What have we witnessed? Haitian migrants are being treated like the lowest scum of the earth by the US Authorities, and that is not an exaggeration. Eerily similar to slave control tactics,  border patrol agents are seen on horseback, whipping migrants who are fleeing the devastation of a recent earthquake, ongoing political instability related to the recent assassination of former  President Jovenel Moise, widespread gang violence, and an economy on life-support.  

All these reasons and more would force anyone, anywhere, to flee in search of asylum from neighbors. If America had not developed, and Americans today suffered some similar level of violence and instability, there would be American migrants trying to immigrant into the developed nations. These are primarily the reasons why most migrants make the dangerous journey through Central America to go to the border. In many cases they are choices are, stay  and live in abject poverty and suffer daily at the hands of thugs and gangs or make it America,  “Land of the free.” That is how they think about it, and we cannot blame them for it.  

As an immigrant myself -from Jamaica- when my mother was spending her last dimes to get me to America, she and my family’s perspective was and still is, I am going to a better place where opportunities are bountiful, and I will succeed and in return help them live better lives. And for all those who say, “Immigrants take away American jobs,” that is not true. There are enough underpaying, overworked jobs for all of us.  

It is understandable that any sovereign nation would want to protect its borders, but border protection should not be at the expense of treating people humanely. This was a big issue in the previous administration, so it is gut-wrenching to see the Biden-Harris administration doing the same thing.  

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