Leave to Toil

 In yet another exercise in pointless cruelty, Trump revived this month one of his various mean-spirited policies from his first term aimed at punishing and deterring asylum-seekers: namely, the work permit rule. 

Initially, of course, Trump simply wanted to destroy asylum entirely. On day one of his current term, he issued executive orders purporting to basically declare people ineligible for humanitarian protection wholesale. 

This didn't work. The federal courts had other things in mind. In particular, they had trouble overlooking the plain meaning of federal statute, which lays out a procedure and criteria for people to qualify for asylum. 

Having failed to abolish asylum outright, then, the administration is once again attempting the next best thing: making it humanly impossible in practice for asylum-seekers to live here.

And so, on February 23, they unveiled a new regulation in the Federal Register that would bar the vast majority of asylum-seekers from receiving work authorization during the pendency of their hearings. 

Since the immigration courts are massively backlogged, that means in practice that people would be denied legal work for years. 

This, obviously, is the goal. Probably the administration hopes that people will be so defeated by this that they will simply give up and seek shelter elsewhere—or return to the hands of their persecutors. 

Given that this is not a realistic option for people facing death and torture, however—what will actually happen in practice is that people will be forced to work off the books in more exploitative conditions—ultimately driving down wages for everybody. 

Nobody wins. 

The cruelty and sadism of the rule is obvious: the Trump and Stephen Miller brigade just can't get enough of punishing innocent people for seeking refuge and otherwise stomping on the human face forever. 

What also strikes me about the rule though is its extreme perversity. All people are asking for, after all, is the ability to work and support themselves—often in the most miserable conditions. 

They aren't expecting to be signed up for public benefit programs—which they don't quality for anyway. Just to be allowed to work for a day's wage! 

And even this most humble and eminently reasonable request Trump and Stephen Miller cast into the dirt. 

"See yonder poor, o'erlabour'd wight, [...]" to quote Robert Burns,

"Who begs a brother of the earth 

To give him leave to toil; 

And see his lordly fellow-worm 

The poor petition spurn, 

Unmindful, tho' a weeping wife 

And helpless offspring mourn."

That's what's happening here. Asylum-seeking families ask for nothing more than "leave to toil." A work permit doesn't guarantee a wage—just the chance to even ask for one!

And even that, to those who have so little, is to be denied—though helpless parents and offspring mourn.