Until the United States establishes and articulates clear rules, the crisis at the border will continue. – David Frum
Frum, David. “America’s Asylum System Is Profoundly Broken.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 3 July 2019.
In my Spring quarter of my freshman year, my Chicanx 60 professor introduce to us to a movie called, Sin Nombre. If you haven’t heard or watched this movie, I recommend it because it’s about a young Honduran girl name Sayra who undertakes a dangerous journey by train to seek asylum in the United States. Cary Joji Fukunaga, the director of this film, spent two years riding on trains with people from Central America to gain perspective of what these people have to go through when they escape the danger of their homelands.
With all the chaos that has been happening around the world, people seek help to escape war, torture, and persecution. Asylum, grants people who have come to the United States, legal protection. Each year the American Immigration system lets in a million people legally. However, petitioning for asylum does not grant a promising plan because many are commonly rejected.
Like Sayra, Yareni and her four-year old left Guatemala after receiving death threats. Guatemala is filled with poverty and violence, including homicide related to gang rivalry and organized crime. Yareni and her son went through Mexico before arriving to the United States in hopes of asylum. (source)
After being separated, Yareni and her son faced the “zero-tolerance” immigration policy. This policy by Trump and his administration, have criminally persecuted immigrant parents traveling with their children and force them to be separate. Yareni was detained in a detention facility in Texas, while her son was transferred to a facility in Arizona. They were reunited seven weeks after being separated by border agents.
Consequently, because Yareni’s son had to go through such turmoil, it caused bed-wetting, nightmares, and separation anxiety.
The United States, is failing ethically to protect these people who fled their homes for safety.
With the understanding that the United States’ goal is to limit the overwhelming amount of immigrants who enter our borders legally, the administration has created inhumane methods to drive refugees away. Many of these people have credible claims to seek asylum but have been criminalized. (source)
David Forum, writer of, “The Asylum Profoundly Broken,” has opened a conversation about the American asylum and the impossibilities of ever obtaining protection one desperately needs. Those who seek asylum, end up dropping their case because it wasn’t legible for asylum, and those who are admitted never get to fill an application.
Many escape difficult circumstances, in search for better opportunities, but the complexity of US law and immigration policies prevent people from ever achieving that. Since 2017, the federal government has enforced more policies to end asylum. I understand that we can’t take every asylum seeker that comes to our national door, but it is the responsibility of our international communities to contribute and give these people a place where they can feel safe and secure.
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The movie you recommend sounds like a touched one. I also watched a similar movie about a family want to travel all the way to the US by taking trains and they are lucky to receive help from some Mexican people on the way. You use a lot of ethos in this post, but I want to see more data as well. For example, how many people are risking entering the U.S. illegally and how many of them are children? You said you don’t understand why can’t we take more people in, but I think the government has its concern. California does better than other states already.
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