Friday, May 20, 2016

Obama’s Cruel Decision to Resume Mass Deportations

By Dan Kovalik, Huffington Post
May 16, 2016

According to NPR, “U.S. immigration officials are planning to detain and deport immigrants who were part of the surge of Central Americans who crossed into the U.S. illegally over the past two years . . . .” And, lest one believe, as the Office of Homeland Security is claiming, that this has anything to do with national security, “immigration agents are mainly targeting young mothers with small children, and unaccompanied youths who turned 18 after they entered the U.S.” This deportation will be carried out through “‘a months-long series of raids in May and June.’”

Sending mothers and young children back to countries from which they are fleeing violence is immoral and cruel as Pope Francis has recently emphasized. It is also illegal, as the U.S. is required under international law, for example under Article 14(1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to accept such refugees who are fleeing from persecution in their home counties. And, when one considers the U.S.’s role in creating the conditions of persecution these refugees are fleeing, the immoral and criminal nature of Obama’s planned course of action is crystal clear.

Put quite simply, the U.S. owes these refugees a home in light of the fact that the U.S. has mercilessly destroyed their home countries over the past century or so. Let’s take the case of Guatemala for starters, where the U.S. supported a series of brutal military dictatorships after overthrowing its democratically-elected President back in 1954.[...]

Read the full article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-kovalik/obamas-decision-to-resume_b_9991768.html

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