On June 6, 1939, the United States turned away the MS St. Louis, a ship full of 937 Jewish refugees hoping to escape the horrors of the Third Reich. The ship was forced to turn back around and go back to Europe, where many of those people would later be killed in the Holocaust. It is one of the most horrifying, cruel and deeply shameful things our nation has ever done.
In 1951, 28 countries signed on to the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, in hopes of preventing something like that from ever happening again. The United States was not one of those countries (though we did have our own system set up) — but we did sign on to its 1967 follow-up, the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. We, like all of the other member nations, have an obligation to take in those seeking asylum due to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. Not only is it our obligation, but, like all other international treaties we sign, it is the supreme law of the land.
On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that, based on documents they obtained, the Trump administration plans for a complete overhaul of the refugee system — and considering specifically giving preference to white refugees.
No, really.
On the first day of his second term, Donald Trump instituted a ban on refugees seeking asylum in the United States — later amending this to allow only white South Africans, based on entirely false claims that their farms were being attacked because they happened to be white.
Now, they are apparently considering extending this to German neo-Nazis.
Via The New York Times:
The proposed changes would put new emphasis on whether applicants would be able to assimilate into the United States, directing them to take classes on “American history and values” and “respect for cultural norms.”
The proposals also advise Mr. Trump to prioritize Europeans who have been “targeted for peaceful expression of views online such as opposition to mass migration or support for ‘populist’ political parties.”
That appeared to be a reference to the European far-right political party Alternative for Germany, whose leaders have trivialized the Holocaust, revived Nazi slogans and denigrated foreigners. Vice President JD Vance has criticized Germany for trying to suppress the views of the group, which is known as the AfD.
A senior official said the Trump administration was monitoring the situation in Europe to determine whether anyone would be eligible for refugee status.
Given that the entire purpose of refugee resettlement and asylum is to protect people from such discrimination and persecution, it’s a fairly bitter irony to bring people in who desire to discriminate and persecute others.
It is also fairly ironic that they want people who are disliked in their home country due to how much they hate immigrants, to come be immigrants here. I’d be shocked that they would do the exact thing they think is so terribly objectionable, but we all know that the issue here and the issue there is not the existence of immigrants to begin with, and it never was. It has always been about racists not wanting more non-white people in “their” country.
The most sickening revelation, among many, is this bit.
“The sharp increase in diversity has reduced the level of social trust essential for the functioning of a democratic polity,” according to one of the documents. The administration should only welcome “refugees who can be fully and appropriately assimilate, and are aligned with the president’s objectives.”
That is straight-up Nazi shit. It’s not even a dog-whistle. It is exactly what you will read if you go to a white supremacist extremist site — I know, because I have spent a large portion of my career having to read white supremacist extremist sites.
It is literally saying “We cannot function as a society because we don’t trust people who don’t look like us,” a thing that is only true for extremely racist people, and whoever wrote it is not ashamed of that.
Taking in a bunch of bigots and liars would not only not fulfill our obligation to the international community and make a mockery of the entire concept of refugees, but it would violate the supreme law of our own country. Contracting states are explicitly barred from discriminating against refugees based on “race, religion or country of origin,” per Article 3. They are also, per Article 35, required to cooperate with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
It seems unlikely that the UNHCR would agree that Boers in South Africa — who, need we remind you, perpetuated the system of apartheid for 46 years — and neo-Nazis in Germany are prime candidates for refugee resettlement, in comparison to people who are experiencing actual persecution and oppression.
In order to do what Trump wants to do, he’s going to have to unilaterally withdraw from the Protocol, not that we would put that past him.
Republicans have spent the last decade trying to keep children from learning about our history of racism and discrimination, on the grounds that it might make them feel shame or guilt. Meanwhile, they are out here being blatantly racist about refugees in their meetings, praising Hitler and giggling about gas chambers in their chats, and trying to upend the Voting Rights Act at the Supreme Court — thereby giving the children of tomorrow even more things of which to be ashamed.
One might start thinking that the real reason they didn’t want these things taught is because they want to get away with doing them, because they don’t want those children to know about the harm this has all caused in the past.
This country has not always (or ever, really) been kind to immigrants and has certainly not always been kind to people of color, but that diversity and the triumphs over those who fear it, is also where most of the good of this country comes from, where most of the things we can actually feel proud and not ashamed of, come from, where most of our culture comes from, and, let’s be honest here, where pretty much all of our good food comes from. We should be the ones taking genuinely persecuted people in, welcoming them and giving them a home. We should not ask them to assimilate, but to add their culture and traditions to what is supposed to be our own rich tapestry. We should be determined to never again be the country that sent 937 Jewish refugees back to Europe.
Because that is what will actually make America “great.”
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
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