We need a new plan By: Otto Ruiz Frantzen

On Monday, July 30, 2018, I went with some of my STU classmates to the Karnes Family Residential Center (Karnes) in Karnes City, Texas. We spent our time at Karnes with RAICES, the largest immigration legal-services nonprofit in Texas. RAICES maintains a presence at Karnes to provide free support to men and their children petitioning the United States for asylum. The men I spoke with at Karnes shared their emotional and harrowing stories with me about what forced them to leave their home and family members behind to seek safety in the United States. These meetings gave men a chance to prepare for their credible fear interview and to learn what aspects of their journey would be most helpful in making a case for asylum. I heard things in those interview rooms that I will never be able to forget, and I wonder how our nation would be different if we could expose more people to the narratives these men trusted us with.

We need a resettlement plan for those seeking entrance to our country to mitigate the perceived political threats. Politicians should consider the feasibility and ethics of an immigrant resettlement plan that spreads new arrivals across the U.S. to lessen these concerns as a way to revisit American immigration reform. This could allow the United States to take a more compassionate approach to asylees and immigrants in the future. Ailing towns could even put in requests to receive more new arrivals if they choose. While this may help pass overall immigration reform, I am a bit wary of how this may affect the mental health of immigrants if they are put in a community where they have no family and no other cultural connections. 

This post was originally published at "STU Karnes Project", a blog coordinated by Donna Nasimov. (https://stukarnes.wordpress.com)