關於「非法移民」，我們真的了解嗎？

小編說：特朗普總統的「零容忍」政策導致的數以千計家庭骨肉分離的新聞和後續報道數月來一直佔據各大報刊頭條，而很多網友看到新聞的第一反應就是「非法移民有什麼值得同情？」。說實話小編也很能理解這種想法，因為畢竟近年來在媒體上看到了太多恐怖襲擊報道，「難民」儼然成了「危險分子」的代名詞，很多人看到這個字眼時心裡升起的不再是憐憫，更多的是警惕和恐懼的陰影，更何況這次還是「illegal immigrants」。「非法移民」到底值不值得同情，小編在這裡不做評價，但這篇來自New Yorker對被關押「非法移民」的報道以一位被關押的「非法移民」Mabel Gonzales為主線，為大家對此事的了解提供了另外一個視角，讓大家對所謂的「非法移民」的概念以及整個事件會有一個更加全面的認識，以做出更加informed的判斷。這一篇主要是對事實的記敘和報道，可能沒有太多詼諧精妙的語言表達和適合寫作參考的句型，但小編還是想把它分享給大家，因為學習外語不僅是讓我們學習語言本身，更重要的是以其為依託開拓我們的世界觀，讓我們更加了解這個世界，了解國門以外雖然膚色不同但同樣有靈有肉的人們在經歷著什麼。小編始終相信我們世界上的每個人都息息相關，就像John Donn在詩里所寫的：

沒有人是一座孤島，我們每個人都包含在人類這個概念里。

標題：The Courageous Woman Who Is Organizing Separated Mothers Inside an ICE Detention Center（節選）

By Jonathan Blitzer

June 28, 2018

正文：Last September, eight months before the Trump Administration announced its zero-tolerance policy for immigrants at the U.S. border, the government separated Mabel Gonzales from her two teen-age sons. The three of them had fled Honduras that summer and entered the U.S. through the desert, in New Mexico. 「No one saw us when we crossed the border,」 she told me. 「I was carrying a bottle of water, and I raised it over my head and started waving.」 She was trying to get the attention of Border Patrol agents in the distance.「I was seeking asylum, and I wanted them to know that,」 she said. By law, migrants can request asylum after they』ve entered the U.S. But during the summer of 2017, in parts of New Mexico and West Texas, the government was quietly testing out the zero-tolerance policy.Before migrants could make an asylum claim, they were charged with the crime of entering the U.S. illegally and were prosecuted. In the process, those who crossed the border with children were separated from them.The Border Patrol agents who apprehended Gonzales told her that she and her sons, who were thirteen and fifteen, would be released to a local migrant shelter. The next evening, another agent informed them that there had been a change of plans. 「You』re a prisoner now,」 he told Gonzales. 「We』re going to have to take your kids away from you.」 She entered criminal custody under the mistaken impression that she』d be reunited with her children once she got out.

小編解讀：第一段從Mabel Gonzales的個人微觀視角出發，描述了她如何被拘留的過程。Gonzales帶著兩個兒子從墨西哥跨過沙漠來到美國意尋求合法難民庇護。但她沒想到當她舉起手中的水瓶向邊境巡邏隊求援時，等待著她和她兩個兒子的不是一片安全的土地和新的家園，而是長達近一年的拘留和骨肉分離的痛苦。報道表示，原本根據法律，踏上美國土地就可以申請難民庇護，但是Mabel並不知道美國從去年開始就開始悄悄地在試行「零容忍政策」，直接以非法進入美國的罪名把踏過邊境的人當成罪犯拘捕，讓他們根本沒有機會申請難民庇護。

(圖片來源：NPR)

Earlier this week, as public outrage over zero tolerance mounted, the Trump Administration announced that it was effectively ending the policy. The government could not find detention facilities to house all the families it was prosecuting. The night before Gonzales and I met, a federal judge in California had issued a strongly worded injunction demanding that the government stop separating families at the border and that it reunite parents and children within the next thirty days. For children under the age of five, the deadline for the government was two weeks.

小編解讀：這一段告訴我們雖然迫於輿論壓力和關押空間限制，特朗普政府宣稱中止該政策實施，但是對於如何使父母和孩子團聚，目前根本沒有任何有效行動措施，甚至有些人沒有帶上孩子就被遣送回國。雖然加州的聯邦法官發布了"strongly worded injunction"言辭強硬的禁令，制止政府在邊境將家庭拆散，並且命令三十天內將大人和孩子重新團聚，作者在下文表示了對特朗普政府執行此命令的懷疑。

It』s doubtful that the Trump Administration will be able to fully comply with the order. According to the Department of Homeland Security,of the two thousand fifty-three children separated from their parents at the border since May, only five hundred and twenty-two have been returned to their families.Many of the parents in government custody still don』t know where their children are, and lawyers in West Texas think that the number of separated families is even higher. Some seven hundred children were separated from their parents between October, 2017, and April, 2018, more than a hundred of whom were under the age of four. How many of these families have been reunited is unclear.

(圖片來源：網路)

Gonzales was a pastor in Honduras, and her quiet, dignified manner has helped calm the other women in detention. In late April, she decided to start documenting their cases.「We』re not allowed to have notebooks,」 she said. 「We』d ask for individual sheets of paper.」 At first, she took down the information of a few women in her section of the facility. Then, in the mess hall during lunch, she stealthily distributed sheets to women from the other cell blocks.

Over the next few weeks, Gonzales gradually compiled the entries in a clean script, on lined paper. Each woman』s name was listed, followed by her detainee number, country of origin, and cell-block number. Below every name was a note about the identity and age of the woman』s children.「I came here thinking I was going to see my children,」 Gonzales told me. 「That』s what I was told, and the other mothers thought so, too. Everyone thought that. It was a lie. I finally realized that no one was going to help us find our kids. We』d have to do it on our own.」

小編解讀：在漫長的被關押的日子裡，Gonzales自己雖身處不能見到孩子的深深痛苦和空虛之中，卻仍在安慰其他孩子不知去向的母親，並且在認清到政府不會幫助她們找到孩子這個事實，之前的承諾只不過是謊言之後，她知道一切只能靠自己。於是她鼓起勇氣開始悄悄行動收集母親和孩子信息，使她們出去後能和自己的孩子相聚。

(圖片來源：New Yorker)

Over the weekend, D.H.S. issued a statement describing how it planned to reunite families. It called the approach 「reunification and removal」: the idea was to unite parents and children so that they could be deported together.Parents with pending asylum claims now face a choice: they can remain separated from their children while waiting for a court date—which could be several months away, at least—or they can withdraw their asylum claim in order to be reunited with their children sooner and face deportation together.

Last week, Gonzales told Rivas that she couldn』t stand to be in detention any longer. She was beginning to resign herself to her eventual deportation. 「At least my children are safe,」 she told me.But she was also terrified of returning home. Hitmen from a criminal syndicate in Honduras murdered six of her family members, including two of her brothers, and none of her relatives have remained in the country.「They』ve been killed, or they』ve been driven out,」 she said.Over the past seven years, Gonzales and her husband, mother, and children had moved to different parts of the country, spending two years in hiding at one point, but the threats continued. When she fled to southern Mexico with her children, last year, the hitmen found her there, and she was forced to move again.

小編解讀：這幾段敘述了被拘禁的父母面臨的兩難選擇，如果要堅持申請難民庇護，就要繼續忍受至少好幾個月和子女分離的時間等待他們的申請被法庭處理，如果想早點和兒女團聚，就只能放棄難民申請，然後和子女一起被遣送回國。 但回國後他們面臨的是什麼的？Gonzales在困頓中已經放棄了希望，已經被關押近一年的她已經無法承受這種與子女分離並且難民申請批准遙遙無期的處境了，但她知道被遣送回去，她面臨的是舉目無親，東躲西藏躲避殺手的日子，她的六個家庭成員都已經被殺，這種未來讓她驚恐萬分。對她來說，來到美國並不是想要尋求就業機會或好的生活，只是為了自己和孩子能活下去。

(圖片來源：網路)

Late last month, an immigration judge rejected her asylum claim, despite the detailed records that Gonzales presented of the dangers she faced in Honduras.「The judge looked me in the eye and said he understood the situation I was in,」 Gonzales told me. 「But he said that the law didn』t leave him with anything he could do to help me.」In the U.S., judges have been rejecting asylum claims at the highest rate in more than a decade, and earlier this month the Attorney General issued a ruling that reversed decades of asylum jurisprudence and will make it much harder for Central Americans to qualify for protection under U.S. law. Rivas is trying to mount one last appeal. 「I tell Mabel, 『You are very brave,』 」 Rivas said. 「 『You are an inspiration to the other women in detention. You helped us find them and get them in touch with their children. You did nothing wrong to come here with yours.』 」

小編解讀：最後一段又回過頭提起了Gonzales上個月難民庇護申請被拒的事，被拒的原因卻並不是因為她的條件不符合難民身份，並不是因為法官不理解她的處境。相反，法官告訴Gonzales他明白她的處境，但他卻因法律所限而無計可施。法律本是為了主持正義，保護人權，而在這裡我們卻看到，人權、正義反被法律壓制。本文的作者雖然從頭到尾都很少發表主觀評論，但他所選擇呈現給我們的對話和事實使他的立場不言自明。美國希望這一篇報道能帶給大家對「非法移民」和「零容忍政策」的不同認識。

(圖片來源：網路)

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