8/14/20

By Josh Rubin

A few things to think about.

Things are getting worse. Our country is expelling people, denying them even the farce of a legal proceeding. It is justified by the claim that foreigners, at least the ones that come to our southern border, carry the disease that we have in higher numbers than almost any other country.

In the case of thousands upon thousands of children coming to our southern border, we are, absurdly, expelling them because they might carry Covid, but testing them first to make sure they don’t. I know. It doesn’t make sense, unless we remember that cruelty is the point.

Fewer Central Americans are showing up now. They are having trouble getting through Mexico, and perhaps fewer are drawn to our country, hopes sunk by the war we are waging on the poor of the earth. But Mexicans are coming across, willing to give it a try, as their country glows bright with the virus. And also, expulsion ironically stings less than a five or ten year order of deportation. Expelled? Try again.

Many in the Matamoros encampment have marked their anniversary as asylum seekers at the bridge and now on the muddy banks of the Río. They have something in common with many of us. We are waiting, holding our breath, and looking toward the election in November. We think to ourselves, stay alive until then. For them, the hope that a more merciful time may allow them to reach the opposite shore. For us, it will be a release from our own despair, and a call to haunt the new people in power with what we have seen with our eyes.

Witness.