This poem harks back to the time when a caravan of immigrants fleeing poverty and violence were heading for the US/Mexican border.
The populist response, by Trump and other right-wingers, was to paint them as evil terrorists, rapists, drug dealers and murderers. To build a wall and keep them out. To separate families and put them in cages.
Populists use fear, racism and simplistic answers to stir up hate and bolster their support.
The sensible response would be to look at the underlying reasons for this migration and coordinate a global response to deal with it.
Mass migration is going to get worse with global warming and global inequality. People love their children. They’ll do anything to put food on the table and give them a future – even walk across a continent.
The Caravan of Fear
The toxic caravan of fear is drawing near
Loaded with rapists, murderers and drugs.
An invasion force with gangs and bangs
Made up of vicious, dirty thugs.
Hiding behind the Babies prams and scams
Funded by some shady men
Fearless Trump with bite and might
Will drive them back again.
Opher 7.11.2018
It was amazing to see how Trump manipulated the caravan of refugees into an invading army of gangs and terrorists. He had barbed wire erected and thousands of troops deployed to resist the ‘invasion’.
Trump insinuated that Muslim terrorists, drug gangs and criminals had inserted themselves into the caravan of Central American refugees and were using the women and babies as a shield. There is no evidence of this at all. It was all manufactured to play on the imagination and fears of the electorate.
This is precisely where the hatred, fear and division stems from.
Every single day 325,000 people fly into the USA. A number of them stay illegally.
It makes the whole Trump fantasy around the Central American refugees look a bit daft, doesn’t it? 325,000 a day – 7000 in total.
The truth is that they 7000 merely needed processing, like any others, when they eventually reach the US border. They need to follow the rules. There is no invasion or drama. Some may be given refugee status some might be returned.
It was just an excuse, with racist overtones, used by Trump to drum up fear in order to generate votes.
Of course there can’t be unlimited immigration. There has to be a way of dealing with it. This isn’t it!
