作者:Sri Kulkarni (前美国外交官,CD22国会议员候选人)
编译: 林胥
作为一名外交官员,我进行了超过4万次签证面试。我是否每次都坚信自己做出了正确的决定,并且我拒绝的人是在撒谎或计划非法入境?绝对不是。我确信我拒绝了许多完全诚实的人。但法律的制定方式要求我们必须假设每个人都想非法移民,除非他们证明自己并非如此。是的,被拒绝获得美国学生签证或无法在亲人生病去世前探望他们可能是痛苦的,甚至会改变人生。但我们现在所做的却是残忍且毁灭性的。
已经有很多案例显示,一些在美国没有犯罪记录和/或拥有合法身份的人,却被送往萨尔瓦多的酷刑监狱。(记得在选举期间他们说:“我们并不反对合法移民!”显然这从来都不是真的。)在这种情况下,一名马里兰州的男子,他的妻子是美国公民,孩子是残疾的美国公民,却被送往萨尔瓦多一个人权全无的集中营。在法庭上,特朗普政府已经承认他是由于“行政错误”被送去的。
然而,他们并没有立即试图将这个人带回来(他们本可以做到这一点,因为我们支付了他们的拘留费用,而且克里斯蒂·诺姆刚去那里拍了宣传照),副总统万斯却直接对公众撒谎,并与政府自己的律师相矛盾。他称这位父亲为“被定罪的帮派成员”。(根据法庭记录,他唯一被逮捕的记录是“游荡”和交通罚单)。在法庭上,他们承认了错误,但声称现在他们没有法律管辖权将他带回来。
任何工作中都可能发生错误。错误可能发生在办公室,可能发生在执法人员身上,也可能发生在战争中。然而,伤害越大,所需的谨慎就越大,掌权者的责任也越大。对于像死刑或将人移交外国监狱这样严重的事情,即使是一个“诚实的错误”,后果也太严重了。我们必须有正当程序来确保正确,否则我们不如实行戒严法。
一些国会议员说:“非公民没有正当程序权。”(顺便说一句,这不是我们宪法说的。)他们试图将任何为法治而战的人描绘成同情帮派成员(就像JD万斯在这条推文中做的那样)。这假设他们指控的每个人真的是帮派成员,而我们已经知道这不是真的。如果没有正当程序,我们永远不会知道他们中是否有人真的是帮派成员。这届政府说我们应该“信任他们”,因为他们知道我们不知道的事情。但当被要求向法官展示这些“事情”时,却发现这些并不存在。(看起来他们只是在像我作为签证官时那样猜测,但后果却是致命的)。
不幸的是,我们在选举前就已经知道,这届政府愿意在任何事情上撒谎。(还记得“他们在吃你的宠物”吗?)在这种情况下,他们为了政治得分而谎报严重的人权侵犯,并声称他们在“严厉打击移民”,却从未真正努力进行真正的移民改革。不,我们绝对不应该在这件事上“信任他们”。我们也不能将这些视为“诚实的错误”。他们不诚实的回应表明,这不仅仅是错误。这实际上是国家施加的恐怖。
英文原文
Translate into Chinese: As a foreign service officer, I conducted over 40,000 visa interviews. Do I have a strong confidence that I made the right decision every time, and the people I rejected were lying/planning to come here illegally? Absolutely not. I’m certain i rejected many people who were completely honest. But the way the law was written, we had to assume everyone wanted to illegally immigrate until they proved otherwise. Yes, getting refused for a student visa to the US or not being able to visit a sick relative before they passed away could be painful or even life altering. But what we are doing now is grotesque and life destroying.
There are already numerous cases of people who have no criminal record and/or have legal status in the United States, yet have been sent to a torture prison in El Salvador. (Remember during the election they said, “We aren’t against LEGAL immigration!” Clearly that was never true.) In this case, a Maryland man with a US citizen wife and a disabled US citizen child was sent to a gulag with no human rights in El Salvador. In court, the Trump Administration has already admitted that he was sent there because of an “administrative error.”
However, instead of trying to get this man back immediately (which they could do, since we are paying for their detention and Kristi Noem just went there for a photo op), Vice President Vance is directly lying to the public, and contradicting the government’s own lawyers. He called this dad a “convicted gang member.” (According to court records, the only thing he has been arrested for was “loitering” and traffic tickets). In court they are admitting the error, but claiming they now don’t have the legal jurisdiction to bring him back.
Errors can happen in any job. They can happen in an office, they can happen with a law enforcement officer, they can happen in war. However, the greater the harm, the greater the care required, and the greater the responsibility of the person with the power. With things as serious as the death penalty or rendition to a foreign prison, the consequences for even one “honest mistake” are too grave. We must have due process to get it right or we might as well have martial law.
Some members of Congress have said “non citizens don’t get due process.” (That’s not what our Constitution says, btw.) They try to paint anyone fighting for rule of law as sympathizing with gang members (like JD Vance does in this Tweet). That assumes that everyone they accuse is actually a gang member, which we already know is not true, and we will never know if any of them are actual gang members, if they don’t get due process. This administration says we should just “trust them” because they know things we don’t. But when asked to show those “things” to a judge, it turns out they don’t exist. (It appears that they are just making guesses just like I did as a visa officer, but with deadly consequences).
Unfortunately, we already knew before the election this administration is willing to lie about literally anything. (Remember “They’re eating your pets”?) In this case, they are lying about gross human rights abuses, in order to score political points and claim they got “tough on immigration” without ever doing the actual hard work of real immigration reform. No, we absolutely should not just “trust them” on this. Nor can we write these off as “honest mistakes.” Their dishonest responses show this is not just a case of error. This is actually state imposed terror.