Our radios play recordings of children’s screams and our newsfeeds are filled with endless images of bleak detention centers: six and seven year-olds in cages, on matts with emergency blankets, and younger toddlers are even legally barred from being touched or consoled after being ripped from their parents. Trump’s new “zero-tolerance” policy has set in motion a form of systemic violence most Americans can’t recognize as being from this era, nevermind within the borders of their own country.
Aside from being a blatant political ploy to demonize opposition to Trump’s proposed border wall, the new policy is far from a new practice for the American government. From slavery to the forced indoctrination of native children to Japanese internment camps, government-sanctioned destruction of families has been an important tool in fomenting nationalism and dominating dissension.
U.S. Border between San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico
However, what’s largely missing from the narrative is the United State’s own role in instigating the movement of undocumented immigrants through its borders. The role the U.S. has played in destabilizing more than half a dozen South and Central American countries in the last fifty years contributes directly to political and economic turmoil. Trade policies that benefited U.S. industrial agriculture by flooding the Mexican market with surplus produce have decimated local farmers. A steady stream of U.S.-made weapons arm drug cartels throughout Mexico.
Whether those crossing the border are seeking political asylum, relief from poverty, or safety from gang violence, the root of their hardship can be found in U.S. imperialism. This isn’t an unfortunate downside to our prosperity, but a calculated and profitable system of undermining other countries for the expansion of U.S. capital both overseas and at home. Starting with meatpacking factories, U.S. companies have deliberately sought the labor of illegal immigrants for the low wages they’ll accept and exploitative practices they’ll endure. The NRA blocked legislation to ban assault weapons and track guns because of the immense profits generated by straw dealers smuggling guns.
And then there’s the detention facilities themselves. The Southwest Key Program, which manages detention centers in Southwest Texas, saw a significant boom in business after Trump’s new policy was enacted, resulting in a nearly $1.5 million salary for its chief executive this year. Here in Florida, a defunct immigrant youth detention center was reopened. Comprehensive Health Services, the contractor running the facility, is receiving $30 million for the Homestead center. They recently received a $600,000 tax break from governor Scott after stealing from the feds by double charging for medical services.
Photo of CBP facility in McAllen, TX. Provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Cultural genocide, generational trauma, and systematized poverty and exploitation are good for business.
And this rash of xenophobia and nationalism isn’t just affecting the U.S., but the world. As capitalism faces crisis, fascism rises as a political and ideological alternative to distract from the increasingly brutal and corrupt accumulation of capital and the retraction of bourgeois democratic rights. It doesn’t see children, it sees markets, units, and dollars.
Parents & children who are forced from their home countries because of Imperialist Domination are then scapegoated by Trump et al to build their social base for fascism based on an ideology of racism, nationalism, ethnocentrism, and false divisions. To address this moment and the insanity of it, an anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist perspective is fundamental. It is critical for connecting our struggles globally.
Congress will not halt the rise of fascism. This inhumane system is not limited to one president. The only way to fight back is to get organized and resist the structures of exploitation and violence inherent to capitalism and imperialism.
One Struggle will be at the March to Keep Families Together on Saturday, June 23rd to bring our perspective and fight against fascist fear-mongering. Join us there, share this post, or contact us directly if this resonates with you.
Stand Up. Fight Back. ORGANIZE!
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