Migrants on the Front Lines of Global Class War
The Supreme Court recently jeopardized the asylum claims of tens of thousands of Central American, Caribbean, African, and Asian migrants. It’s the latest in an escalating effort to fence off the US from the world’s poor — at a time when, more than ever, we should be letting them in.
Migrants walk into a field in order to avoid a checkpoint on the highway on June 19, 2019 in Tapachula, Mexico. The Mexican government launched a deployment of the National Guard seeking to control the flux of migrants crossing from Guatemala to Mexico, as part of an agreement with the US government to avoid tariffs on all Mexican exports. (Toya Sarno Jordan / Getty Images)
A recent US Supreme Court decision has jeopardized the asylum claims of tens of thousands of Central American, Caribbean, African, and Asian migrants hoping to enter the United States at the southern border. The decision has brought new anguish and uncertainties to those already facing desperate conditions in Mexico.
On September 11, the court ruled 5–4 to allow the Trump administration’s new asylum restrictions to go into effect, pending ongoing litigation. With limited exceptions, the measure prohibits anyone from requesting asylum at the US–Mexico border who previously transited through another country, effectively banning all but Mexicans from seeking such protections.
The asylum ban is the latest in an escalating effort to fence off the United States from the racialized global poor, while ICE purges the country from within. In the context of mounting economic and ecological crises, we are faced with an increasingly dire choice: surrendering to global apartheid, enforced by US imperial power, or a collective struggle, guided by solidarity.
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