AMERICA: THIS IS OUR DO-OR-DIE MOMENT!

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As I type these words, the terrible events I once thought could never occur in America are in progress. Thousands of children belonging to immigrants and asylum seekers are needlessly separately from their fathers and mothers, and sent to detention centers with no promise of ever seeing their parents again. As witnesses have said, many are held in cages, watched over by a staff that mocks their cries as "an orchestra."

Nearly three decades ago, an immigrant family of four -- my mom, my dad, my sister, and I -- landed in San Francisco on a frosty February evening. The 36-hour roundabout flight took us from Rangoon to Bangkok, then Tokyo to Seattle, before our final destination.

We left behind our homeland, ruled by a pernicious military regime that fired into unarmed crowds to stop protests; and half a lifetime's worth of memories and belongings. We arrived with a few pouches of dried shrimps and fermented tea leaves, the taste of home that we didn't think we could return to. We had less than U.S. $300 among all four of us, and the clothes on our back, which, we soon find out, were not sufficiently warm for the San Francisco evening chill.

But when the Immigration and Customs Officer, after stamping our papers, shook each of our hands and said, "Welcome to America," it felt warm and genuine.

In the airport lobby, the four of us stood before a vending machine, like the neolithic men in 2001: A Space Odyssey, trying to unlock the mysteries of an alien Monolith. We wanted to celebrate our newfound freedom with a sip of American soda, but the myriad buttons and choices confounded us. Seeing our predicament, a nearby passenger not only showed us how to operate the machine but also paid for our very first bottle of Coca Cola.

That stranger's trivial gesture of kindness made a profound impression on us. It told us we were in a place where people wouldn't hesitate to help us, would protect us, and would give us a fair chance to start our life anew.

It's the kind of welcome that all weary refugees and immigrants deserve, no matter their legal status. And it's the kind that, as a result of Trump's zero-tolerance policy, none of the families arriving today at the southern border of the U.S. will ever experience.

Legal Immigration Not Always a Practical Option

Those who, due to circumstances of birth and random chances, were born into the First World and privileged gene pool may never understand what it takes to survive in war-torn countries, where the laws of the jungle trump the laws of the land; where dissidents on the run cannot operate within the legal framework (if they want to remain alive or stay out of jail); where ordinary people cannot afford to bribe their ways through the corrupt legal bureaucracy to secure the necessary Visas and travel documents.

Immigrants from Honduras or Guatemala trying to flee from the ruthless street gangs are "extorted, robbed, assaulted, raped, kidnapped, and murdered at alarmingly high levels and with almost complete impunity," according to an article in Lawfare ("Who's Really Crossing the U.S. Border, and Why They Are Coming," June 23, 2018).

The majority of immigrants are not "thieves and murderers," nor are they bringing "death and destruction" into the U.S., as Trump as characterized them. If anything, they are fleeing thieves and murderers and death and destruction to give their children a better future. A policy that demands that they give up their flesh and blood -- their first born, if you will -- as the price of entry to the U.S. is profoundly cruel and inhumane.

Punishment for Seeking Refuge

The Trump administration is not operating in the moral gray zone; it's operating in the moral-less zone. As such, it expects to get away with tearing apart thousands of immigrant families, turning children into orphans, and keeping them in internment camps. This is not the limit of its inhumanity; rather, this is what it aims to promote as a way of life, as the new normal.

The government's plan to build detention centers that could house as many as 25,000 in abandoned airfields in California, Alabama, and Arizona, suggests, for the foreseeable future, it plans to deal with those fleeing sectarian war, civil war, gang violence, and extreme poverty as criminals. Rather than offering help, it plans to punish them for seeking refuge within its border.

It's a direct contradiction to the American spirit, permanently inscribed at the Statue of Liberty:  

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

86 the Trump Team

Last night, a Lexington, Virginia-based restaurant, The Red Hen, gave the the Trump White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders and her party the 86 treatment -- the restaurant industry's code word for refusing service to someone. ("A restaurant refused to serve Sarah Sanders and her family," Yahoo News, June 23, 2018).

As the owner and staff of The Red Hen have illustrated, effective acts of resistance don't require martyrdom. We can make a principled stand against those we despise without depriving them (or us) of humanity or dignity, without resorting to violence or hysterics. Therefore, I've decided that, if I ever find myself in the same premise with anyone recognizable from the Trump administration, I intend to walk out, and I will publicly declare my reason for doing it.

As private citizens, corporate citizens, and consumers, we must register our rebuke loud and clear. We should find inspiration from the Microsoft employees who are demanding that the Windows OS giant cancel its contract with ICE.

So far, four major U.S. airlines -- American, United, Southwest and Frontier -- have told the government they don't want to transport kids separated from their immigrant families. Airline executives are not exactly the models of ethical treatment of passengers, but even they recognize the administration has crossed the line with its zero-tolerance border enforcement policy.

We should boycott the businesses that have no qualms about lending logistics and material support to the government's continued operations to break up families coming across the border, or make profit from the misery of the immigrants. Where we collectively chose to shop -- or not shop -- is a political statement itself.

No More "I Didn't Know It Would Turn Out Like This."

From this moment forward, nobody can claim ignorance as the reason for supporting Trump. What has transpired during the last 519 days leaves no room for doubt, no ambiguity about the kind of individual Trump is and the type of government he plans to establish.

Those who continue to support him after this week are making a conscious choice to disregard the tearful pleas of the children and their mothers, to endorse the cruel separation of immigrant families, and to legitimize racism as a national policy. If they are among our friends, colleagues, kinsmen, and loved ones, it's time to confront them, to have the difficult talk that the country can longer afford to postpone.

Do not think that the persecution will be confined to people of a different skin color. There's no safe haven from a despotic regime. Sooner or later, it will indiscriminately come after every voice of dissent, every critic of its misdeeds, everyone who disagrees. 

The Future Generations Will Ask, "Why the Hell Didn't You Do Anything?"

The world learned a terrible lesson from the rise of the Fascists and the Nazis. If the silent majority fails to speak up in the critical moment, the vociferous, enigmatic few with toxic ideologies can, indeed, inflict immeasurable pain and horror on the entire population.

This, I have no doubt, is that do-or-die moment for American democracy. What we say or do now, or what we fail to say or do now, will determine the fate of this country. It will have tremendous ramifications on our allies in the world, on the disenfranchised and the oppressed who have historically looked to America as the beacon of hope. 

Speak up now so that, years later, when the younger generation demands to know where you were and what you were doing to stop the rising tide of evil in your time, you could respond with more than regretful mumbles and shameful silence.