Filemon Vela: “Last Friday, many of us attended the funeral for our colleague, Elijah Cummings. His story and the service were…”

“Last Friday, many of us attended the funeral for our colleague, Elijah Cummings. His story and the service were inspirational. On that same day, this article concerning the deteriorating conditions of the Mexican border appeared in The Texas Tribune about the consequences of the Trump administration's Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP. The article describes America's inhumanity unfolding in Matamoros, Mexico, a border town in which I, as a child, spent much of my time and in which my ancestors are buried. It is a story about America's cruelty, for which the President of the United States is directly responsible. As I thought about what I could do about this situation, I couldn't help but ask myself: What would Elijah do? By creating obstacle after obstacle, the Trump administration does everything within its power to prevent asylum claimants from having their rightful day in court, whether they are entitled to stay or not. Its latest obstruction is the Migrant Protection Protocols, which are anything but protection. The MPP forces asylum claimants to wait in dangerous Mexican border towns as their claims are processed, and they have proven to be nothing more than a weapon used to destroy America's longstanding reputation as the world's greatest melting pot. It is a blatant violation of the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution. Our Nation's asylum laws guarantee the right to live in the United States while claims are adjudicated.…”