Asylum Seekers React to the State of the Union: We are Not Criminals
Sitting in the audience during President Trump’s State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday night would be a surreal experience for anyone. However, for asylum seekers and asylees like ourselves, it was more personal.
The President shut down the government for more than a month, the longest period in U.S. history, over a border wall he wanted build to prevent people like us from entering the U.S. We are grateful that a majority of Americans and many Members of Congress disagreed. The latter included Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Representative Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA-11), who were gracious enough to bring us to the address as their guests.
It was no surprise to us, then, that President Trump used his address to make false claims about people like us and the crisis he created for families seeking asylum at the border to attempt to find some way to get his unpopular wall built.
“Tonight, I’m asking you to defend our very dangerous southern border out of love and devotion to our fellow citizens and our country.,” Trump said. “In the past, most of the people in this room voted for a wall — but the proper wall never got built. I’ll get it built.”
What President Trump doesn’t seem to acknowledge is that even if it was justified, which it most certainly is not, a border wall would not have kept us out of the United States.
One of us, Valdir, is a victim of human trafficking, a very serious problem that the president claims he is trying to prevent. Yet I know first hand that many victims of international human trafficking are not smuggled across the border between ports of entry in the dead of night but instead come willingly to the United States on the promise of a legitimate job or opportunity that turns out to be false. I left Brazil after studying biology to come to Hawaii for an internship program that turned out to be a scam. According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, stories like mine are not uncommon.
After escaping and being granted asylum, I now use my free time to help other immigrants in desperate situations find resources they need to rebuild their lives. I also advocate for refugees and asylum seekers as a Refugee Congress delegate.
The other, Akelo*, is currently seeking asylum after being targeted and violently attacked by a militant extremist group in his home country. After my mother and uncle were killed and our land was taken, I knew I had to leave to find safety. I entered the U.S. via San Francisco and told airport officials I wanted to seek asylum.
Like the families at the southern border who come to seek protection, I was treated like a criminal and thrown into ICE detention for six months. I wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone. As the president speaks of sending more troops to the border for a crisis that doesn’t exist, I grieve for the families like me who are being treated with cruelty and subjected to further harm. A true humanitarian approach would redirect these resources to quickly and humanely process asylum claims instead.
After hearing Trump’s address, we felt frustrated by his contradictory message about legal vs. illegal immigration. Akelo had a legal visa to enter the US and sought asylum upon reaching the border, which is also legal. However, he was detained for months in terrible conditions. What, then, does Trump mean by legal immigration? For Valdir, it was Trump’s portrayal of immigrants as criminals instead of as people who have done a lot of good work for the U.S. that was most appalling.
It is not despite but in fact because of our firm disagreement with the president’s immigration proposals that we were honored to be in the audience at Tuesday’s speech. We hope that by being there and telling our stories, Americans will see through the false picture the president is trying to paint.
What President Trump spoke of is not the America we know and does not reflect the generosity of our communities. The America we know and seek to protect is a land of welcome and hope, not walls created to stoke fear and violate the rights of asylum seekers and refugees.
*Name changed to protect privacy
Valdir Junior Solera came to the U.S. as an asylee from Brazil in 2013 after surviving human trafficking. He now lives in Wailiku, Hawaii.
Akelo Zuluka (pseudonym) is an asylum seeker from Africa. He currently works as a service coordinator at a mental health facility in California.
