America’s war on immigrants – round ups, deportations, the building of walls, the bullying of Mexico, and the naked brutality toward our fellow human beings from Central America and elsewhere – is a painful legacy that should never be repeated.
That is what makes Trump’s politically calculated and profoundly mean spirited attacks so repellent and so alarming. Rather than address the delicate balance of the most basic human rights of people in transit with the territorial sovereignty of nation states as a decent leader might, he conjures racist attacks and seeks to dominate by extinguishing dialogue.
To help us break down the issues and sketch a roadmap for action, we’ve invited two lawyers who have devoted their careers to defending immigrants:
Bill Hing is a law professor, director of the Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic and a Dean’s Circle Scholar at the University of San Francisco. He has a long perspective and a close up view of the present human rights emergency on our border. He was part of a recent and widely publicized delegation to Clint, TX that documented the abysmal detention conditions of young children.
Erika Pinheiro is the Litigation & Policy Director of Al Otro Lado, an organization originally formed to assist deportees struggling to survive in Tijuana. Erika — who holds both a JD and MPP from Georgetown University, and is trained in econometric analysis of immigration policy — has been an indispensable ally to countless asylum seekers and others with urgent needs. She has a unique perspective on how Trump’s crackdown is being mirrored on the Mexican side of the border.