Editor’s note: This commentary is by Kelly Mangan, of Burlington, who is a member of Rights and Democracy, the chair of the Burlington Progressive Party, a mother of two, and the wife of an immigrant.
[I]’m not an expert on immigration law or activism — there are a great many people far more knowledgeable than me who’ve spent years working on this important issue. But, as a parent I cannot live with the knowledge that our government is quite literally ripping babies from their mothers’ breasts, and children from their fathers’ arms.
Amazingly, people I know (most of them parents, all of them white) have said to me: “But they came here illegally,” as though that were a defense for what is being done to children and parents on our borders right now in our name. We know that many of these families did not, in fact, cross the border illegally, but presented themselves at the border asking for asylum. Still, they were arrested and their children taken away.
It doesn’t matter to me if they followed the “proper” procedures to seek asylum to enter the country. We should not criminalize people for seeking safety, freedom from oppression, and opportunity.
Stop for a moment and consider this: What would YOU do to protect your children and give them a better life? Would you walk across a country to save your children? Would you swim across an ocean? Climb a wall? You know you would. Would you REALLY stop a few yards short of safety because of an imaginary line in the sand? Of course not.
For those who say “why can’t they just come here legally?” I can tell you that for me and my husband, the process for him becoming a citizen took years, thousands of dollars, letters of recommendation from employers and friends, repeated biometrics and personal interviews (all out of town and for which he had to take time off work) to determine if our relationship was “valid.” This was despite that fact that we were married and had a child. It also required a foot-high stack of forms and legal, financial and medical documentation. And we’re the lucky ones! We had vastly fewer roadblocks and a lot more resources than the majority of immigrants to this country. We weren’t better, more deserving people than anyone else. We just had more privilege.
“Immigrant” is not a dirty word, and I reject the attempts to make it so — it’s just people who came here from someplace else. Immigrants are parents and children, employees and business owners, neighbors, friends, taxpayers, and hard workers. They bring skills, knowledge, talent and experiences with them that benefit our communities, states and country. Immigrants make this country a better place. This country was built on immigrants’ labor, and they build it still.
I’m deeply terrified by the anti-immigrant fervor gripping America right now. Especially a recent remark made by President Trump. He said that our country is “infested” with immigrants. This is not a flippant choice of words. Like most of his rhetoric, it’s is deeply white supremacist, and is aimed at dehumanizing specific groups of people. That’s frightening enough. But what I find particularly terrifying about this most recent comment is the glimmer of intent behind it. How does one resolve an “infestation”? When we allow ourselves to see others as something less than human, that’s when all manner of horrors suddenly become justifiable possibilities.
The leap from internment to extermination is very much shorter than I think we’d all care to believe. And for those who call me an alarmist for saying so — who think that such a thing could never happen in America — I would remind you that it’s already happened.
Children in America have been ripped from their parents and put in cages. The president has passed an executive order to supposedly stop the separations, but which actually allows for the indefinite detention of these families. There is no plan in place for reuniting the more than 2,000 children who’ve already been taken from their parents. The Trump administration’s cruel and unnecessary “zero tolerance” policy remains in place.
Here, in Vermont, we’ve passed policies that speak to a sentiment of making our state a “sanctuary,” which keep us from feeding into the hateful frenzy, and which provide aid and comfort to those seeking freedom and opportunity.
There are lots of things you can do to help. Here are just a few:
1. Sign our petition with Rights & Democracy that urges the governor to ensure that Vermont does not in any way aid and abet this inhumane treatment of people who are seeking a better life in our country.
2. Donate to one of the wonderful legal aid and immigrants’ rights groups working to unite children and families. Donate here.
3. Join concerned citizens and activist groups rallying at the Statehouse this Monday, June 25, at 6 p.m. Click for details.
4. Join one of the many direct actions taking place across the state on Sunday, June 30. Click here to find one near you.
5. Call on Gov. Phil Scott to demand that his GOP colleagues in Congress and the GOP administration of President Trump reunite children with their families — immediately — and end the practice of indefinite detention.
6. Call on Sens. Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders and Rep. Peter Welch to continue to fight the Trump administration’s egregious policy of separating children from their parents and caging them in warehouses.
