Human rights
This weeks readings on Diversity resonated with me on a personal level. I am a person first and one of the roles in my life is a mother. I came across an article headline that stated “Trump admin wants ability to hold migrant kids indefinitely, upending decades-old ban”. My heart felt heavy. I knew vaguely of what totally encompassed fully what Human Rights entailed prior to reading this weeks assignment. I could not help but wonder, “What part of human rights involves continuing to confine families that are seeking shelter?” While I understand the need to secure borders and protect US citizens from possible infiltration, I don’t quite understand how there is justification for holding people who seek asylum, especially when it’s the US that must foot the cost, which is quite the expense. A better question is why do we marvel at international travel, foods and lands, but disdain those people that only seek a basic human need, which is safety.
Article 13 states of the declaration of human rights states :
“(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
Article 14 of the declaration of human rights states:
“(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.”
How is this then not a blatant disregard for basic human right which the US has agreed to?
To further speak to the egregious nature of this heinous and inhumane act, Carroll county columnist Tom Zirpoli offers the following commentary:
“It has been documented by Dara Lind, a writer who specializes in immigration issues, that many asylum seekers trying to do it “the right way” at the U.S.-Mexico border are turned away or physically blocked from setting foot across the U.S. border in clear violation of international law. Journalist Robert Moore, writer for the Texas Monthly, wrote that he witnessed a group of asylum seekers being blocked from crossing the United States border by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials. The officials, wrote Moore, stood on the other side of the U.S. border, in Mexican territory, physically blocking people from presenting asylum applications in the United States.
As stated by the International Justice Resource Center, “It is perfectly legal to come to the United States without papers and request asylum. International law prohibits the U.S. government from turning away people with legitimate humanitarian claims or from sending them back to countries where their lives are in danger.” The center goes on to point out that “Federal law and regulations specify that anyone who comes to the U.S. without legal status, and claims a fear of persecution, has the right to an interview to determine whether that fear is credible (by a judge); then, if they pass that interview, they have the right to formally seek asylum.”
I am trying to understand what law was broken, what crime committed and how this isn’t a total violation of human rights. And besides voting every few months, what can be done about the actual crimes of holding humans in confinements for no real reason? Do people who migrate here truly know what they are walking into? What is the real agenda behind keeping people. We Is America reopening the door of no return?
Sometimes in the market I look at the back of the label and see where the food comes from. We have coffee from Venezuela, Honduras, Chile, Brazil. Seafood from China. Sugar and bananas from Haiti. We love the language, culture and the beauty of the people from these lands surrounded by the sea. We long to vacation in lands where the music is electrifying and the warm weather makes us feel lost in time.We even love what they add to our atmosphere when they become famous. We love hard to pronounce names like Pryanka, Aziz, and Kumar become mainstream household names and realize that nuances in their culture isn’t much different than ours. We all bleed the same and want the same things. To be happy, fed, safe and to work. No matter what land you were born on. No one should be punished for wanting to sleep well at night.
The plaque upon the Statute of Liberty reads:
“Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Emma Lazarus
References
Tom Zirpoli, 2018 http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/opinion/columnists/cc-op-zirpoli-20180904-story.html
United Nations. (n.d.). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/trump-admin-plans-hold-migrant-kids-indefinitely-defying-decades-old-n907006
https://www.howtallisthestatueofliberty.org/what-is-the-quote-on-the-statue-of-liberty/
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