In 2015, announcing his run for the presidency, Donald Trump sparked outrage, made headlines 鈥 and gathered significant support 鈥 by asserting that Mexico was sending 鈥渞apists鈥 across the border.
How quaint.
Now, as he makes his third run for the presidency, Trump has taken the rhetoric of migrant dehumanization to a level literally unprecedented in this country. You鈥檇 have to go back to Nazi Germany to find a parallel in political discourse.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e rough people, in many cases from jails, prisons, from mental institutions, insane asylums. You know, insane asylums, that鈥檚 鈥楽ilence of the Lambs鈥 stuff,鈥 Trump said early this month. 鈥淗annibal Lecter, anybody know Hannibal Lecter? We don鈥檛 want 鈥檈m in this country.鈥
At another rally the same week, he informed his supporters that the border influx includes 鈥渕illions of people from places unknown, from countries unknown, who don鈥檛 speak languages 鈥 We have languages coming into our country, nobody that speaks those languages. They鈥檙e truly foreign languages. Nobody speaks them.鈥
People are also reading…
As if that mind-boggling bit of ignorance and bigotry weren鈥檛 enough to define 鈥渄ehumanize,鈥 Trump last week made sure nobody missed the message about migrants: 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know if you call them 鈥榩eople,鈥 in some cases,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e not people, in my opinion.鈥
Not people.
Setting aside for a moment the staggering fact that the man quoted above has already sewn up the 2024 presidential nomination of 鈥淭he Party of Lincoln,鈥 we must now consider the fallout from the fact that on his orders, the House of Representatives has refused to take up bipartisan border-security compromise legislation that would address both the underlying issues and the current crisis of 鈥渘ot people鈥 in the borderlands we call home.
The bitter truth is that the Republican about-face on border security was spurred by Trump鈥檚 desire to be able to keep campaigning on the issue and his wish not to have even partial solutions enabled on President Biden鈥檚 watch. Therefore, the federal funding that has enabled humanitarian groups like Tucson鈥檚 Casa Alitas to keep the 鈥渘ot people鈥 from ending up homeless in our city and others will end April 1.
The overwhelming majority of these 鈥渘ot people鈥 are not fentanyl smugglers. They are not murderers and rapists. Many are traveling in groups actually resembling human 鈥渇amilies.鈥 Amazingly, they do speak languages that real people understand. And they are trapped in the jaws of a political dispute that will spit them out, destitute and hopeless, onto our streets unless something is done.
The federal government exists to deal with issues that cross state lines, that are not provincial in nature 鈥 things that city or county or state governments do not have the ability to control with local policymaking. And yet the kind of inaction we鈥檝e seen from an utterly paralyzed House of Representatives this year has huge local consequences. It would take roughly $1 million per week to continue to fund necessary border humanitarian work in Pima County alone, and that is not a responsibility that can be shouldered by city or county government.
So many parts of this issue are the responsibility of federal government. Our asylum system is badly broken. If it weren鈥檛, it would not be necessary for the Border Patrol to issue 鈥渃atch and release鈥 court dates to the 鈥渘ot people鈥 who are seeking legal asylum status. There is no reason why we should not have a system in place to resolve the great majority of asylum cases within a few weeks, right at the border. But the federal government has not funded such a system. It鈥檚 easier to bloviate about the problem 鈥 and fund-raise on it 鈥 than it is to fix it.
It鈥檚 been pointed out that the cancellation of the bipartisan border deal has left some sophisticated fentanyl scanners sitting in warehouses because of a lack of funds to install and operate them. Tucson U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva and others have called for Congress to fund them immediately.
Great idea. And say, while they鈥檙e at it, Congress could add a few dollars to help the heroes who are keeping 鈥渘ot people鈥 from crashing onto our local social-services network 鈥 the 鈥渉omelessness on steroids鈥 that Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher has correctly warned we will face.
For very different reasons, both Grijalva and U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani announced their opposition to the bipartisan border package. To regain any shred of credibility on this issue, both should be pushing hard for emergency funding to keep Casa Alitas in business and make sure that we are able to maintain a human response to a dehumanized problem.
In the meantime, our thanks go to the volunteers and donors in Tucson who are doing their very best every day to help the 鈥渘ot people鈥 who need compassion, a pair of socks, some baby formula and a bus ticket.
