June 20 is World Refugee Day ... does the U.S. care?

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BREAKING NEWS: June 20, 5:30 p.m. EDT -- Donald Trump signed an executive order this afternoon ending the policy of separating children from their parents. Come back to read a new post for updates and anallysis of what this 180-degree turn-around means.

TODAY (June 20) is World Refugee Day but does the current U.S. administration even care? People who came to this country and accepted as refugees in years past are now being deported, including those from Nepal, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed in a statement that “We will continue to help the world's most vulnerable refugees, reflecting the deeply held values of the American people.”

Pompeo also said, “commitment to the world’s most vulnerable individuals remains a critical component of America’s national security policy.” 

The statement does not mention Central American refugees, focusing on Syria—though Trump banned Syrians from entering the United States—as well as the Rohingya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Asylum seekers from Central America and Mexico are being detained in jail-like environments, their attempts to enter the U.S. legally to ask for asylum is being blocked and thwarted physically and their children are being ripped away from them and kept in cages where workers are not allowed to comfort them.

Yesterday, the U.S. also formally quit the United Nations Human Rights Council. The explanation was supposedly because of the council's continued criticism of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians but it also occurred the day after the human rights body criticized Donald Trump's zero-tolerance policy towards asylum seekers at the U.S. southern border crossings that includes the separation of children from their parents.

The number of refugees entering the United States each month has declined sharply so far in fiscal 2017, falling from 9,945 in October 2016 to 3,316 in April 2017, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. State Department data.

By executive order of Donald Trump, the number of refugees being accepted annually by the U.S. has been cut in more than half, from 110,000 to 50,000.

Despite Trump's zero-tolerance policy, asylum-seekers are still forming unusually long lines at the Mexican border, with parents and children sleeping on cardboard in the sweltering heat and waiting for days or even weeks to present themselves to U.S. inspectors, according to the Associated Press.

“You must come every day to see if it’s your turn. If you don’t come, you’ll lose your place in line,” said Teresa Ramirez from El Salvador. After waiting 20 days, Ramirez got her turn at the border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico.

Lawyers said asylum-seekers at the Nogales, Arizona, crossing are camping out for up for five days to make a claim.

At the Hidalgo, Texas, border crossing, parents and children sleep on cardboard on a bridge separating the two countries, waiting for U.S. authorities to signal their time has come, according to volunteers bringing them food and water.

So, is Pompeo's proclamation about America's "commitment to the world's most vulnerable," a cruel joke?

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