What Gov. Jerry Brown Told To Do To Child Refugees Will Infuriate Most Am. Christians

By Deborah Dupré

What California’s Gov. Jerry Brown has just been told to do on Thursday to child refugees is shocking. It will undoubtedly infuriate many people, especially American Christians, according to recent polls. These illegal alien children are bringing in diseases with their dirt and the government is already paying way too much to get them into cities, according to most God-fearing Americans. They need to be sent back to their homes, no matter what violence faces them there, or just take them but definitely not their parents. “It’s not our problem,” most say, according to the latest poll.

“Vile names are called against them, and they are described as ‘invaders,’ ‘sick’ and ‘dirty.’ In truth, they are refugees from want and war, almost all the result of U.S. interventions in Central America in support of murderous military governments and the mindless drug war. These are the grandchildren of NAFTA, the economic policy which leached wealth from Mexico and its neighbors for U.S. corporate greed.” – Mumia Abu-Jamal for San Francisco Bay View

Central American Child Refugees Are Not The Enemy, US Foreign Policy Is

A new poll finds 53% of Americans, most of whom are Christians, believe the US has no moral obligation to offer asylum to today’s “Ship and Dump” children escaping violence or political persecution, direct opposition to human rights and international law. The growing U.S.-Mexico border humanitarian crisis, as tens of thousands of children flee U.S.-instigated violence in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador and brave a dangerous border crossing in search of safety, has prompted CREDO to action involving state governors, starting with Gov. Jerry Brown.

More: Child Refugee Border Crisis Outrage Misdirected. It’s US Foreign Policy-Driven

“It’s time that governors across the U.S. step up to help care for them,” CREDO said in a written statement released Thursday, as Mumia Abu-Jamal makes the same plea to Americans from his prison cell.

The White House is ramping up its efforts to address this humanitarian crisis. Congress nears its August recess amid wide disagreement over how to address what President Barack Obama has called a humanitarian crisis. The Border Patrol detained more than 57,000 unaccompanied children from October through June, mostly from Honduras but also from Guatemala and El Salvador.

“We need to make sure our state leaders are doing their part to ensure that child refugees are treated in a humane way and not rushed back to extremely dangerous situations in their countries of origin,” CREDO  says.

Governors Martin O’Malley of Maryland and Deval Patrick of Massachusetts have offered locations in their states to temporarily house these children. With thousands of child refugees still in need, Governor Brown also needs to step up and protect the children.

CREDO activist Zhan Ouyang started a campaign on CREDOMobilize.com, allowing activists to start their own petitions. The petition to California Governor Jerry Brown says:

Tens of thousands of child refugees fleeing violence in Central America have crossed the U.S. border and are in need of humane treatment at temporary shelters. Urge Governor Brown to immediately step up by helping the federal government find locations in California to temporarily house toddlers and young children, who are being subjected to deplorable conditions in border patrol jails.

Tell Governor Brown to step up and help child refugees.

Conservative politicians, pundits, and extreme anti-immigration activists advocate sending these children back to certain death. Texas Governor Rick Perry has even deployed National Guard troops to secure the border rather than provide humanitarian aid.

A military approach, with military being the first contact for traumatized children fleeing violence, is inhumane at best. Sending soldiers to face off traumatized children is unacceptable.

These children are not criminals. They deserve humane treatment, shelter, and appropriate legal protections. Congress members and the United Nations have made it clear: these children are in fact refugees “deserving of protection under international and domestic law.”

The Obama administration needs to be pressured to change US policy in Central America, especially regarding the School of the Americas, NAFTA and linking aid and trade to human rights, the way Carter did. For now, however, children should not be revictimized for being the consequence of greedy, violent US foreign policies.

“It doesn’t matter what your governor’s position on immigration reform is — sheltering children fleeing violence is something that all states should support,” CREDO says. “This is about our obligation to protect children in the midst of a major humanitarian crisis.“

Would you please join Zhan at CREDO by adding your name to the petition urging Governor Brown to help protect child refugees?

Sources: CREDO, San Francisco Bay View News, The Guardian, Before It’s News

Read Mumia Abu-Jamal’s latest book, “The Classroom and the Cell: Conversations on Black Life in America,” co-authored by Columbia University professor Marc Lamont Hill, available from Third World Press, TWPBooks.com. Keep updated at www.freemumia.com. For Mumia’s commentaries, visit www.prisonradio.org. For recent interviews with Mumia, visit www.blockreportradio.com. Encourage media to publish and broadcast Mumia’s commentaries and interviews. Send our brotha some love and light: Mumia Abu-Jamal, AM 8335, SCI-Mahanoy, 301 Morea Road, Frackville, PA 17932.

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