Government

In Honor Of World Refugee Day, Let’s Admit America Is Breaking Conventions It Once Held Dear

Violating international norms isn't a bug of this government, it's a feature.

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“You just a big dog, yeah / I kenneled him in the backyard / No probably, ain’t life to a dog.” — Childish Gambino and Young Thug

Wednesday, June 20, was World Refugee Day, a day which pays homage to the 1951 Refugee Convention — “A United Nations multilateral treaty that defines who is a refugee and sets out the rights of individuals who are granted asylum and the responsibilities of nations that grant asylum,” according to Wikipedia.

On Monday, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein condemned Trump’s administration stating, “The thought that any state would seek to deter parents by inflicting such abuse on children is unconscionable.”

On Tuesday, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley proclaimed that the United States is withdrawing from the United Nations Human Rights Council.

On Wednesday, World Refugee Day, Council of Europe Secretary General, and one of the five members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Thorbjorn Jagland warned: “This is just one more example which shows that [Trump] does not want to be part of international treaties or international cooperation-based organizations.”

In light of World Refugee day, let’s remember the fact that this year’s staggeringly low refugee quota, 45,000, is the lowest in thirty years, and will likely not be met — due to drastic, draconian measures. Let’s also take some time to reflect on the greater state of our international affairs.

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Last year, I covered a haunting picture of Aylan Kurdi, a 3-year-old Syrian refugee who drowned searching for freedom. Perhaps because his lifeless body didn’t find refuge on a U.S. beach, our leadership remains unmoved by the Syrian crisis. 

After all, it wasn’t too long ago that Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslim refugees from very specific countries. In fact, he still hopes to implement this plan, albeit in a modified form.

His attitude towards and animus of those he perceives as “others” knows no bounds. Not since 1981, since Reagan, has an administration been so homogenous in terms of age, race, and sex. For people of color, the maxim “if you aren’t at the table, you are on the menu” has never felt more harrowing.

You may have already seen the viral photo of a little girl screaming for her mother, who was separated from her by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. She will end up in a detention facility, or a “tender age” shelter, somewhere here in Texas.

The escalating nativist rhetoric of the most recent presidential campaigns has led us to where we are today. Words matter. Pictures matter. Intentions and aims that were once directed at anchor babies have now shifted to those seeking legal asylum and the many others who have already been naturalized.

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This isn’t a slippery slope argument, this is a “this is happening” contention. You may be feeling fatigued from this endless news cycle, but it’s critical to stay alert to the disturbing facts. We shouldn’t sleep on our country’s blatant violations of the most fundamental of human rights.

Although seeking asylum is legal, we have now begun to treat this process as criminal. We have not only violated international treaties (Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees) for those fleeing persecution and seeking safe harbor — but we have ripped away people’s kids from them with suspect plans for reunification. Not even in the Japanese internment camps did we separate innocent actors from their children. One father has already committed suicide because of our government’s heinous actions.

As Texas Monthly Executive Editor Katy Vine has noted, under the new “zero-tolerance” policy, the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol are blocking bridges, legal entry points, and forcing migrants and refugees seeking asylum to cross by other means. When they do cross and request asylum, the Border Patrol is charging them for a criminal offense and taking away their children. This isn’t how the asylum process is supposed to function.

In her Texas Monthly article “What’s Really Happening When Asylum-Seeking Families Are Separated?” Vine further highlighted the absurdity of this protocol:

Then [the Border Patrol and U.S. Marshals] say if you have religious persecution or political persecution or persecution on something that our asylum definition recognizes, you can fight that case behind bars at an immigration detention center.

And those cases take two, three, four, five, six months. And what happens to your child isn’t really our concern. That is, you have made the choice to bring your child over illegally. And this is what’s going to happen.

Many migrants and refugees have died in their search for safe harbor and asylum. Other refugees haven’t viewed America as a beacon of hope for quite some time, and for good reason. But now — in a stark departure from past practices as well as all international norms and customs — we are blocking migrants from entering legal entry points. And we are criminalizing those who are legally seeking asylum. Interment camps by any other names are still prisons. It is hard to accept the reality of these “tender age” shelters on our soil. In our own backyard, we are now housing innocent children in cages.

It is hard to ignore the government-sanctioned child abuse and violations of multilateral treaties that are currently happening within our borders. We may be keeping the lights on 24/7 in the warehouses that we are detaining these innocent migrant children, but make no mistake — this is a dark chapter in our country’s history.

The United Nations has strongly condemned the Trump administration’s current practice of separating immigrant children from their parents, just as it has our current criminal justice system. In return, the administration has withdrawn our country from the United Nations Human Rights Council.

On Wednesday, Trump issued an Executive Order to stop his administration’s own initiated policy of separating families. Trump’s “start a fire to partially extinguish a fire” or “stick a knife in your back nine inches and pull it out six inches” strategy still ignores the basic fact that we are violating Article 31 of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees: Non-penalization, Detention and Protection, which states:

Detention of asylum seekers which is applied for [illegitimate] purposes, for example, as part of a policy to deter future asylum seekers, or to dissuade those who have commenced their claims from pursuing them, is contrary to the norms of refugee law.

It should not be used as a punitive or disciplinary measure for illegal entry or presence in the country. Detention should also be avoided for failure to comply with the administrative requirements or other institutional restrictions related residency at reception centers, or refugee camps.

We are directly violating Article 31 of the Refugee Convention. Instead of addressing this issue, the Trump administration is aiming to amplify its wanton and reckless ignorance of historical precedent. The Department of Justice now plans to send Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAG) Officers to our southern border to prosecute migrants. Maybe this administration should do better to understand the rule of law before it deploys JAG Officers, who specialize in military justice and military law, to interpret and enforce immigration laws.

The vaunted wall that the Trump administration so desperately plots to build is already being constructed brick by brick. Even if we refuse to admit it to ourselves. A separation of families’ strategy was executed on our borders, while the separation of society continues to happen within them.

Our country’s withdrawal from the United Nations Human Rights Council isn’t a bug, it’s a feature of the current administration. I’ve spoken to so many others who also feel within and without. When did we get here… while America slept?

History has shown us time and time again, walls don’t last — people do. And when this chapter of our country finally gets written, let it reveal that those who succeeded in their journeys around the world didn’t do so because of the Trump administration, they succeeded in spite of this administration. Nativism may be winning these short-term battles, but no country has ever succeeded by shutting itself in and closing itself off from the rest of the world.

It’s time to wake up. This is America. And one day, we — including the President of the United States — will have to admit that immigrants, too, are America.

Renwei Chung is the Diversity Columnist at Above the Law. You can contact Renwei by email at projectrenwei@gmail.com, follow him on Twitter (@renweichung), or connect with him on LinkedIn. 

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