Asylum Grants and Sex Worker Murder Investigations: Both Take Lots Of Violence To Trigger

It seems like it sure does take a lot of "not-often-cared-about" people suffering for institutions with an official monopoly on violence to do anything to help even some of those suffering people.

I am angry that no one took him seriously when he said he was afraid for his safety if he returned to El Salvador. ... When someone professes a fear of returning home, claims they are afraid of the gangs and their penchant for random murders, I hope that you will listen.

aighmeigh's story got me thinking about asylum in the U.S.

I learned a few weeks ago that aighmeigh's husband wasn't the only Salvadoran trying to get asylum in the U.S. on account of gang members back in El Salvador. These folks are, too.

I thought, "What is it that makes this different? Oh. Right--the gang members aren't technically doing thugwork on behalf of a government."

BUT

Then I thought, "Wait a second. We've got how many Somali refugees around here? And there's no government in Somalia, so whoever they claimed was being violent towards them wasn't a government."

I don't know squat about their refuge/asylum claims, but I'm guessing...maybe they involved violence at the hands of people trying to be "the government."

"Okay," I thought, "the Salvadoran gangs are obviously trying to get a monopoly on violence wherever they operate. Does that make them people 'trying to be the government?' Why are these asylum cases not being considered violence by 'rebel militias?'"

I continued, "I guess they're only trying to have a monopoly on the right to use force to do certain things. They're not exactly running the schools and the postal service once they have that right in a certain area, are they? Not that I've heard."

So I dunno. Maybe you have to be shooting for being real governance, even if that's not your main concern (how many regional/national governments' main concern is real governance, compared to controlling money and such?), to be a violent group that the U.S. government will consider giving asylum to the victims of.




But then I thought about Honduras, and I thought about certain African countries w/ ruling-party political violence against ordinary folks who support opposition parties.

There are probably a couple of dozen people in Honduras who're at the exact same point, personally, as some of the people whose stories I heard out of African countries. Something like this:

1. Member of a political party all through college (during which the beatings and arrests and such were always going on)
2. Always participating in marches for one's political beliefs and/or party
3. Arrested at a march and beaten the hell out of, taken down to the station, not let out for ages for no reason, etc.
4. Still participated in marches
5. Arrested at a march and beaten the hell out of, taken down to the station, not let out for ages for no reason, etc.
6. Felt "done" enough w/ that routine to flee the country w/ intent to seek asylum in the U.S.

No "torture" at the station like some of the other stories I've heard. Just enough "protest, get beaten and harmed for it, repeat" to wear down a person who can't hold their beliefs in and make them want out of the country.

I know from experience that many people from those countries in Africa can get an asylum grant based on that experience. But I seriously doubt someone from Honduras with the exact same experience could right now.

The only difference I can think of between this happening in Honduras and this happening in some of the African countries I've worked with is how many people have had to endure it (due to the amount of time it's been happening).



And then, all of a sudden, I connected that with my comment on VivirLatino:

It really does make me feel like the police aren’t doing things well enough when a non-police person (Johnson) figured out that there was someone trying to kill sex workers after ONE person but the police don’t start looking to stop the deaths of sex workers until NINE. :-(

A potential Honduran asylee would have figured out that the government is going to have people keep on beating them up for demonstrating after A FEW DOZEN people but the U.S. government doesn't start looking to grant asylum until A FEW THOUSAND. :-(



Again: it seems like it sure does take a lot of "not-often-cared-about" people suffering for institutions with an official monopoly on violence to do anything to help even some of those suffering people.

It's just not at all the what happened that makes a murder investigation of sex workers happen or an asylum grant happen, is it? Even though that would make sense!! It's...the "how many." :-(