“The only crime my mother committed was to go to work to give a better life for her children,” said Jacqueline, the teenaged daughter of Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos, one of the first causalities of Trump’s war on immigrants. Guadalupe was branded a “criminal,” and deported after a routine visit to the Immigration office.
The attack on immigrants as “criminals” increased under Obama and continues today under Trump, although at a higher level.
The situation demands that we ask: who is the real “criminal?”
Is a Mom trying to feed her kids who uses a fake identification to get a job a criminal? Is a homeless person trying to survive in an abandoned home a criminal? Are Black kids walking down the street who the cops shoot criminals? Are you a criminal if your water is shut off? It’s grounds for taking away your kids. These people are not criminals. Aren’t the real criminals the public officials who poison the kids of an entire city in order to privatize the water for the corporations? Aren’t you a criminal if you are a billionaire or their rep who uses government as a means to destroy environmental regulations, public housing, and public education in order to guarantee your profits?
The billionaire class has to steal what little is left in the public coffers to increase their profits in this dying system. So they need to blame someone else for their crimes. The real aim of their immoral attack on the immigrants is to stop our unity and movement for a just society. They are using the immigration issue as a stepping-stone to deny democracy to us all. But, we aren’t going for it! We say no to a government of billionaire criminals. We say no to the hate. This is the significance of our nationwide protests in defense of immigrants. We are in a fight for a new society where everyone has rights and where everyone has their needs met—and they will not stop us. No Wall! No ban!