Green Party View: U.S. Border agenda — Attitudes about immigrants and migrants and a personal experience

The Green Party position on immigration is social justice for ALL living in the United States, regardless of immigration status.  Policy and laws must be humane for all to freely choose to live and work in any country desired, and for reciprocity between nations.

For the last few years, I considered that I had good awareness of what’s happening at our southern border.  And I haven’t liked it.  Mainly because I understood that current conservative attitudes held by Republicans (and Democrats) have been unfriendly and insensitive toward folks from Central and South America attempting to make the United States their home, and closing-off of our vast, wealthy space for people who have neither vastness nor wealth.  It turns out, though, I didn’t have nearly the awareness that I thought I had on the subject of immigrants and the U.S. border.

In many cases, the struggle and suffering of immigrants have been a result of not only corrupt government, but also violence associated with government [1,2] – many times encouraged by our own government; violence that has resulted in murder of citizens, leaving families bereft and afraid.  These are asylum-seekers.  And they look to the U.S. for asylum.  But what they get instead is insensitivity, sometimes hostility, and separation of their families [3].  Children are regularly separated from their parents and grandparents, and placed into detention centers while they await uncertain fate.  Sanitation, food, and basic medical treatment are insufficient and sometimes non-existent [4].  In the United States of America.

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

There are numerous cases in New York alone where adult family members coming for safety and employment have been separated from their children.  In my activism, I have had a veritable menu of individuals and families to choose from who all need help.

I chose Cecilia, a 57-year-old mother and grandmother from Honduras seeking asylum in the U.S. after losing three of her sons to violent crime in their country of origin.  Cecilia’s one surviving son, his wife and their toddler son attempted to cross the border and re-establish themselves in the U.S.  They succeeded, only to have their toddler son taken from them and placed into custody when he was seen sleeping in his car-seat while his mother went into a store.  She was arrested on grounds of “child neglect” and their son was placed into foster care – understood to be a temporary placement.  But it was not.  Private adoption organizations in the U.S. stand to make a profit for children to be placed in homes of people who want them [5].  The foster parents who took the little boy decided they wanted him for their own, and have proceeded to adopt.  The biological parents lost their parental rights, and were deported back to Honduras.

Cecilia was successful in seeking asylum, first landing in Alabama, with the mission of reclaiming her grandson.  Courts in Alabama were not willing to favor her case.  An immigration attorney advised Cecilia to move north, to a more progressive state where she would be more likely to acquire custody of her grandson.  She arrived in Syracuse in June, 2023, with only two suitcases and the clothes on her back.  And she came to live at our house.  Cecilia’s custody case for her now almost 4-year-old grandson has been slow.  In the interim, she has taken English classes and found a full-time job.  She has made friends.  But she is up against considerable odds.  The foster parents, who live in Florida, have no intention of releasing Cecilia’s grandson from their care, and the Florida court is backing them.

There is an opposing current in our country that speaks against open doors for people seeking asylum and citizenship; a contrast between the humanitarianism of our nation and racist rhetoric.  Why is that?  Are we thinking about it collectively?  Can we?  And are we willing to act?  When we hear about the “millions of dollars” being spent to shelter the influx of immigrants and asylum-seekers entering New York City, and the accusations that many of those immigrants “have or could have” criminal records [6], why are we not asking questions about the thousands of Americans who have KNOWN criminal behavior AND are gun-owners [7]?  How much is THAT costing us?  Why is the focus so sharply on non-Americans?  Is it paranoia?  

The Green Party position of social justice for all living in the U.S., regardless of immigration status, has no room for paranoid thinking.  Making assumptions that immigrants and migrants are criminal-minded or dangerous will not help public policies and laws to be humane.  It will not help people to freely choose to live and work in any country desired.  We should know the identity of persons seeking to enter, and have the right to limit who can come in, but blockades are not the solution.  Neither are detention centers used to imprison immigrant families [8], nor arbitrary deportation.  In the state of Nevada, the Greens issued a statement (to the governor) that the state Green Party “does not support the oppression of the most vulnerable people on our planet,” and “The way to resolve immigration is by updating immigration laws, not using punitive and archaic laws to justify harming people who are seeking legal sanctuary in the United States.”  If we can think and act collectively, then we can lean Green by eliminating immigrant family separation and deportation, and examining our attitudes about social inclusion.

[1,2] Council on Foreign Relations, July 13, 2023.

[3] Split at the Root, R. Dawson, 2022; Immigrant Families Together, J. Schwietert Collazo, co-founder, executive director; “Zero-Tolerance” Policy: Trump administration, 2018, DepartmentofJustice.gov.

[4] Split at the Root, R. Dawson, 2022; Immigrant Families Together, https://immigrantfamiliestogether.com.

[5] National Council For Adoption, Nov. 10, 2023, https://adoptioncouncil.org.

[6] National Public Radio broadcast, Feb. 15, 2024, www.NPR.org.

[7] The psychology of guns:  risk, fear, and motivated reasoning, J.M. Pierre, Dec. 10, 2019, Nature,https://www.nature.com.

[8] Berks County detention centers, Berks Co., PA; Green Party of Pennsylvania, https://www.gpofpa.org.

Jane Chauncey, member of Tompkins County Greens Activists, resides in Groton.  

Mother of three; graduate of Elmira College and Syracuse University, 

with degrees in Psychology and Social Work.