Friday, September 15, 2017

America, Protect DACA

President Trump’s decision to repeal DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), a program started by ex-President Obama to protect undocumented youth from deportation, has sent a shockwave of fear, despair and uncertainty though the 800,000-strong community of DACA – the Dreamers - and their families in the United States.

In the college where I teach, there are about 100 DACA students, a few of whom I know. They crystallize for me the enormity of the crime the Trump administration has committed in threatening to destroy the dreams of so many young Americans poised to make their mark in life.

Lopez was brought to the U.S. in 2007 when he was 15 years old. His parents from Mexico had no immigration papers but somehow managed to find their way to Santa Barbara. “They worked as hired laborers but we still had a fairly good life,” said Lopez, who hopes to graduate within a year and transfer to UCLA. “But now everything is up in the air. I cannot walk down the street without looking back to see if ICE agents are about to grab me. They know where I live, where I work.”

ICE agents know where he lives because he had to recently renew his registration, a requirement for DACA students every 2 years. His parents returned to Mexico several years ago. He thought of going back himself but they told him not to because life had become unbearably violent in their village in Southern Mexico. “I wouldn’t last a day,” they said.

“The stress is killing me,” said Maria, who will be graduating in a year and nurtures the hope of becoming a dentist. “I come from a mixed family. My parents are undocumented. I am undocumented. I don’t know what will happen if DACA is discontinued. What will I do? Where will I go? This is the only country I know, the country I call home.”

Valdez will graduate next summer and has already applied to several medical schools. He knew all along that Trump would do something like this. Valdez is fed up being fearful, though. “I don’t believe in hiding. Why should I hide or act afraid? I work hard. I contribute to America like other Americans. I am a good person. The way Trump talks, it’s as if Mexicans - and Muslims - are criminals.”

Valdez is disappointed with Americans who cling to Trump despite his un-American acts. “They complain about jobs that Mexicans and others are taking away but they don’t want the dirty jobs we and our parents do. They don’t want to work in restaurants, in the fields, as cleaners, as laborers. What are we supposed to do? Every myth with DACA – that we take away jobs from real Americans, that DACA increases illegal immigration, that repealing DACA will benefit taxpayers and protect communities from criminals – has been proven wrong with solid data.”

When Trump announced the end of the DACA program on September 5, the chancellor of the San Jose-Evergreen Community College District issued a strong statement that “those impacted by this callous and thoughtless decision were brought to the United States as children and have been upstanding members of our communities ever since. They are pursuing an education, working, serving in our armed forces, and contributing to their communities in countless other ways.”
This followed an earlier statement by Eloy Oakley, chancellor of California’s 114-campus, 2.1-million-student-strong community college system that “ending DACA is a heartless and senseless decision that goes against American ideals and basic human decency … In California, we don’t put dreams – or Dreamers – on hold. The California Community Colleges remain committed to serving all students, regardless of immigration status and to providing safe and welcoming environments in which to learn.”

As of today, the Trump administration has been sued for its anti-DACA policy by the University of California and the State of California, along with 15 other states led by New York and Washington. The City of San Jose is the first city to sue the Trump administration over DACA beyond the District of Columbia. Mayor Sam Liccardo said: “DACA recipients include public servants in our own City Hall, providing public safety and other critical services to our community. They all deserve our support and they deserve our nation’s welcome.”


California will be particularly hard hit if DACA is repealed because it is home more than a quarter of all DACA recipients who contribute significantly not just economically and in community services, but more importantly, as symbols of justice, equality and fair play.

President Trump is determined to dismantle every single policy of his predecessor, domestic and foreign. That’s his definition of success - to be the anti-Obama, damn the consequences. Repealing DACA is only the latest manifestation of this man’s reckless behavior. As Valdez puts it, Trump’s delay to repeal DACA for six months to give Congress a chance to address the issue is a smokescreen that reeks of cruelty and hypocrisy. It is also a way to shift the blame to Congress if, for any reason, the repeal falls through.

Protecting and defending DACA is a moral imperative for fair-minded Americans. It must transcend any consideration framed in economic or productivity terms. More than anything else, we need to protect DACA simply because it is the right thing to do.

During the unjust and immoral Vietnam War, protesters chanted: “Hell, No. We won’t go.” Let our slogan now be: “America, Protect DACA.”

Friday, September 08, 2017

Stop the Genocide Against Rohingya Muslims


In Mayanmar now, history is repeating itself but with a genocidal twist. Rohingya Muslims, considered the world’s most persecuted minority, have lived for 150 years in Myanmar’s far western Rakhine state. Denied citizenship by the military junta since 1982, they have been stateless and without the most basic human rights, thus prey to indiscriminate rape, torture and killing by Buddhist militants and civilians alike.

In recent days, however, eyewitness accounts of mass rape, killing and ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims has horrified the world. Families, including newborns, have been slaughtered and burned alive. United Nations officials report that tens of thousands of Rohingya women, children and men are streaming into neighboring Bangladesh after trudging through treacherous ravines and jungles, many falling along the way. Babies are dying in the cradles of their mothers.

Bangladesh, a poor country, is reeling under the burden of providing relief to the 100,000 who have fled Mayanmar in the last 2 weeks alone. This is in addition to the already half-a-million Rohingyas in the Cox’s Bazar district and adjoining villages living in squalid, unhygienic camps. (Growing up in Bangladesh, I visited Cox's Bazar and its adjoining villages in my youth for picnics and idyllic strolls along its unbroken shoreline but now it resonates only with the suffering of Rohingya Muslims.)

For perspective, I called a journalist friend reporting from border posts along the
200-mile Bangladesh-Mayanmar border.

Mamun Abdullah manages a 24-hour News Channel called Independent TV. “Rohingya insurgents were forced to take up arms against the violence on their people,” said Mamun. “On August 25 they attacked some Mayanmar police posts. The government responded with disproportionate military force. That’s when the mass exodus began.”


The critical need of the refugees, said Mamun, is food, pure drinking water, sanitation and shelter. “That’s not available. About 50 Rohingyas with multiple bullet and burn injuries are being treated in Chittagong medical college hospital a hundred miles away. It’s like a drop in the ocean. Several have already died.”

Mamun is skeptical about the possibility of Rohingya Muslims returning to Myanmar. “Repatriation is a pipedream. Sheikh Hasina (Bangladesh’s prime minister), has praised Bangladeshis along the border for giving shelter to fleeing Rohingyas but has also said Bangladesh cannot meet the demands of the swelling refugees. It’s true, we just don’t have the facilities or the land.”

“So what’s the way out?”

“There must be international pressure to force Myanmar to stop the genocide. We have not heard anything from United States government. Only the Turkish and Indonesian governments have pledged some help so far.”

It is in the American character to serve the suffering. While it is beyond our power to control the fury of nature, as we saw with Hurricane Harvey and now with Irma, we can unite as decent human beings to do something about the deadly violence being waged against the Rohingya Muslims, and, for that matter, violence anywhere against a minority by a majority, irrespective of race and religion.

Despite the bigotry and divisiveness promoted by president Trump and his cohorts, Americans of all persuasions should contact their elected officials and lawmakers to demand that Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace-prize winner and the de facto leader of Myanmar, stop the torture and the killing of Rohingya Muslims. She has not said a word so far, a stance that has been denounced by many governments but unfortunately, not ours. Her silence has only emboldened Myanmar’s militants and security forces in the state-sanctioned genocide of Rohingya Muslims.

We should also call upon our government to demand that the Myanmar government give Rohingya Muslims citizenship in a country where they have lived for centuries, and to accord them the same dignity, safety and security that the Buddhist majority enjoy. A concerted effort must also be made to provide humanitarian aid to the refugees streaming into Bangladesh and to sponsor a resolution in the UN Security Council to immediately stop the genocide of Rohingya Muslims.

Some media links: