Trump/Pence Muslim Ban Goes Into Effect:
U.S. Fuels Historic Refugee Crisis...Then Slams Door Shut
July 2, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Last week, the U.S. murderously slammed the door shut on children fleeing gang violence in Central America, on families escaping the slaughter in Syria, on people facing famine and cholera in Yemen, on Afghans languishing in exile or refugee camps, and many, many more.
After the Supreme Court reinstated large parts of Trump’s Muslim ban, the U.S. barred all refugees fleeing violence and persecution from entry for 120 days and anyone from the Muslim-majority countries of Iran, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Sudan, and Somalia for 90 days, unless they can prove an existing “bona fide” family, business, or school “relationship” in the U.S. as determined by the Department of Homeland Security.
This means that a family, like the one from Sudan who had fled reactionary militia violence and after 10 years of “extreme vetting,” were able to resettle in the U.S., would now be blocked because they have no relatives here. It means that children, often traveling alone as part of the flood of Central Americans escaping violence, murder, and destitution (388,000 just in 2016), won’t stand a chance.
Trump/Pence are slamming U.S. borders shut during the greatest global crisis of displacement since World War 2, perhaps ever. Over 65 million people, including millions of children, have been forced to flee wars, violence, and persecution—24 people every minute on average. Millions more are forced to leave their homes every year because of climate change—droughts, floods, or scarce food and water. One study estimates that by 2100 there will be two billion climate refugees!
The Trump/Pence regime claims refugees and immigrants should be treated as terrorists or criminals until proven otherwise. But what has propelled millions to cross scorching deserts; embark on a journey risking rape, robbery, or enslavement; or take their chances at sea where, as the UN reports, a “frightening number of refugees and migrants are dying each year,” to reach Europe, the U.S. or other countries? Overwhelmingly, the system of capitalism-imperialism, headed by the U.S.
Why DO People Come Here from All Over the World?
As Bob Avakian said in Revolution: Why It’s Necessary, Why It’s Possible, What It’s All About:
Now I can just hear these reactionary fools saying, “Well, Bob, answer me this. If this country is so terrible, why do people come here from all over the world? Why are so many people trying to get in, not get out?”...Why? I’ll tell you why. Because you have fucked up the rest of the world even worse than what you have done in this country. You have made it impossible for many people to live in their own countries as part of gaining your riches and power. (BAsics 1:14)
Under Obama, the U.S. admitted a mere 110,000—of the world’s 22 million—refugees a year. Now the Trump/Pence regime has chopped that in half and is gutting the core of international refugee law: “The premise of refugee law and asylum law is that we should be taking in precisely those people who may lack the ‘bona fides’ laid out by the court,” attorney and activist Diala Shamas points out in the Washington Post. “Those who are least connected, and therefore arguably most vulnerable.”
It is an obscene crime against humanity to demonize and ban the victims of imperialism’s domination and wars around the world—the equivalent of refusing entry to Jews and others escaping Nazi Germany, which the U.S. did during World War 2! It must be relentlessly opposed!
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