which was created in 1990 and is offered to undocumented immigrants when war, natural disaster, or other "extraordinary" conditions make their home country unsafe. El Salvador is the 4th country to lose this status under Trump. The others are Nicaragua, Sudan, and Haiti. These are some of the countries that Trump was referring to on Thursday when he questioned why the US is letting people from "shithole countries" come here and rejected a bipartisan deal that would continue to protect 700,000 DACA participants. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) protects young, undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children from deportation.
Karma will come around to Trump in the end because it's a round world. I wonder if he believes that science. He certainly doesn't seem to understand other scientific facts like climate change.