The word “asylum” has joined “creeping socialism,” “woke” and “critical race theory” in the pejorative vocabulary of the MAGA Republican Party… or should I simply say, these days, the Republican Party. Given their vast constituency of evangelical Christians, this open hostility to tolerance, kindness, helping our fellow man (the “love thy neighbor” mandate) seems to contradict the most basic tenets of the New Testament, turning the Bible into a “pick and choose” menu.
Yet, whether by treaty or statute, the United States recognizes the right of asylum of individuals as specified by international and federal law. In accordance with international law, the United States considers asylum candidates on the basis of persecution or fear they will be persecuted on account of race, religion, nationality, and/or membership in a particular social group or political opinion. Looks good on paper, but that’s not our reality.
Indeed, as the campaign for the midterm elections illustrates, practicing those moral and legal precepts, following those biblical proscriptions, is a fast way for a conservative candidate to lose an election, primary or general. Kindness, tolerance and repairing social inequities – protecting those who have been persecuted, fear for their lives or who face serious racial/ethnic/gender discrimination – is increasingly described as un-American and unpatriotic.
Instead, we face unjustified cries embodying “replacement theory,” White Christian nationalism (yes, the same underlying principle that justified the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany) and voter exclusion or marginalization. A highly polarized and well-armed America faces its own mutual distrust and hatred. Qualities that once defined who and what are, have been replaced with hateful conspiracy theories, often punctuated with AR-15s and violent protests.
When we see people pounding at our southern border, seeking asylum for very real issues, many see “brown people seeking to replace us.” These human beings are victims of violence and corruption born of America’s inability to stem the northward narco path to feed its addictions or the southward path of “easy-to-buy” assault weapons made and sold in US… but we conveniently overlook those sordid details. Corruption south of the border is a direct product of massive drug money from the United States reinforced by rich and exceptionally well-armed cartels (with US guns). Simply, we are the cause, but we offer no real solutions and take no real responsibility. Not altogether different from our lack of responsibility for those who supported us in our Afghan war… and were left behind.
Yet even those who have fled their home countries for asylum overseas often find themselves followed by assassins or threatening government operatives from their nation of origin. Well before the war in Ukraine, Russian hit squads have targeted Russian dissidents, even those living in Western nations. Names include Vladmir Kara-Murza, Boris Nemtsov, Boris Berezovsky, Stanislav Markelov, Anastasia Baburova, Sergei Magnitsky, Natalia Estemirova, Anna Politkovskaya, Alexander Litvinenko and Alexei Navalny. The 2018 assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, a US resident executed in the Saudi Consulate in Turkey, which our intelligence services tell us was almost certainly ordered by Saudi Arabia’s ruling Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, is another example of such extraterritorial executions.
A recent escalation in foreign countries’ operating to intimate their citizens or former citizens, viewed as enemies of the state to the home country, seems to be on an upward tilt from the People’s Republic of China. Indeed, as “President” for life Xi Jinping has turned his leadership into a de facto absolute monarchy, monitoring PRC field offices around the world are multiplying, particularly in the Western world. Effectively, these are offshore, remote illegal police stations that China uses to keep overseas dissidents in line, often with threats against relatives still living in the PRC.
As the October 26th BBC.com has observed, “The Chinese government has been accused of establishing at least two undeclared ‘police stations’ in the Netherlands… Dutch media found evidence that the ‘overseas service stations,’ which promise to provide diplomatic services, are being used to try to silence Chinese dissidents in Europe… A spokeswoman for the Dutch foreign ministry said the existence of the unofficial police outposts was illegal… The Chinese foreign ministry has rejected the Dutch allegations.
“The investigation was sparked by a report entitled Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild, by the Spain-based NGO Safeguard Defenders… According to the organisation, the public security bureaus from two Chinese provinces had established 54 ‘overseas police service centres’ across five continents and 21 countries. Most of them are in Europe, including nine in Spain and four in Italy. In the UK, it found two in London and one in Glasgow.
“The units were ostensibly created to tackle transnational crime and conduct administrative duties, such as the renewal of Chinese drivers' licences. But, according to Safeguard Defenders, in reality they carry out ‘persuasion operations,’ aimed at coercing those suspected of speaking out against the Chinese regime to return home.’” Fox News (September 29th) describes some of those PRC operations in North America: “China has opened dozens of "overseas police service stations" around the globe to monitor its citizens living abroad, including one location in New York City and three in Toronto.
“‘These operations eschew official bilateral police and judicial cooperation and violate the international rule of law and may violate the territorial integrity in third countries involved in setting up a parallel policing mechanism using illegal methods,’ reads a report by Safeguard Defenders, a human rights watchdog, released [in early September].” But even here, we seem to have a parallel movement, mirroring Iran’s “morality police,” operating with virtual official sanction against our own citizens. There are increasing bodies of self-appointed American “citizen monitors” – often invited by high-ranking elected (or recent) officials, usually from the Republican Party – instructed to monitor election polling stations (often with clear intimidating malevolence), election offices and liberal protests. Did I say “monitor;” I meant “intimidate.”
I’m Peter Dekom, and if we turn a blind eye to officially sanctioned intimidation within our own borders, we shall feel the cold chill of rising autocracy breathing down our necks in scorn of our own Constitution.
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