Global Courant 2023-05-11 11:06:44
The immigration issue is once again at the center of American public opinion with the end of Title 42, a regulation activated during the government of Donald Trump that allowed the immediate expulsion of undocumented migrants for pandemic health reasons and that forced asylum seekers to wait for some response on the Mexican side of the border. This is how tens of thousands of people, the majority from Central America and Venezuela, gathered in improvised and often inhumane camps.
The Joe Biden government has reinforced the border with more soldiers and has issued dissuasive notices to stop the foreseeable massive wave of income and additional asylum applications. The evaluation and response of each request can take months or years. This is even more worrying, given the possibility of setting up an asylum center in Guatemala. Meanwhile, coyotes and human smuggling gangs, often with ties to drug trafficking, encourage the exodus through deception. Economic precariousness and the lack of jobs, especially in areas of the province, do the rest. They lie to people saying that the entrance to request asylum will be freer. Falsehoods that seek to continue increasing their coves of money.
This situation occurs a few weeks after President Biden’s announcement to run for re-election, Trump’s claim to go for a second term despite his legal troubles and the disclosure of other Republican candidates who could dispute the nomination of said former president. . Among these figures is Ron de Santis, governor of Florida who yesterday signed the toughest anti-immigrant law in the entire Nation.
The announcement of the enactment was made from a podium with the sign “The Biden Border Crisis.” The far-right stance of the governor, a descendant of Italian immigrants and whose full name is Ronald Dion de Santis, mirrors the actions of Donald J. Trump. Such intolerance is inevitably reminiscent of the ill-fated Bill 187, a racist, xenophobic, and arbitrary initiative promoted by California Republican Governor Pete Wilson and approved in the 1994 vote. Bill 187 blocked education and health services, work permits, and even driver’s licenses. .
Ronald de Santis’ rule severely penalizes those who transport, harbor or assist undocumented migrants, including churches or humanitarian organizations. The issuance of licenses to people in an irregular situation is prohibited and driving licenses issued by other states are unknown. In addition, it eliminates tuition exemptions for thousands of “dreamers”, children and young children of migrants who arrived in that country at a young age; it requires a legal status for the hiring of workers and obliges hospitals to record data and status of every person treated. It also expels detained migrants to other states, especially those with sanctuary cities. It is estimated that there may be up to 115,000 undocumented Guatemalans in Florida.
Law 187 was suspended and later declared unconstitutional. In the long run it wore down the Republicans through its effects on economic dynamics. Almost three decades later, a similar concept is being recycled in Florida, where many employers, especially in the construction, restaurant and hospitality areas, are already reporting a drastic drop in the availability of workers.
