Memories of America being the land of opportunity colored my childhood. In the movies, in news, at school, America was portrayed as the home of the free and endless possibilities. And I wanted to do my part in welcoming those to this country where, contrary to popular belief, the roads were not paved with gold.
One of the first volunteer roles I held was working with refugees — teaching families from Laos and Vietnam English when I was twelve, and later setting up apartments for people fleeing Bosnia and Sudan. These experiences taught me about the atrocities of the world. But they also taught me the power of joy and culture all while starting over in a different climate, in a different time zone, and surrounded by people speaking a different language.
My definition of refugee was twofold — part what someone had survived and the extreme danger they faced in returning to their home, and part beauty and tradition they brought with them that enriched a relatively homogenous Midwest state.
Now I abjectly watch people across America in communities that face extreme danger back home having lifelines they were promised violently severed and pulled out of reach. People who have or will face jail, torture, who might even be disappeared, and who have nothing material waiting for them have been bullied into returning home.
Lutheran Services in Iowa thankfully has not seen this directly “We have not had any of our clients with refugee status lose status or be detained or removed,” explains Nicholas Wuertz, Director of Refugee Services at LSI. “A stop work order was issued on Jan. 24 that immediately cut off all support for nearly 200 refugees that LSI just received in the previous weeks.” This funding paid for case management staff and covered family housing expenses until refugees achieve self-sufficiency. Iowans helped LSI support these families through donations.
While federal payment has started to pay for some services, “refugee resettlement has not resumed.” Wuertz explains the dire situations refugees are in, and that resettlement to the U.S. is often the last option for families. “Refugees are people — they are families, grandmas, moms, dads, brothers, and children who have been forced to leave their homes out of fear for their lives. They don’t want to leave home and desperately desire to return, but due to conflict they are unable to return, and they are unable to stay in the neighboring countries where they have first found safety.” He told me that resettlement is rare. “Historically less than 1% of the world’s refugee population has the opportunity to resettle to another country. It is a solution for those who are most vulnerable and have nowhere else to turn.”
I want to be clear that I believe anyone should be able to settle wherever they want in the world. This right is mostly afforded only to the rich, who buy more houses and cars then they will realistically ever need. So, if someone wants to settle here and contribute to the community and mind their business, fantastic.
But to afford protected status to those in no immediate danger, while forcing others into hazardous situations, is despicable. As is deceiving Americans about conditions abroad so they remain complicit. It is inhumane to falsify “proof” of discrimination and suffering at the expense of someone else’s trauma, and even more so when millions have been killed and the violence continues to escalate.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees defines a refugee as “a person who, due to a well-founded fear of persecution, has fled their country and is unable or unwilling to return due to that fear.”
While crime in South Africa is high, it is not targeted at a specific group. Elon Musk tied himself to Afrikaner community as their benefactor, and falsely cried genocide. Black farmers are the majority of homicide victims. Refutations of claims of persecution due to Affirmative Action would be voluminous. Those who don’t agree with Affirmative Action, however, will never agree with the evidence, so we won’t waste time on that here. But no one can refute the stark disparities in South Africa in terms of the burden of poverty, which falls heavily on Black South Africans.
Simply ending apartheid was not enough, and due to phenomena such as enduring policies and lack of generational wealth, Black South Africans fall behind their white counterparts in almost every economic measure. If we wanted to address issues of inequality, discrimination, and violent crime, giving 59 South Africans priority refugee status and cutting off aid to South Africa is not the remedy. And if the situation was so dire, why would white Afrikaner advocacy groups insist that there is no reason to leave?
All the while, people who face real danger have been caught up in the U.S.’ own discriminatory rhetoric. Not all Venezuelans who now face torture in El Salvador prisons were criminals — and even for those who were, sending them to CECOT was not the appropriate response. Now Venezuelans who are self-deporting not only face political persecution in Venezuela, but a treacherous return home. Temporary protected status was terminated for thousands of Afghans. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem must be receiving bad intel, perhaps via Signal, on the conditions in Afghanistan, as they are not as improved as she claims. Haitians, Cameroonians, Nicaraguans, Ukranians and even the often vilified non refugee immigrant groups, face worse conditions than the 59 who have received favored refugee status.
Families are being torn apart, citizens have been wrongly arrested, people are facing death sentences.
Yet this group, beneficiaries of a selectively benevolent Musk, have suffered much less compared to these groups. And they have received unprecedented benefits including a U.S. dignitary welcome and an expedited and perfunctory interview process. And now, they have a green light to receive government benefits faster than any other immigrant group. Yet months ago, Trump was angry and tired of American being a “ dumping ground … a garbage can for the world” and claimed that immigrants “ just immediately go and collect welfare.”
For the rest that America has forgotten, as one Republican governor of Iowan once said, “We’re talking not where these people are going to live — but whether they are going to live. Don’t tell me of your concerns for the poor, the disenfranchised, the underprivileged, the unemployed, show me!”
If you want to show your concern, one way to do so is to donate to LSI.
