Deporter Disorder

by ROB SEIMETZ

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Photo by Nathaniel St. Clair

It was a hot summer afternoon in Portland, Oregon as I attended the Not In Portland – I.C.E. Resistance Protest. Several Local Democratic Politicians got up and spoke about the need for us to abolish I.C.E. They spoke the fact we live in troubled times thanks to Donald Trump. These our facts we can agree with, but I couldn’t help but wonder if they would speak the giant elephant in the room that really has made these troubled times more like radical times.

Radical times calls for radical solutions. Radical is defined as “relating to, or proceeding from a root”. These Democratic speakers would need proceed to the root on why so many people from around the world attempt to immigrate to the United States. It was then I realized the game of partisan politics is one that suffers from “deporter disorder”.

This partisan based “deporter disorder” creates an illusion. The first being that Americans want only think about the Democrat or Republican views on issues. 40% of eligible voters did not vote in the 2016 election. Many that did vote were calling the 2016 Presidential Election voting for the lesser of two evils. But many political commentators are immune to the American public’s growing frustration over partisan politics.

A recent article in The Oregonian further cements this illusion that has gone to delusion. The author brings up the immigrant children in refuge shelters are like “cities” and children can watch television, play soccer, and have access to plenty of food.

It’s as if we should take things at face value and not use any forms of critical thought. This line of thinking would make one believe the Patriot Act was in fact Patriotic and the Affordable Care Act is in fact quite affordable for families, even though 51 million American households can’t afford basics like rent, food, and healthcare.

In her mind if one is given the gift of “city” then that one should consider themselves lucky. I would tell the author of this article to go talk to the people of Flint, Michigan and see how the gift of “city” is working out for them as they still do not have clean drinking water. May be the author would spin it as the people of Flint have “flavored water” as opposed to lead.

And if these children have better living conditions in these shelters compared to where they lived before then why are many of them forcibly given psychotropic drugs? The Office of Refugee Resettlement the author quotes about the immigrant children’s humane living conditions, yet this same office is the office that overseas centers forcibly giving children psychotropic drugs.

The Office of Inspector General received 33,000 complaints between 2010 and 2016 alleging a wide range of abuses in immigration detention. These immigrants escaping horrific lives at home come to find themselves in horrific circumstances once they get to America. It shows a culture of dehumanization, and blows a hole into the author’s statement that:

“Migrant families, together, are likely now experiencing better conditions than they did in the home countries they say they needed to flee.”

But my question is what is causing these families to flee in the first place? What is the giant elephant in the room which very few people choose to address that gets to the root of our immigration fluctuation? The answer is U.S Imperialism.

The wars and interventions the U.S. military inflicts abroad forcing those to come to our home. Many of the immigrants trying to make it over our southern border came from Latin America. The U.S. has engaged in 56 interventions in Latin America. Many of these interventions resulted in propping up right wing dictators to secure the U.S. corporate and military interests in these countries which caused the violence these immigrants fled.

When President Obama dropped a bomb every 15 minutes in 2016 not only did it kill innocent lives, it destroyed the lives of those that survived. It forced these survivors to find a better life since their lives were ruined. The same goes for Donald Trump as he has upped the ante by dropping a bomb every 12 minutes.

In part of her conclusion to the article the author says:

“We need honesty and perspective about open or secure borders, as much as we needed the family separation policy stopped.”

Let me be the first say that I agree so let’s be radical and get to the root of our immigration by stopping the migration of the U.S. Military.

In order to cure “deporter disorder” you will need doses of critical thought and history. When you combine the two you realize the U.S. has a created a culture of violence that it inflicts on people of color abroad, at home, and at those trying to get into its home.

There are a growing number of Americans that grasp this culture that has been created by the U.S. Military and has permeated into other aspects of government agencies like I.C.E.

This outrage isn’t going away, many of us will not buy into the magical thinking that immigrants will be provided better lives in detention centres or facilities since they now can play games of pool or soccer while watching television.

The bottom line is these “cities” are enclosed and their rights as human beings have been stripped away. No one deserves a life like this, especially when U.S. Imperialism has a hand in creating it.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/06/27/deporter-disorder/