Leave Those Children Alone!
Welcome, Support Families Fleeing "Made in USA" Poverty and Violence in Central America!
July 4, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
On July 1, a mob of American flag-waving thugs chanting "USA" blocked three busloads of immigrants who were being transported, in custody, by the Border Patrol to a detention facility in Murrieta, California—about 80 miles southeast of Los Angeles. The detainees were primarily children accompanied by mothers or fathers. They were to be processed at the Murrieta facility described by a Murrieta city councilman as "a jailhouse." According to some news reports, the detainees were eventually supposed to be united with family throughout the country.
Those blocking the buses on July 1 were confronted by courageous people from the community, including Mexican-Americans who shouted, "Our people cook your food" and a man who told the media, "It doesn’t matter where a child is from. He deserves respect and help because he’s a child." As this is written on July 4, reports indicate that the majority of those now gathering at the point where buses were blocked are supporters of immigrants’ rights who, as one put it, are out "to counter the overwhelming racism and xenophobia that we've seen here the last few days."
As two sides shape up in this confrontation, three things must be said:
1. The mob in Murrieta blocking buses and their kind are no different than White Citizens’ Councils and KKKers and lynch mobs in Mississippi who terrorized Black people and their supporters fighting for basic rights. And they have the backing (and are being instigated by) powerful forces in the ruling class. In the tradition of white supremacist local officials in the South during the Civil Rights era who had close connections with local KKK terrorists and White Citizens’ Councils (a network of white supremacist organizations centered mainly in the South), Murrieta city officials whipped up an atmosphere of immigrant-hating terror, and announced the details of the schedule for the transport of immigrants.
2. At a news conference, in public statements, and at the city's website, officials posted notices creating an atmosphere that these children and their parents were vicious criminals endangering the city. The city's website includes postings along the lines of "How do you know an immigrant does not have a criminal background?" If anyone wants to talk about vicious and dangerous criminals or a "criminal background" here, they should start with the massive, horrific crimes the U.S. has committed and is committing in Central America—driving people from their homelands in a desperate search for peace and survival. Throughout Central America, people labor for sub-survival wages on plantations owned by U.S. agribusiness and in sweatshops making clothes for export to the U.S. For a century, and in an especially vicious way during the 1980s, the U.S. waged or orchestrated genocidal wars in Central American countries to suppress rebellions. In just one country, in three years, a U.S.-backed regime in Guatemala destroyed 626 villages, killed or “disappeared” more than 200,000 people—mostly indigenous Mayan people—and displaced an additional 1.5 million people, about a fifth of the entire population. This crime and many others have created a situation in Central America today of poverty and desperation.
3. The children and their families on these buses must be greeted with care and compassion. No deportations! These refugees should be able to live safe and decent lives in the United States.
Volunteers Needed... for revcom.us and Revolution
If you like this article, subscribe, donate to and sustain Revolution newspaper.