Because, You Know, Immigrants Aren’t Like “Us”

'Why are you laughing?' GOP lawmaker flips out on witness during tense hearinghttps://t.co/3H7Xpen17h

— Raw Story (@RawStory) January 17, 2024

During a hearing on immigration in the House of Representatives, [Rep. Anna Paulina] Luna slammed Bier's contention that the Trump administration inflicted psychological trauma on migrant children by separating them "from their quote-unquote-parents." 

This apparently caused Bier to start laughing, which drew an angry reaction from Luna. 

"Why are you laughing?" she demanded to know. 

"Because you said, 'quote-unquote parents,' as if they weren't really their parents," he replied. 

"You have no idea!" she shot back. 

"I do have an idea!" replied Bier. 

"You have no idea if these people are their ... parents or not," said Luna. 

"No, we do," insisted Bier. 

"Oh really, are you psychic?" Luna demanded to know. 

Bier tried to get Luna to read an inspector general's report outlining documented family separations, but Luna wouldn't have any of it. 

"You have no idea what you are doing and you are hurting these children!" she said. 

In fact, it has been confirmed the Trump administration forcibly separated more than a thousand children from their parents, and the Biden administration so far has had success in reuniting hundreds of them.

I’d say this was pure racism on the part if Luna, but John Steinbeck immortalized this attitude in California towards the “Okies” fleeing the Dust Bowl. The Joads represented all the people looking for a better life, or life at all, somewhere in America, and they faced the same disdain and dehumanization, even though everyone involved (in Steinbeck’s story) was white. Although I suppose you could argue “white trash” is just another racial marker, though the dividing line in Steinbeck’s barely fictional account is class, which is to say money.

It’s all the same excuse to say “we” are better than “them,” and “they” don’t deserve to be treated as human.