Madre e hijo a punto de entregarse a la Patrulla Fronteriza en busca de asilo/Mother and son about to give themselves up to Border Patrol seeking asylum | Photo by Jill Holslin
Donald Trump mintió un promedio de 15 veces al día en 2018, el triple que en 2017, según un estudio del Washington Post.
El total aumentó dramáticamente durante los 35 días que duró su cierre gubernamental, cuando Trump avivó la xenofobia de sus votantes diciéndoles que miles de seres humanos —en realidad migrantes derrotados por la miseria, la violencia y el cambio climático— amenazan la seguridad nacional.
Y tras su derrota política más espectacular al rendirse y reabrir el gobierno, Trump amenazó con volver a hacerlo y declarar una emergencia nacional para que las Fuerzas Armadas construyan su descabellado muro medieval. Los hechos, sin embargo, han desnudado su gran patraña, su “crisis fronteriza”.
Según su propio Departamento de Seguridad Nacional, en el año fiscal 2017, las autoridades de inmigración registraron el menor número de cruces fronterizos indocumentados de la historia. En el suroeste de la frontera, el número de arrestos fronterizos en el año fiscal 2018 cayó a su nivel más bajo en 46 años. Según la Patrulla Fronteriza, los arrestos de migrantes mexicanos se redujeron en un 90% desde 2000. Y entre 2010 y 2017, el número de indocumentados en el país se redujo en un millón de personas, de 11,7 a 10,7 millones, de acuerdo con el Centro para Estudios Migratorios. Incluso sus propios servicios de inteligencia testificaron ante el Congreso que no hay emergencia fronteriza. ¿Crisis, qué crisis?
Lo que sí es verdad es que la cruel orden de Trump de separar a familias inmigrantes en la frontera resultó ser mucho peor de lo inicialmente admitido. Una auditoría del Departamento de Salud y Servicios Humanos (HHS) estimó que “miles” de niños más de los reconocidos por la administración Trump fueron separados de sus familias en la frontera.
“Lo que es asombroso para nosotros es la inhumanidad de Estados Unidos concerniente al trato que reciben las familias inmigrantes”, dice Joanna Williams, directora de educación y defensa de la Iniciativa Fronteriza Kino, un grupo católico que ofrece servicios humanitarios a los migrantes en Laredo, México.
Según Amnistía Internacional, la administración ha separado a unas 8.000 unidades familiares entre 2017 y 2018, en lugar de las 2.737 que había reconocido el HHS.
“Vemos niveles muy altos de estrés, miedo y ansiedad entre los migrantes”, agrega Williams. “Una familia del estado de Guerrero nos dijo: ‘Los narcotraficantes quieren arrebatarnos a nuestros hijos, y llegamos aquí en busca de seguridad para ver que Estados Unidos también quiere llevárselos’.”
Estudios realizados en Rumanía, Australia y China demuestran que la separación para los niños puede ser catastrófica y cambiar sus cerebros para siempre. Charles Nelson, pediatra de la Escuela de Medicina de Harvard y experto en separaciones, confesó al Washington Post que sus observaciones le han llevado a las lágrimas. Al crecer, dice, los niños separados desarrollan mucho menos sus cerebros, su actividad cerebral es mucho más débil y sus coeficientes intelectuales son muy inferiores. La separación, agrega, quiebra los fundamentales lazos biológicos entre el niño y su madre, un vínculo esencial para el normal desarrollo emocional del menor.
Pese a haber suspendido la orden de separación de familias en la frontera, la administración Trump no muestra arrepentimiento alguno, ni Trump ha corregido sus insultos a estos migrantes.
“Hemos albergado migrantes que nos han dicho, ‘¿Ustedes nos consideran animales? Porque hemos visto que en Estados Unidos nos ven como animales’,” comenta Williams, agregando que esto afecta su sentido de la dignidad y amor propio, además de los impactos físicos de la migración.
Los hispanos a ambos lados de la frontera estamos exhaustos de ser el chivo expiatorio de Trump y los matones de su política migratoria, exhaustos de ser su piñata para avivar el fervor xenofóbico de sus seguidores.
“Vemos a padres que han sido deportados tras muchos años en Estados Unidos y separados de sus hijos”, dice Williams. “Y uno de ellos me dijo, ‘Los ojos tienen su oportunidad de llorar, pero el corazón nunca deja de llorar’.”
El 25 de enero, Trump se estrelló contra un muro de resistencia y reabrió el gobierno federal. Quién sabe qué nos depara el futuro. Pero ahora al menos los hispanos no estamos completamente a su merced.
(English)
Donald Trump lied an average of 15 times a day in 2018, tripling his 2017 tally, according to the Washington Post.
His record dramatically increased over his 35-day government shutdown, during which Trump fanned his xenophobic flames by telling the nation a menacing force of migrants threatened national security. In reality, he referred to defeated human beings forced to migrate by misery, violence, and the effects of climate change in their countries.
After caving in and reopening the government in his most spectacular political defeat, Trump threatened to do it all over again and declare a national emergency, which would require the Armed Forces to build his medieval wall. Reality, however, has revealed the size of his folly, and his so-called “border crisis.”
According to his own Department of Homeland Security, in FY 2017 Customs and Border Protection registered the lowest number of undocumented border crossings ever. In the southwest corner of the border, the number of arrests of undocumented migrants in FY 2018 dropped to its lowest level in 46 years. According to the Border Patrol, since 2000 the arrest of undocumented Mexicans decreased by 90 percent. And between 2010 and 2017, the number of undocumented immigrants in the country went down by one million, from 11.7 to 10.7 million, according to the Center for Migratory Studies. Even his own intelligence community testified in Congress that there is no border emergency. Crisis? What crisis?
Truth is, however, Trump’s cruel order to separate families turned out to be much worse than anticipated. An audit at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) revealed that “thousands” more children were separated from their families than originally admitted.
“What is striking to us is the inhumanity on the side of the United States regarding what’s happening to immigrant families,” says Joanna Williams, director of education and advocacy at the Kino Border Initiative, a Catholic group providing humanitarian help for migrant families in Nogales, Mexico.
According to Amnesty International, the administration has separated some 8,000 family units, instead of the 2,737 that HHS had acknowledged.
“We see very high levels of stress, fear, and anxiety among migrants,” adds Williams. “In one particular case, this one family from the state of Guerrero told us, ‘The cartels want to take our kids from us and we came here thinking that we were going to be safe only to see that the US government is also taking kids away’.”
Studies conducted in Romania, Australia, and China show that separating children from their parents can be catastrophic and change their brains forever. Charles Nelson, a pediatrician at the Harvard School of Medicine and an expert in family separations, told the Washington Post that his observations have even brought him to tears. When they grow up, he says, separated children experience much less brain development, their cerebral activity is much weaker, and their IQs are much lower. Separation, he adds, destroys the fundamental biological attachment between mother and child, an essential bond for the minor’s emotional development.
Even though Trump suspended his family separation order, his administration has shown no remorse, failing to fulfill a court order to reunite the families, and he has never taken back his insults to immigrants.
“We have had migrants who have asked us, ‘Do you consider us animals? Because we have seen that in the United States they see us as animals’,” says Williams, adding that this affects their sense of dignity and self-worth, in addition to all the physical and psychological effects of migration.
We Latinos on both sides of the border are exhausted by being scapegoated by Trump and his immigration policy bullies, exhausted by being his piñata to fan the xenophobic fervor of his followers.
“We see parents that are deported after having lived for many years in the United States and separated from their children,” recalls Williams, “and one of them said to me, ‘The eyes have their time for crying, but the heart will never stop crying’.”
On January 25, Trump hit a wall of resistance and finally reopened the government. Who knows what the future has in store? But at least for now, with the wall on pause and people in power who are willing to stand up to Trump, we Latinos are not completely at his mercy.