U.S. border detention practice recalls past horrors

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/01/2020 (2077 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

How can you put into words the depths of horror that were brought about at Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Bergen-Belsen, Dachau? Simply put, you can’t. And the list goes on.

Monday marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, as religious leaders, politicians, families and survivors spoke out, vowing to never forget the atrocities and to work to prevent such horrors from happening again.

Yet for many of us who have observed what has been happening south of the border since 2017, with brown-skinned children trapped in cages at detention camps, separated from their families and housed in squalor, it seems like perhaps the lessons of history have not been fully absorbed.

In keeping with his 2016 election promises, U.S. President Donald Trump implemented family separation as an aspect of his immigration policy to deter illegal immigration. Beginning in 2017, federal authorities separated children from their parents or guardians when they attempted to enter the U.S. at the Mexican border.

The parents were moved to federal jails, and the children have been housed in immigration camps under the supervision of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

When news of the situation started to break, showing images of wire cages in which small children were taking care of smaller children, some observers made the comparison to Nazi concentration camps — a criticism others suggested went too far, particularly supporters of Trump who were quick to point out that former president Barack Obama also engaged in family separation policies as part of his immigration program.

In Canada, it’s hard to understand how our government, which has taken it on the chin for its dealings with Saudi Arabia and that country’s dodgy human-rights record, continues to allow the U.S. to get away with such terrible behaviour. Recall that an international trade dispute between Canada and Saudi Arabia escalated in 2019 after the Liberal government denounced the Saudis for human-rights abuses.

In 2018, Canada, the U.K. and Mexico, among others, rebuked Trump for the family-separation policy. The practice was supposed to have stopped in the summer of 2018, but reports suggest it continues — according to government records, more than 1,100 children were taken from their parents in December 2019, bringing the estimated total to more than 6,000. And that number might be low, because record-keeping is inconsistent. It’s now thought it may be difficult to reunite some of these children with their families because no one knows who their parents are.

According to the U.S. government, the separations now occur only when the parent has a criminal history or is considered unfit. However, the American Civil Liberties Union says this is still a violation of the rights of children and families. Moreover, the decisions are being made by border patrol officers who are untrained to make those determinations, and the decisions are based on brief interactions.

Despite this, Canada has said little since 2018 to confront the U.S. on its policy, and now the idea of children in cages has become old news. They’re still there, but we’ve moved on to other things and so, it seems, have the governments.

Last Monday, parliamentarians returned to work in the House of Commons, with Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland calling for bipartisan co-operation to ensure the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade deal is passed without unnecessary delays. The deal has gone to the Standing Committee on International Trade for scrutiny.

But how can this country work out a deal on a new trade agreement with a government that has been accused of violating international laws against another signatory in the deal? To remain silent on this issue seems obscene, particularly given the anniversary that has just been commemorated.

Canada also has its own record to consider. The Canadian government has also detained immigrant children — according to Human Rights Watch, 227 were detained in the immigration facility in Toronto between 2011 and 2015; public outcry resulted in a directive from Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale ordering Canada Border Services Agency officers to avoid separating families and to keep kids out of detention in all possible circumstances.

That may be one reason why Canada has been guarded in its remarks about the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Look, the free-trade deal is great for our economy. And anyone who’s paid any attention knows that Freeland had to do all sorts of diplomatic manoeuvring to get it to this stage.

But, it would still be nice to see just one member of parliament give notice that they’re uncomfortable signing a trade deal with a partner that continues to keep brown-skinned kids in cages. Just one MP has to say that they think human dignity is worth more than the economy. Someone must remember that what we stood up for last Monday still means something on this Thursday morning.

Shannon Sampert is a retired political scientist and is now a communications consultant with her company Media Diva.

S.sampert@uwinnipeg.ca

Twitter: @paulysigh