Trump, Republicans Have Fucked This Nation So Hard We’ve Created A New Class Of Refugees

Hey, if we have to be fair (and we don’t), we can trace some of this intranational movement to policies that predate the current shitshow we’re somehow expected to believe is the host to the Leader of the Free World.

A patchwork of marijuana legalization laws has led directly to law enforcement camping out on the borders of weed-friendly states, hoping to bust (but hoping even more to steal money from) people entering those states for the sole purpose of enjoying a substance that’s currently illegal in their own state.

After the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade was no longer good law, a new form of awfulness began. Law enforcement and local prosecutors starting arresting and bringing criminal charges against people who traveled to states where abortion was legal, rather than subject themselves to local laws outlawing their bodily autonomy.

It keeps getting worse. Florida has enacted new immigration laws that are even more draconian than Trump’s all-out war on anyone who looks less than full-on Caucasian. Those laws may have been blocked by courts, but that’s not stopping Florida from treating migrants entering the state like migrants illegally crossing US borders.

Florida, Texas, Idaho, New Hampshire: these are the main players in a recent article by The Guardian that details the experiences of people who find themselves refugees from their own former US states.

We’ll start with the story of a teacher who abandoned New Hampshire for Vermont because of the state’s efforts to erase critical race theory and other things that might inform students that white doesn’t always mean right.

John Dube, a high school teacher with 35 years of teaching under his belt, went up against local lawmakers’ attempts to ban CRT theory from being discussed in public schools. This put him in the crosshairs of far right activists, who engaged in a campaign of harassment so worrisome federal and local law enforcement stopped by to warn the teacher of what they had observed online..

The backlash was instant. Granite Grok, a local rightwing website, posted the names of all New Hampshire signatories, and within hours of that Dube received a Facebook message that read: “Whats up homo? I heard your teaching Marxist commie CRT in your classrooms. You can fuck right off you garbage human.”

Dube calmly replied that he would not be intimidated.

Within days, police officers turned up at his house, having been dispatched by the FBI. Dube’s name was circulating on obscure chatrooms frequented by violent militia members. He was urged to install security cameras at home, but when he asked why the police didn’t arrest the perpetrators of the threats, he was told that was impossible on free speech grounds.

So much for the “Live Free or Die” state. It’s now just the “Fuck Off and Die” state, heavily populated by people who believe your rights (and possibly, your life) end where their beliefs begin.

Dube has since relocated to Vermont to teach. He’s not the only one fleeing persecution and/or prosecution in his former home state due to legislation passed by Trump sycophant’s or the disturbing actions of those who support Trump and his rampant destruction of constitutional rights.

The Guardian article also tells the story of two women who left Idaho because of its draconian abortion ban. It’s not just women affected by the ban, though. The article points out two-thirds of Idaho’s fetal medicine specialists have left the state because continuing to provide the care they have for years puts them in danger of being prosecuted under the state’s abortion law.

And another person left Texas to protect their trans teen from harassment and prosecution enabled by the state’s many attacks on trans rights and LGBTQ+ speech. And it isn’t just the simple matter of relocating a family. “Sandra” (the pseudonym used by The Guardian to protect this parent from prosecution or harassment) also had to shut their business and somehow hope it can continue to provide income for their family when (or if) they manage to re-open it.

There are more anecdotes in the Guardian article, ranging from people leaving California to escape wild fires President Trump refuses to provide aid to fight or protect against to pulling up stakes to avoid being subjected to censorship efforts that target not only what content students have access to in libraries to what they’re able to learn about while in class.

If you choose to believe this is nothing more than a few people over-reacting to local policies, you are, of course, free to continue entertaining this delusion. But this is something we simply don’t expect to be happening in the United States. Sure, some people may move to find better schools or better jobs, but they rarely pull up stakes because they feel they’re local government poses a tangible, ongoing threat to their beliefs, rights, and ongoing existence.

And don’t even pretend there aren’t a lot of legislators and state leaders secretly wishing they could just throw up Berlin Walls on their borders to prevent people who disagree with their politics from seeking somewhere else to live. This is all about control of everyone, not just those who simply adore the cool touch of a boot heel to their neck. They want the people who reject their impositions to suffer the most.

Florida has already tried to create a virtual border within the United States with its law that creates new criminal charges for any undocumented immigrant entering Florida from another state. Drug warriors have long pretended the US isn’t contiguous when it comes to selective enforcement of drug laws. And as long as cops and prosecutors are trying to hunt down scofflaws who leave the state to partake of legal goods and services offered in other states, there will always be a latent desire to set up “papers, please” checkpoints on state borders. The only difference now is there are people in power who are willing to explore that option.