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USA

Over the course of the past decade, we have come to know Mexico less for its vibrant culture, dynamic people, mouthwatering cuisine, – and more for data and statistics.

When Mexico is invoked in US discourse, it’s typically followed by numerical information that is designed to make you fear our southern border neighbors – the Mexican people.

When Americans think of Mexico today, they think of a drug war that has left an estimated 80,000 Mexicans dead in the last decade. When Americans think of Mexico they also think of the 11 million illegal immigrants who now reside within the United States. Despite only 800,000 having criminal records, President Trump has found roughly 50 million American voters receptive to demonizing illegal Mexican immigrants as “rapists” and “drug dealers.

When erroneous racist narratives are weaponized with “lies, damned lies, and statistics,” political cover is provided for the cruel and inhumane victimization of illegal immigrants. It was this political cover that allowed Obama to remove 2.5 million illegal immigrants from 2009 to 2016 – a dubious achievement that barely a raised a liberal voice in opposition.

Trump intends to go further. Much further, aiming to eventually deport every illegal immigrant in the country, whether they came here as minors or not. Trump also intends to build an impenetrable wall along the length of the US-Mexico border at a cost of $40 billion, a bill the American taxpayer will now have to pay.

Mexico

I wanted to go beyond the political rhetoric, raw numbers, and the Trump generated racist tropes, for I’m done with listening to the Other be described in the abstract and Orientalist tones, so I got in my car, and drove 3 hours from my home in Southern California to the Calexico-Mexicali border.

There is no other way to describe Calexico but as a town in the middle of nowhere, unless, of course, you think the middle of the desert is somewhere you’d like to be. Located 125 miles east of San Diego, it’s easy to think you’re already arrived in Mexico given nearly all of Calexico’s 38,000 residents are Hispanic.

In recent times, Calexico has become a staging town for cocaine shipments coming into the United States, with a 64% increase in overall drug seizures in a single year period. Most of this cocaine comes via an elaborate tunnel network. Needless to say Trump’s wall will do nothing to stop this transportation route. So there’s that.

There are 25,000 Calexico-Mexicali border crossings every day. On Friday I was one of them. To pass through into Mexico on foot, as I did, there is no immigration or border control to deal with. You step through a turnstile, and roughly 100 foot steps later you’re in Mexicali, Baja California, home of 400,000 Mexicans.

I had 24 hours to speak to as many of the sprawling city’s inhabitants as possible to see how people living on this side of the border feel about Trump and his proposed wall.

“American Hitler,” is how my first interviewee, the concierge of a luxury hotel, described the 45th President of the United States. I was off to a great start. “Trump has no brain. He wants to add 20 percent tariff to goods made in Mexico to pay for his stupid wall, but everyone knows this will only make our [Mexico made] products more expensive for Americans, and our products less competitive, which will hurt both economies, and if Trump hurts our [Mexico] economy, the more Mexicans will want to cross the border illegally,” he added.

An administrator of a family owned private college in Mexicali told me his compatriots mostly see Trump as an “irrelevant buffoon, another clown in a sea of clowns,” adding that most Mexicans see Trump as a “distraction” or “side show” to bigger issues facing Mexico – including widespread and systemic government level corruption.

The Kid

It was the interview that came next that will stay with me for a very long time, and if you want to put a human face to the human tragedy that is the policy of mass deportation, then let his be it.

Andreas is 23 years of age. He’s a driver for a popular boutique hotel, and speaks fluent English. When I asked how he came to speak the language of my birth better than me, he replied that he was raised in the United States, graduating near top of his class at his high school in Idaho.

“My family moved to the US illegally when I was three years of age. I was deported four years ago [age 19],” he told me. I asked if he had committed a crime, or whether unpaid parking bills led to his deportation, and he replied, “No, I’ve never been in any trouble. What happened is my parents applied for citizenship. They [US government] gave citizenship to my three sisters because they were born in the United States. My parents qualified for citizenship because my sisters were born there.”

So, despite Andreas being brought to the United States without his consent by his parents, who are now US citizens, and despite fact he was just 3-years of age at the time of their migration, and despite fact his entire family now reside lawfully in the US, he was deported to Mexico, a country he hadn’t been to since he was a toddler.

In the event, you’re not quite getting how sinister and barbaric this actually is – Andreas is an American for all intents and purposes, but the Obama administration ripped him from his family, friends, home environment, and dropped him in what is to him a foreign country - without providing aid or assistance. Moreover, at the time of his deportation, Andreas didn’t speak a word of Spanish, outside of basic salutations and numeracy.

When my son chose to return to what effectively is his birth country, Indonesia, at the age 19 I was happy for him, but devastated for me – knowing I would miss him terribly. So I can only imagine how Andreas’ parents feel having their only son torn from them, and his siblings.

While his application for residency is still under review, Andreas still faces an uncertain future. (His final review is in 6 months. I will post an update at that time).

Tragically, Andreas is not an anomaly. He’s the rule rather than the exception. Up to 30,000 immigrants are deported every month – many whose stories echo similarities to his. Collected in the middle of the night, held in processing centers for an indefinite period of time, then dropped inside the Mexico border like discarded refuse – with no family; no personal contacts; no money or resources; and no familiarity with the local language.

A friend, who works in the hospitality industry, and has managed a number of restaurants here in the US, says these stories are all too familiar with anyone who has worked with immigrant service workers. “They’re here one minute, gone the next. And if they do get to fight off the INS, they’re forced to pay exorbitant legal fees.”

A civilized society would seek to put an end to this kind of cruelty and barbarity, but Trump intends to escalate it, apply a blowtorch to it – and with his unconstitutional refugee ban, he moves the United States ever closer to becoming an international pariah state.

*(Image Credit: i threw a guitar at him./ flickr).