Dave Brat’s rout of the soon to be former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is ample evidence that there are many decent hardworking Americans who are completely fed up with government policies that not only don’t make sense but offend basic concepts of morality and virtue.
The establishment Republican party seems to have lost touch with the average normal decent middle class voter. Cantor and John Boehner have caved in on so many issues that many people confuse them with being members of the Democratic party.
How much US immigration policies had to do with Dave Brat’s huge win over Cantor remains subject to debate but its impact was probably an important factor especially if they heard about Why Sexual Minorities Have an Inside Track to a US Green Card. The US State Department has decided that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people need special protection and special treatment which means the immigration door is wide open to them from all over the world.
Such official assessments have fueled a surge of successful asylum petitions from gays and lesbians in the Americas. Arguing that they suffer persecution because of their sexual orientation, hundreds if not thousands have managed to find safe haven, and a potential path to U.S. citizenship, in recent years. Fellow Latin Americans lodging asylum claims based on generalized violence, meanwhile, are routinely denied.
How it got that way says a lot about sweeping changes in U.S. asylum policy, and the power of a dedicated lobby. During the Cold-War years, most asylum-seekers claimed they were persecuted by their governments for political reasons. Today, applicants are more likely to say they are threatened by religious persecution or myriad social ills, from female genital mutilation to spousal abuse.
In recent months, American leaders have denounced a new law in Russia criminalizing “recruitment” by gays, as well as practices in places such as Uganda and Nigeria that punish homosexuals with severe sentences, even death.
The rise in gay asylum cases comes at a time of soaring bloodshed in Latin America. Newly released United Nations data show that Latin America is the world’s most violent region, accounting for nearly one in three global homicides. The worst homicide rate by far belongs to Honduras, where 7,172 people were murdered in 2012, or 90.4 out of 100,000. The U.S. rate, by contrast, is 4.7.
Some human-rights advocates in the region believe the U.S. should modify its asylum policies to make a place for average citizens caught in the crossfire.
Once barred as “deviants” from emigrating to the U.S. under any circumstances, gays saw their stigma partially lifted for asylum purposes in 1990. They gained recognition as members of a particular social group after the Board of Immigration Appeals ruled in favor of a Cuban refugee who had been jailed and tortured for his sexual orientation.
Over the past three years, State Department reporting indicates nearly 100 LGBT individuals have been murdered in Honduras.
However, human-rights workers and diplomats acknowledge that, given the general level of violence in San Pedro Sula, it is often hard to know if the murders had anything to do with the victim’s sexual orientation. The area has become a key transit point for narcotics leaving South American and headed north, and there is a high degree of police corruption. On most days, and especially nights, the city can resemble a shooting gallery.
If the US expands its efforts to allow entry to all people that other countries are glad to get rid of due to their deviant behavior, expect to see the US population quickly double or triple.
So where does Dave Brat stand on immigration policies that Obama and Cantor favor? In a recent interview Dave Brat said that the Republicans have caved in on immigration reform and “It’s incredibly unpopular. It lowers wages, adds to unemployment, and the taxpayer pays the tab for any benefits to folks coming in. This is not equal treatment under the law. People who are waiting in line (to immigrate) are fuming.”
Time for some new faces and common sense in Washington.
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