I got a message from an old college friend a week or so ago. She had always been a champion of conservative politics, from BYU College Republicans to canvassing for the Romney campaign. A Texas Republican if I’ve ever seen one. And while we had long disagreed on a number of political issues, she was and is a kind, compassionate human being I counted as a true friend.
When she learned of the Family Separation Policy, I watched her via social media take up a sword and actively fight against the callous and cold responses from her uber-conservative friends and family. I offered her solidarity in the form of likes and a few fact-filled comments where I saw space for dialogue. And after a few days she messaged me, a plea filled with anguish and sorrow, “How do we stop this?”
As we talked, it was clear she was hoping there was a simple answer. A single policy that could be overturned, a law suit that would prove the governmental actions violated the law, or even an opportunity to “help the one” by flooding child and family detention centers with blankets, toys and funeral potato casseroles. But as I explained to her the legal realities of administrative law, plenary power, and the systemic denial of due process, I had to make it clear. This is just the tip of the iceberg of a deeply-entrenched and sophisticated system designed to dehumanize and marginalize immigrants—especially those with black and brown skin.
See, what we are finally seeing now is nothing new. Not really. The zero-tolerance and family separation policies enacted in the past two months are a particularly heinous variation on a theme, but if you search google for articles about why children and families are being detained, why refugees can’t get asylum, and how ICE and CBP are rife with unchecked abuse and violence, you will be surprised by how many mainstream news articles are dated 2016, 2014, 2011, or earlier.
There are no clean hands, left, right, center or agnostic. We are all complicit in our blindness.
What we are seeing now are the visible manifestations of a necrotic, dehumanizing system that has always been driven more by racism and xenophobia than any other so-called ideal or interest. We are facing that moment when the cancer has spread so wide and deep that the tumors are visiblelly pushing through the skin. And suddenly, we can’t look away.
The history of immigration law is the history of our shifting scapegoating against whatever ethnic group presents as simultaneously the most threatening and the most vulnerable among us. Citizenship has historically been withheld or stripped from Black slaves, Native Americans, Chinese workers, and Mexican Americans — overtly, explicitly and without apology. The first major cases you read in immigration law class is Chae Chan Ping — “The Chinese Exclusion Case”—named for the Chinese Exclusion Act which they upheld and ensured that the thousands of chinese laborers who built the impressive US railways could easily be exploited, oppressed, and expelled from the country. Overt racial quotes have given way to xenophobic dog whistles, but this is far from the first time the US government has sought to actively stripped citizenship from people of color and deported them based on skin color and surname.
I am the granddaughter of an undocumented Mexican migrant worker on one side and refugees from Nazi Germany on the other. Since law school, I’ve focused my work on immigrant and refugee rights. What I’ve learned is deeply troubling. Beyond the substance of our laws, the system we have designed to destroy any shred of due process is impressive in its efficacy. And the work it is going to take for us to dismantle it and reclaim our own complicit souls is going to take a long, sustained, committed fight.
In this moment — this terrifying, soul-crushing moment — I am inviting you to join that fight. Decide now not simply that separating families is a bridge too far, but that you will allow this moment of moral clarity to plant itself in your heart. Like the seed of faith, let this moment grow into a fierce and fearless commitment to our shared humanity. Decide today that we will no longer allow migrants, refugees, brown and black children to be the acceptable collateral damage in our social and political negotiations.
What can you do? I’m answering that question at Torchlight Legal Communications with information, education, and recommendations on how to fight both the immediate and systemic harm. I welcome your contributions, collaboration and suggestions. “If ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work.”
Jennifer Gonzalez is a legal communicator, information designer, & immigrant and refugee rights advocate who produces articles and media at Torchlight Legal Communications. She earned a JD at Stanford Law School while exploring human-centered design theory, narrative and storytelling, and documentary filmmaking as a tool for understanding the human impact of law and policy. During her post-JD fellowship, she assisted refugees fleeing gang and cartel violence in Latin America through the North Carolina Immigrant Rights Project and has dabbled in the world of silicon valley startups and legal technology. She has two degrees from BYU (BA and MA in English), but deftly escaped without an MRS and embraces her life as a radical, single, latinx, mormon, feminist bruja and rockstar auntie to her seven niblings.
This article has been cross-posted at Feminist Mormon Housewives.
Thank you, Jennifer. Great info and suggestions. We can all do something!
Thanks for writing this, Jennifer. I think immigration is the most pressing moral and political question of our time, and I appreciate you putting it into historical context. It’s always been an issue, but like you said, our failure to meet its challenges in a moral and compassionate way is a cancer we can no longer ignore. I will do what I can.
Thank you so much for posting this. It has made me queasy to see all the latter-day saints posting references to Article of Faith 12 when discussing this issue–talk about wresting the scriptures! They’d have to ignore thousands of years of other, more direct and contrary counsel from the Lord himself that completely counter that one statement, instructing us to put people, service, and the poor and needy first. It warms my heart to see sister leading out on this crucial issue–defending women and children is one area where we should be the mightiest of advocates. We shouldn’t cave to male-dominated rhetoric about subjecting ourselves to governments, especially when mothers and babies are weeping for help!
Thank you for the reminder of how fraught our American history is with racial tension frequently causing scapegoating and extreme bias against immigrants