On Nov. 19, Judge John S. Tigar of the U. S. District Court in San Francisco issued a restraining order against the Trump administration. The court decision will be in place until the federal courts issue a new ruling concerning the administration’s reluctance to accept new asylum cases. The original intent behind the Cheeto-in-Chief’s executive actions were to deter the Central American caravan’s attempt to apply for asylum at the southern border.
Theres a lot more to this than simply invoking national security rhetoric and maligning the caravan in anticipation of the 2018 midterms. The fervor and the consistency of the alarmist tone dissipated after the elections took place. The topic was so volatile that CNN Correspondent Jim Acosta momentarily lost press credentials for challenging Trump’s erroneous assertions about an “invasion” in the form of mostly indigenous migrants seeking asylum.
I find it ironic that the physical incarnation of White supremacy and settler colonialism (Trump) is trying to deter people native to the Americas from seeking relief from violence and destabilization that is rooted in American intervention since the 1980s.
The legacy of economic exploitation, and political hegemony resulting from short-sighted policymakers in Washington D.C. have in turn created the conditions that many Guatemalans, Hondurans, and Salvadorans are risking their lives to escape.
The legacy of economic exploitation, and political hegemony resulting from short-sighted policymakers in Washington D.C. have in turn created the conditions that many Guatemalans, Hondurans, and Salvadorans are risking their lives to escape.
This also occurs in a larger hemispheric context in which Latinx/Indigenous communities bear the brunt of racist policy stances from this administration as illustrated with Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and continued antagonization of Mexico over the southern border.
One curious development is the conservative backlash upon the arrival of the first caravan group in Tijuana. Mexican citizens were split with the strong presence of LGBTQ Central Americans as first arrivals. The level of vitriol was intense as one segment invoked nationalism, homophobia and xenophobia, while the other segment of the Mexican populace aided the caravan and provided a circle of protection.
The conservative Mexican backlash can best be explained by using Frantz Fanon’s “Epidermalization of Inferiority” concept from his text “Black Skin, White Masks.” The right-wing and their partisans internalized the vitriol and hatred spewed by Trump and those of his ilk, and in turn projected those stereotypes at other Brown people that are a mirror demographic reflection of people in Tijuana.
It goes without saying that this petty bickering and division only serves to further entrench the status quo, which continues to exploit poor people and people of color. As community members, and indigenous people of the Americas in particular, we don’t have the luxury to adhere to shallow nationalist expression. Somos un pueblo sin fronteras. We are a people without borders.
Oscar Rosales grew up in the Yakima Valley and works and resides in Seattle. He has previously contributed to HistoryLink (dot) org and the Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project.
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