On this episode of Life Will Be The Death Of Me, host Chelsea Handler changes pace a little: usually, she’s with a funny guest, like Sean Hayes or Natasha Lyonne, talking about the revelations about life and herself that she’s learned since beginning therapy. But one of the things she’s worked on so hard is compassion, and the result of that work is on full display as she turns her attention to the crisis at the U.S. border: “I know that I feel so frustrated about not doing more,” she says, “and it made me feel like I need to be more educated about how I can help.” She welcomes activists Shannon Camacho with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights and Archana Sahgal, an immigration attorney with the National Immigration Law Center, to find out just what’s going on down there, and simple actions that everyday Americans can take to aid the immigrants being detained.
“So tell us about the situation at the camps,” Chelsea says. “Why is it so exaggerated now? Why does Donald Trump keep blaming Obama for these camps?” Shannon says that while the Obama administration did deport 3 million people during his presidency, and that detention centers have existed in the U.S. since 2003, there’s one key difference: “Trump is not respecting the international right to apply for asylum...instead, [they’re] really making it difficult...for them to achieve that asylum.” By making it harder to get into the country, he’s “created a bottleneck of moms and dads and kids coming from Central America who are seeking safety in our country,” Archana says, exacerbating the problem. She says none of this will address the root causes for migration: “violence against women and girls in Central America, visa backlogs even in our own country,” as well as climate change, will keep people seeking refuge no matter what.
Which might be part of the purpose behind Trump’s political theater: Things the administration is doing, like ending legal aid and ESL programs for unaccompanied minors, and working to put into place a new regulation called “Public Charge” that is essentially a “wealth test” as Archana puts it, are seen by the activists as more than just cruel policies. “This is part of a strategy to really deter migration,” Shannon says. “He’s really trying to show...we don't want you, we don't want you in this country," which is heartbreaking, because "so many of these people are coming with families...literally coming here to escape violence and persecution.” Additionally, Chelsea says that she read that most of the children being detained actually have family in the country they could go to, but are being delayed because “there was no plan in place to reunite these kids with their families initially.”
Exactly, Shannon says; “This was just something, again, to show the rest of the world that the United States is not willing to accept asylum seekers and refugees.”
So how can the average person help? “I know that there’s a pressing need for people to want to act, but it feels so hopeless, in a sense. And I know that it’s not,” Chelsea says. “There’s always something you can do.”
Check out the list below for links to all the organizations Chelsea, Shannon, Archana, and Brandon discuss and recommend on the show, a wide range of groups that provide pro bono immigration lawyers to take on detainees’ cases, lobby Congress to close the detention centers and streamline the intake process, post bonds for detained immigrants so their families aren’t financially burdened, allow you to donate your airline miles to help get immigrants to their final U.S. destination once they’re released from detention, and plenty of other ways you can offer your "time, talent, and treasure" to address the crisis at the border. Listen to the episode to learn more about the horrific conditions of the centers, everyday heroes like Julie Sharron, and the work that Shannon and Archana do on a daily basis for these families, on Life Will Be Death Of Me.
National Immigration Law Center
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