At a Town Hall earlier this week, Beto O’Rourke verbally smacked down a racist woman who asked why Beto “panders a lot to the illegal aliens and encouraging [sic] illegal immigration,” characterizing this as “a slap in the face to every legal immigrant who has waited and paid and played by the rules.” As y’all can imagine, Beto educated her on issues surrounding immigration, beginning with what he considers “a slap in the face.”
Transcript (mine, also my characterization of the person asking the questions):
Racist woman: Why is it you pander a lot to the illegal aliens and encouraging illegal immigration? [crowd erupts in protest]
Beto: Hold on, hold on. Let’s let her speak. Let’s let her speak, please.
Racist woman: We are a nation of laws, and I just think it’s a slap in the face to every legal immigrant who has waited and paid and played by the rules.
Beto: What is a slap in the face, to my conscience and the best traditions of this country, is taking kids from their parents and putting them in cages. [crowd applauds and cheers]
We, in this country . . . we, in this country, have lost the lives . . . we have lost the lives of seven children in our custody and in our care.
There are tens of thousands waiting on the other side of the border in an Orwellian-named Migrant Protection Protocol in Tijuana, in Ciudad Juárez. Vulnerable, penniless, frightened, they are being preyed upon [by] those who exploit those who have no defense left.
If immigration is a problem, it is the best possible problem this country could have.
I want those asylum seekers here in this country. I want us to live according to our conscience, to our laws, to our commitments, and to the best, boldest, brightest future we can possibly have.
Those immigrants pose no threat to you, nor to me. Stop trafficking in these lies. [crowd applauds and cheers]
Beto’s characterization of the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) as Orwellian-named is accurate. From “U.S. 'protection' policy consigns babies and toddlers to squalor, disease, violence in Mexico”:
Under MPP guidelines, U.S. immigration officials have implemented a “Remain in Mexico” policy, shipping thousands of Hondurans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans seeking asylum back to the Mexican border cities of Juarez, Nuevo Laredo and Tijuana to await word on a U.S. hearing, which can take weeks or months to happen.
A Reuters investigation has found that 13,000 children, including 400 infants, are among the 40,000 or so immigrants who have been sent back across the border. In an op-ed piece this summer, Andrea Pitzer wrote:
The Migrant Protection Protocols do not actually protect migrants. Instead, they inject vast numbers of displaced people into the most dangerous neighborhoods of cities that are unfamiliar to them. According to Human Rights Watch, the Mexican government noted this month that “the number of asylum seekers marooned in Ciudad Juarez already outnumbered the spaces available in free humanitarian shelters by 11 to 1.” Without money or work permits, these migrants end up sleeping in abandoned housing or outside, at risk of rape, kidnapping, robbery and murder.
Like so much of Trump Administration policy, the cruelty is the point.
The consequences of the white supremacist policies enacted by the current administration are far-reaching.
Just so y’all know, the white supremacist who posted a racist manifesto August 3rd and drove 10 hours to massacre “Mexicans” in El Paso pleaded “not guilty” on Thursday. The El Paso County DA’s office is seeking the death penalty.
Brown-skinned U.S. citizens are also being targeted by CBP and ICE, both of which treat those in their custody inhumanely.
I’m sure it comes as no surprise that the Trump administration’s attitude toward white-skinned immigrants is far more welcoming.
When Trump returns to Texas for yet another hate-filled rally on Thursday, October 17th in Dallas, Beto will host a counter Rally Against Fear.
All who stand against Trump’s evil policies are welcome to attend. If you cannot attend, please consider donating to fund Beto’s Rally Against Fear.
Please check out Beto’s vision and plans at BetoORourke.com and donate to his campaign, which is powered by people, not PACs or special interests or corporations.
Volunteer for Beto: act.BetoORourke.com/signup/volunteer