Land of dying dreams

While US President Donald Trump has made many bad decisions during his two years in the office, one of his most notorious and controversial initiatives has been his recent Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals act (DACA) and his introduction of a Republican immigration bill. This new bill, would have been highly prejudiced and restrictive in terms of giving visas to ‘dreamers’ or young unauthorised immigrants. What gets me riled up is the blatant hypocrisy of the American government. The US is a country founded and built on the shoulders of immigrants. How can people who thrived from liquid migration turn their back so severely on those who are trying to do the same thing, only this time, they are doing it without a blood-curdling genocide? In so many ways, the history of US immigration – right from the arrival of explorer Christopher Columbus to the forceful evacuation and tearing apart of innocent, hardworking families – has reminded me of World War atrocities. Columbus waged a war against the native population, destroying their lives, their culture, and their history. Today, we have the Trump administration tearing away children from the families of undocumented immigrants and putting them in “camps” not much unlike the concentration camps on we have seen in the past. There are children going missing under this new administration, who are going to bed at night not knowing when or if they will ever get to see their parents again. I cannot think of a better definition of the violation of basic human rights. Though brief, there was a time when the US was considered the land where dreams come true. However, if its political agenda keeps going in this same direction, I am afraid that this country will become the land of dying dreams.

- The reader is a student of Dubai