The image of a little girl - who had not yet turned two years old - and her father, embraced and killed on the banks of the Rio Grande, right on the US border, has outraged the world. He was Óscar Martínez Ramírez and she, his daughter, Valeria Martínez, both from El Salvador. They came, along with the girl's mother, fleeing violence and misery in their country of origin, seeking a dignified life in the United States. They tried to arrive by the correct way, by the legal way. They wanted to ask for asylum and they tried to do it from Mexico. But the obstacles that the Trump government has placed on asylum applications prompted Óscar to arrive by another route. And it was a tragic end.
The Trump government has practically stopped the asylum process, with the intention of preventing the entry of Central American migrants into the country. Using a metering system, or limiting the number of applicants and placing them on a long waiting list, the US Executive has slowed down the number of refugees and asylees arriving in the United States.
The policy of limiting asylum began in 2017, as part of Trump's anti-immigrant measures. Previously, migrants who applied for this benefit at the border entered with a status of 'parole' or 'conditional', while their petitions were processed. They even received legal documents to work in the USA. during the wait for the result of their immigration process. There was not a list for the asylees, until Trump arrived at the White House.
The Trump government not only puts the migrants to wait, but also prevents them from entering the United States. They have to stay in Mexico for their own account and indefinite time. There is no guarantee of being able to enter the future, nor a way to secure a position or find out your appointment date. That is the current administration's way of telling migrants that they do not want them; that if they try to enter through the legal route, there is no space; and that they have to wait indefinitely on the other side of the border.
If they enter illegally, they run the risk of being apprehended and placed in detention camps, where they will suffer abuse and mistreatment, and in some cases, torture. Where they could be separated from their children without any guarantee of coming together again. Where then they can be deported without any possibility of entering on a regular basis.
Then, the despair before this reality and the knowledge of which the door was more than closed by the legal route, took to Oscar to risk their lives. They chose to cross the Rio Grande, from the Mexican side to the US side, against the strong current, instead of waiting indefinitely, without any help or perspective to be able to enter the United States regularly. Óscar threw himself into the river with his daughter Valeria on his shoulders. They came to the American side, fighting against the current. The father left the girl on the shore and returned to look for his wife, who was still waiting on the Mexican side. But little Valeria, only 23 months old, did what many frightened children do. He followed his father, did not want to be left alone, and threw himself into the river. The current took her away and Óscar ran swimming to rescue her. He hugged her and she hugged him, and placed his shirt over the two, to tie themselves together and make sure that the mighty river could not separate them. And so they drowned, together, embraced, wrapped in Oscar's shirt. Valeria's little arm on her dad's shoulders. Even more painful, Óscar's wife, Valeria's mother, witnessed the tragic death of her loved ones. She, on the other side of the river, unable to do anything but scream and cry of despair and pain.
"The death of Óscar and Valeria represents a failure to pay attention to the violence and despair that drives people to embark on dangerous journeys with the prospect of a safe and dignified life," said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. , Filippo Grandi.
Eva Golinger, lawyer and journalist
Thousands of Central Americans see the north as a place of refuge, where they can escape the violence and misery that Washington left behind, and where it is their right to receive that protection.
Eva Golinger, lawyer and journalist
In May 2019, more than 130,000 people were arrested entering the United States through the border with Mexico. The majority are Central American, from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Countries with a long history of conflicts and interventionism in Washington. In fact, the USA he has promoted and financed -and armed- civil wars and coups in all those nations, which makes him responsible for the systematic instability, violence, insecurity and corruption that has persisted for decades in the region. That is why thousands of Central Americans see the north as a place of refuge, where they can escape the violence and misery that Washington left behind, and where it is their right to receive that protection.
Before Trump, the United States had an immigration crisis. Its system was broken, a legislative reform was needed since the beginning of the 21st century, but the war against terrorism, which began after the attacks of September 11, 2001, prevented the issue from being addressed by Congress. Obama promised immigration reform during his first presidential campaign in 2008, and never succeeded. He did not even try. In fact, the deportations of immigrants without legal status in the country increased during the government of Barack Obama, to the point of earning the nickname of 'head of deportations'.
Unlike Obama, Trump has injected cruelty into his immigration policies. They not only detain and deport migrants, or prevent their entry using force: they are separating families, kidnapping children, abusing and torturing minors. Recently, all major media outlets in the United States published reports about the inhumane conditions in which the Trump government has detained hundreds of migrant children. Young people of seven years of age wearing dirty clothes, sick people, who are taking care of infants - babies that they hardly knew in the detention center - because there are no adults who do it. There are no diapers for small children, they are dirty. Many have the flu or other diseases. They do not have access to soap, toothpaste or brushes. "It smells ugly," commented the lawyers who visited one of those centers. "Most children have not been able to bathe since they crossed the border," said Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at Columbia University Law School. At least six children have died since the beginning of 2018 in the custody of immigration authorities. All for treatable diseases. That is, unnecessary and avoidable deaths.
Eva Golinger, lawyer and writer.
Trump has injected cruelty into his immigration policies. They not only detain and deport migrants, or prevent their entry using force: they are separating families, kidnapping children, abusing and torturing minors.
Eva Golinger, lawyer and writer.
Children sleep on cement floors in detention centers, do not have beds or mattresses. They just give them an aluminized blanket, supposedly for the cold. Many have been in these places for weeks or months, in conditions that can be considered comparable to torture. A lawyer from the Trump Justice Department argued before a court that in San Francisco, California, she questioned the sanitary conditions where migrant children are held, that the government was not obliged to give them soap or toothpaste, or beds, to the children arrested. According to her, they were already fulfilling the obligation to ensure a 'safe and healthy' condition for children. Not even prisoners of war are treated like that.
The right to asylum is just that, an inalienable right. Under its own laws, and also those of international law to which it is bound, the United States is committed to protecting asylum seekers and refugees. You can not reject them without first investigating and processing your cases. However, the Trump government is challenging the basic laws and principles of asylum. Instead, it is promoting a xenophobic and racist policy that explicitly discriminates against poor and non-white people.
Trump is challenging the basic laws and principles of asylum. Instead, it is promoting a xenophobic and racist policy that explicitly discriminates against poor and non-white people.
Eva Golinger, lawyer and writer
"We only want the best immigrants here," Trump said. His immigration proposal is based on the 'merits' of immigrants. Only educated people with money and influence are welcome in the United States by Donald Trump. The others can end up like Óscar and Valeria, dead on a bank of the Rio Grande, on the US side. The indignation over his death should be a worldwide cry to act against such cruelty.
