|
John,
Can we at least agree that human beings are not to be used as political props?
Texas Governor Greg Abbott is satisfying his inner prankster by putting migrants on buses and exiling them from Texas into inclement weather in “blue states” without adequate clothing or protection from the storms and freezing cold.
He has done this not once but multiple times, bragging about his inhumanity and vowing to continue doing so. Taking his cues from another “red state” governor, Ron DeSantis of Florida, who flew two planes of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard at a cost of $600,000, Abbott has sent over a thousand asylum seekers without coordination or adequate provisions to Washington D.C., Chicago, Denver, Sacramento, New York, and more. Abbott even sent one group of migrants by bus to Los Angeles in the midst of Tropical Storm Hilary.
Treating human beings as chattel to be removed by bus, plane, or train to an undesirable location just to make a political point? Such actions seem only a few steps removed from the most inhumane treatment ever perpetrated by a fascist state.
This is an abuse of human rights, which Governor Abbott has vowed to continue. Sign the petition today to demand the Department of Justice investigate this repeated and ongoing inhumane treatment of human beings that could result in irreparable harm.
The most recent incident occurred on New Year’s Eve, when Abbott sent hundreds of migrants, including children, by bus to freezing, snow-bound Chicago, many without jackets, some with only flip-flops for shoes.
On Christmas Eve, Abbott sent more than a hundred migrants to the home of Vice President Kamala Harris in the record-breaking Washington D.C. cold, some wearing only T-shirts according to CNN. Relief agencies hustled without warning to provide blankets. For Abbott to choose such a holiday for such mistreatment is heartbreaking.
In Chicago, a mother on the flight with three children said they were “deserted” upon landing. "The people who brought us were the first to get off the plane and we never saw them again," Ana Maria Giordano told ABC News in Spanish. "We kept asking what was happening but the people at the airport didn't know. They just asked us to remain calm and told us to stay inside the terminal so we wouldn't be cold."
A City of Chicago spokesperson confirmed that “two unidentified individuals who flew with the plane reportedly fled and left the scene in an Uber prior to the arrival of police."
Asylum is a legal right, but it is also a basic human right, founded on the right to human dignity. Governor Abbott is exploiting vulnerable people for political points, and sending them into traumatic situations. Most of the people Governor Abbott is using as political pawns are in the United States legally.
Sign the petition today: the DOJ must investigate these human rights abuses, to ensure that they do not continue, or escalate into even more harmful stunts.
Thank you for standing up for basic decency and humane treatment for human beings.
- Amanda
Amanda Ford, Director
Democracy for America
Advocacy Fund
|
