From Fresno Bee, 1-28-1948
Woody Guthrie’s song
“Deportees” sung by his son Arlo
A 1948 plane crash
killed farmworkers being deported back across the border
Too little has
changed -- Click on this link for song
Deported migrants, and soldiers, at an Air Force base in Guatemala City, March 12 and March 19
Photos from UK's Daily Mail 4-27-20
As the nation grapples with the Covid 19 pandemic, staying
home and stocking up on groceries, those who harvest our food face terrible
double jeopardies—disease and deportation.
CBS news reports that 50% of our migrant farm laborers are
undocumented. They still are considered
essential workers, keep the food on our tables, but are not given any
government pandemic economic supports, or medical care, and many have been put
in detention facilities where the coronavirus further afflicts them. Those that have documents {H2A program} are
also in trouble, with government barely letting them in the door, and then, by
a directive of the Trump administration, all farm laborers’ minimum wage is
slashed. This is the reverse of
hazardous pay benefits given other essential workers.
So as farm laborers work in often crowded conditions, with
historically poor work protections, they are threatened with the dragnet of
government ICE detention & deportation, which has been the hallmark of our
current administration. We absolutely
need you, but we’ll kick you out as soon as we can.
hen they are picked up and placed in detention, these immigrant workers have
faced the increased risk of inadequate jail facilities spreading the infection,
which has then led to them being deported back home, ejected infected back to
their home countries. Guatemala has
finally refused [see below *], after a deportee flight from the
U.S. had a group positive for Covid 19.
Give us your tired, your homeless, those yearning to work freely, and we
will use you, then infect you and reject you?
And we export our trouble, as the world’s richest but most Coronavirus
ravaged country, to a third world country, more greatly exposing poorer
countries to pandemic risk?
We may emerge from this pandemic a hungrier country—at the least
having to import more of our produce and staples. Many of our own farms and their workers could
be set back towards dustbowl times. And
a good portion of those who might have come to our country for refuge, work,
and a better way of life, will be much more reluctant to do so.
* Excerpt from the Wall Street Journal--
“Guatemala suspended nearly all
deportation flights last week after President
Alejandro Giammattei said “a large part” of a flight with 76 repatriated
Guatemalans was infected. The country is in talks with the U.S. to
restart flights once American authorities can certify all deportees have tested
negative for the disease, Guatemalan officials said.
On Friday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed it
would begin acquiring 2,000 coronavirus test kits a month to test immigrants it
plans to deport, though the agency acknowledged it wouldn’t be able to test
every deportee with that number of kits.
The governments worry that returned migrants could spark new
waves of infections that overwhelm ill-equipped health-care systems. The U.S.,
in turn, has threatened these governments with visa sanctions and potential
aid cutoffs should they refuse to continue taking
back their repatriated citizens, say U.S. officials familiar with the
discussions.
Across ICE detention centers, the agency has tested just 425 of
the 32,000 immigrants in its custody as of Tuesday [4-21-20], and 253—about
60%—tested positive for the virus.”
And the other reference links --
Latest news 4-27-20 from UK paper--Guatemala agrees to receive renewed deportations
A good report in the midst
of this pandemic, reminded us of the time we spent at a motel refugee center in
El Paso a year ago. Generosity to the stranger,
refugee, homeless, outcasts—can save us all.
NEW UNIVERSITY BASED STUDY ESTIMATES 70% OF ICE DETAINEES COULD BECOME INFECTED WITH COVID 19 -- April 27, 2020 https://whistleblower.org/press/study-projects-significant-impact-on-immigrants-and-local-health-care-if-ice-detention-populations-are-not-decreased/
Illumination and artwork by Kathy Brahney
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