[lg policy] Spanish language users

Sat Mar 9 20:27:11 UTC 2019

New “Racist” Asylum Policy Focuses On Central Americans, Spanish Speakers

JAZZ SHAWPosted at 8:01 am on March 7, 2019
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<?subject=Hot%20Air%20story&body=New+%26%238220%3Bracist%26%238221%3B+asylum+policy+focuses+on+Central+Americans%2C+Spanish+speakers%20https://hotair.com/archives/2019/03/07/new-racist-asylum-policy-focuses-central-americans-spanish-speakers/>
6

Get ready for another flurry of accusations of racism in immigration
enforcement. The press has gotten hold of information on what’s being
described as a “policy shift” in how immigration officials handle both
illegal immigrants and those presenting themselves for asylum consideration
at authorized border crossings. While none of this is actually new, it does
provide clarification as to which migrants are allowed to remain in the
United States while their cases are heard and which are returned to Mexico
to await a hearing. But some of the language in the leaked policy certainly
raises questions as to who’s coming up with these memos. (Associated Press)

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<https://hotair.com/archives/2019/03/09/__trashed-24/>

Border agents have been told to explicitly target Spanish speakers and
migrants from Latin America in carrying out a Trump administration program
requiring asylum seekers wait in Mexico, according to memos obtained by The
Associated Press that reveal some inner workings of a top government
priority to address the burgeoning number of Central Americans arriving in
the country.

The Trump administration launched the program in late January in what marks
a potentially seismic shift on how the U.S. handles the cases of immigrants
seeking asylum and fleeing persecution in their homeland. The program
initially applied only to those who turned themselves in at official border
crossings, but a memo from a division chief of the Border Patrol’s San
Diego sector says it expanded Friday to include people who cross the border
illegally.

Most of these procedures were already known before the leak of these memos
from the San Diego Border Patrol division chief. The Trump administration
has been working with the government of Mexico to have them keep asylum
seekers on their side of the border while their cases are heard and Mexico
has begun doing that. There are limits on how many such migrants can be
returned, however. They currently accept a maximum of 20 per day from San
Diego, Monday through Saturday, with the returned individuals going back to
Tijuana.
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What appears to be new in this memo is the list of individuals who will not
be returned, but are instead allowed to stay in the United States. These
include pregnant women, LGBT migrants, people with medical issues, Mexican
citizens and children traveling alone. Wait a minute… I thought we were
supposed to be racists, homophobes, misogynists and heartless monsters who
hate children. But we’re letting all of those classes of individuals go
into the catch and release program?

What’s really curious about the memo, just to be fair to the critics, is
why they would specify “*Spanish speaking people*.” First of all, we’re
talking about the southern land border here, not Canada or our nation’s
airports and seaports. Pretty much everyone arriving there by land is
coming from Mexico or points south. Unless they’re coming from Brazil
(where they speak Portuguese) *pretty much all of them speak Spanish*, with
the exception of a relative handful of people coming in from other
continents and attempting to sneak across. It seems like a pointless
distinction to make when clarifying border policy.

In any event, I’m sure the usual suspects on cable news will be running
this up the flagpole as yet another example of racism in the Trump
administration. The better question should be why it took so long to put
these plans in place. We’re in the middle of a massive surge of migrants,
both legal and illegal at our southern border and our courts are
overwhelmed. Find some solutions for that problem and the rest of these
questions will be dealt with.

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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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