Statement by the Committee for Revolutionary International Regroupment
As a result of the “Zero Tolerance” policy promoted by President Trump against Central Americans fleeing violence in their countries between May 5 and June 9, more than 2,300 children have been separated from their families at the border with Mexico by Border Patrol authorities of the United States.
Amid the sound of their cries in the face of a most cruel abandonment, video images showing children locked in cages went viral and reverberated around the world.
The international condemnation of President Trump’s terrible treatment of refugees, when combined with his xenophobic statements and the outrage of the North American people, resulted in a forceful, generalized repudiation that compelled him to abandon the plan to keep the refugee children in captivity indefinitely and to permanently separate them from their mothers and fathers.
Regardless of Trump’s apparent retreat, the movement in support of the refugees continues to gather strength. In a scandalous press conference, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was rebuked by journalists for being unable to defend the inhuman treatment of immigrants except by lying about their criminality.
In a lightning action, or “escrache”, several protesters denounced Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen while she was having lunch in a Mexican restaurant in Washington D.C.
Yet another sign of the generalized rejection of the Trump policy is that American, Southwest, United, Alaska and Frontier airlines announced they would not cooperate with the government in providing transportation for child deportees after flight attendants posted Facebook protests and their union issued a statement saying it “condemns any action to purposefully separate children from their families.”
Added to all this are the demonstrations that have been taking place in numerous cities and all corners of the United States in the last two weeks, as well as in other countries—such as the protest in Mexico City on June 21.
Trump’s policy of imprisoning and separating children from their families is the continuation of the anti-immigration policy applied by his predecessors, Presidents George W. Bush and Barak Obama. In his latest decree on the subject, Trump said that the separation of children from their parents was suspended. However, the reality is that that they are still incarcerated and, in the best case scenario, they will be deported along with their parents.
All these actions have exposed Trump’s arrogance and his Nazi-like methods by which he scapegoats those who have no other option for survival than to leave their home countries because of the ongoing international capitalist economic crisis and political corruption.
From the CRIR, we salute all the people worldwide who mobilized and made their condemnation of Trump’s brutal attacks against basic human rights heard. We join you in calling to unite and mobilize to end the racist, xenophobic policy of the Trump government, which represents a real danger to the most basic freedoms and civil rights.
The migrants attacked by Trump are actually displaced workers, mostly from Central America, where White House-sponsored wars against leftists and narcos have increased violence to unprecedented levels. Today Central America and Mexico represent a war zone second only to Syria in the number of its victims. Much of this violence is the result of the skyrocketing exploitation by multinational corporations of natural resources and the destruction of the environment in our hemisphere for enormous profits.
We demand that the U.S. government end the mistreatment of Mexicans and Central Americans seeking refuge in the U.S. and stop dividing families. We also demand that the U.S. acknowledge the debt it owes the people of Latin America for its role fomenting civil wars and military coups in order to impose free trade agreements that have bankrupted the working class. It is time the U.S. assume its historical responsibility for the violence that has provoked this latest wave of displaced people.
We call on the governments of Mexico and Central America to grant migrants elementary rights and refugee status, starting with asylum and legal assistance to recover their children.
We demand that the governments of Central America cancel the Central America Regional Security Initiative (CARSI) and that the government of Mexico cancel the Merida Initiative and stop cooperating with the United States against Central American migration.
The greatest unity of all democratic sectors is necessary in this struggle. Immigrant collectives, trade unions, feminists, socialists and progressives must continue and deepen the fight until Trump’s “Zero Tolerance” policy is defeated. After all, it is not a crime to migrate, let alone to flee from barbarism.
Immediate freedom for imprisoned children!
Restitution to their families!
Stop the criminalization of the displaced!
Stop the war on drugs!
No to Trump’s wall!
Open the borders!
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Committee for Revolutionary International Regroupment
Freedom Socialist Party (U.S and Australia)
Partido Obrero Socialista (México)
Comité de Enlace, Convergencia Socialista-La Verdad y Reagrupamiento hacia el PST (Argentina)
