Two men pay their respects at the site where officials found dozens of migrants dead in a tractor-trailer abandoned on the outskirts of San Antonio, Texas, U.S., June 28, 2022. /CFP
Editor's note: Abhishek G Bhaya is a senior journalist and international affairs commentator. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.
Immigration has been at the core of the spread and flourishing of human civilization across the world and through the ages. As most studies indicate, the human race would have remained confined to the continent of Africa had the prehistoric homo sapiens not chosen to explore and establish settlements in newer territories over thousands of years.
While human immigration through the ages, if seen objectively, is a testimony of our shared history, it is quite baffling and ironic that the terms "immigration" and "immigrants" are today used to divide societies and create barriers to suit political narratives and interests.
Nowhere is the irony as stark as in the United States. On the face of it, the U.S. takes pride in its status as a "nation of immigrants," built by the hard labor of a diverse range of settlers from across the world who arrived in different waves over the past couple of centuries. On the ground though in recent years, Washington has been implementing immigration policies that have been widely criticized as "cruel" and "inhumane," and certainly not without valid reasons.
The death of at least 51 migrants – 39 men and 12 women – from Mexico and Central America, reported on Tuesday, after they were trapped in a sweltering tractor-trailer abandoned on the outskirts of San Antonio, Texas, is the latest in a spate of human tragedies unfolding along the U.S. borders. More than a dozen other victims, including several children, have been reportedly taken to the hospital.
The incident, which is being investigated by both the U.S. and Mexican governments, is the deadliest human smuggling case in modern U.S. history, and calls attention to the hazards that hundreds of thousands of people face in their relentless pursuit of entering the land of their dreams – the United States of America.
Faced with a heartless U.S. immigration policy, the migrant hopefuls are compelled to take ever so dangerous measures to cross into what in their imagination is still a "land of opportunity" but that is increasingly proving to be the "graveyard of migrants' dreams." According to reports, close to 300 migrants have already died trying to cross the southern border from Mexico in the first six months of this year.
Experts say that many migrants are taking such risks because they feel that there is no other way for them to get into the U.S. Even children, many of whom are trying to join family members in the U.S., find that they really have no other options in order to enter the country.
The migrants' desperation, amplified by a lack of U.S. empathy for humanitarian concerns such as the valid desire of migrant children to unite with their families in the U.S., has led to the proliferation of human traffickers. Taking advantage of their situation, the traffickers are able to convince the migrants to take routes and measures that are evidently dangerous.
U.S. President Joe Biden blamed "criminal" professional human smugglers for the latest tragedy. "This incident underscores the need to go after the multi-billion-dollar criminal smuggling industry preying on migrants and leading to far too many innocent deaths," he said.
The politics around immigration is all about blame game that effectively sidelines the real issue of migrants' interests and human rights while trying to score meaningless political brownie points. Republicans are already blaming Biden for the 51 deaths citing this as a result of his "open border policies" and a refusal to enforce the law. Democrats, on the other hand, are blaming Trump's "closed border policies."
Does it really make any sense?
A short-lived hope
A group of migrants who entered the United States by crossing the Colorado River from Mexico near County 13th Street in Arizona's Yuma Valley, walk east on County 14th Street in Yuma Valley, Arizona, U.S., December 6, 2021. /CFP
It is worth noting that during his campaign trail, Biden had promised to overturn some of the "reckless" policies brought in by his predecessor Donal Trump and bring in a more "humane approach" to deal with the immigration issue at the southern border.
And to be fair, in the early days after taking office, Biden for a short period, seemed to be fulfilling that promise as he dismantled some of the Trump administration's most draconian immigration policies. He ended the travel ban on people from mostly Muslim-majority countries, halted most new border wall constructions, and reversed Trump's "zero-tolerance policy" that enabled family separations and the "Remain in Mexico" program that kept asylum seekers waiting in Mexico for court hearings in the U.S. He also introduced a sweeping immigration bill that would open the path to citizenship for over 10.5 million undocumented immigrants already living in the U.S.
However, within weeks of Biden taking office, the arrival of record numbers of unaccompanied migrant children from Central America put his administration on the defensive. Temporary jail-like facilities – similar to Trump-era "cages" that drew global outrage – sprung back to life to confine the migrant children.
The Biden administration has also retained the pandemic-related border restriction enacted by Trump, known as the Title 42 policy, that has given carte blanche to immigration officials to expel hundreds of thousands of migrants from the U.S. without giving them access to their legal right to apply for asylum. Millions of immigrants in the U.S. live with the constant fear that they or their family members could be imprisoned or deported at any time.
Critics have described Biden's immigration policy as "incoherent" and one that has continued to "dehumanize" migrants by making the law a threatening sword rather than a protective shield.
Give migrants a legal option
Migrants who crossed the border illegally wait in queue to be processed by the U.S. Border Patrol on the U.S. side of the U.S.-Mexico border wall, in Yuma, Arizona, June 22, 2022. /CFP
Coming back to the latest tragedy: No individual would get onto a crowded truck in a sweltering summer temperature of 39.4°C and put their lives at risk to cross a border if there are other viable options available to migrate legally. The fact is that the current U.S. policies have closed all options for migrants from Mexico and Central America to enter the country legally, even if they want to seek asylum.
There are simply no legal ways left for a vast number of people arriving at the border seeking a better life or a chance to survive. Over the past 30 years, the U.S. has only tightened border controls and made it difficult for these people to migrate and seek legitimate asylum, forcing them to look for illegal and life-threatening ways to cross the border. The year 2021 was the deadliest year on record at the border and 2022 is expected to fare worse.
There's an urgent need to humanize the U.S. immigration policy and create more avenues for legal migration and asylum if this tide of deaths is to be curbed. Cases with genuine humanitarian causes need to be prioritized. Can the U.S. show genuine empathy to this cause and regain its reputation as the rightful "land of immigrants" from the "graveyard of dreams" that it has now become? Only time will tell.
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