No Funding for Inhumane Immigration Enforcement

After a hard and dangerous journey from their home countries, several thousand people attempting to escape violence and persecution in Central America recently arrived at the United States-Mexico border to apply for asylum. Characterized by the Trump administration as a threat to safety and security, they were met with U.S. troops, closed border crossings, and tear-gassing by the Customs and Border Patrol.

On Tuesday, November 27, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York reiterated Democrats’ support for $1.6 billion for undefined “border security” measures, to be included in the Department of Homeland Security’s budget. His office clarified that it would include fencing, rather than the concrete wall desired by the Trump administration.

However the money is intended, we oppose any spending on the unrestrained, unaccountable, profit-driven, and violent regime of deportation agents, detention beds, and militarized border enforcement that currently characterizes the United States’ immigration system.

Nearly 45,000 people per day are detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Multiple reports have documented systemic abuse within the detention facilities, as well as unconstitutional, dangerous conditions in Customs and Border Protection holding facilities. Punitive “zero-tolerance” policies resulted in mass family separations, which continue to cause trauma and suffering for children and their caregivers.

The militarization of border communities, including walls, fencing, and increased enforcement, has massive environmental, economic, and human impacts. Currently, fences and walls are planned that will cut through Indigenous lands, private farms and ranches, wildlife refuges and state parks.

A wall would physically sever the Tohono O’odham Nation, whose lands lie across the border between Arizona and Sonora, in two. It would cut off traditional passages to ceremonies, divide families, and make it difficult, if not impossible, for the 2,000 members of the Tohono O’odham Nation who live south of the imposed border to get medical care and receive services from the Tohono O’odham Nation’s government.

Border walls fragment the habitat available to many animals that are already threatened or endangered. It separates them from food, water, and potential mates. Walls built across arroyos and other natural drainages act as dams during the monsoon season, causing severe, life-threatening flooding. No more money should be surrendered to the dangerous myth that destructive borders bring security.