Yesterday Argentina added itself to a short list of Latin American countries that provide access to abortion. This development came thanks to years of activism. This work did not cease as the pandemic appeared and worsened in the Southern Cone. In September, NACLA published a report that examined how during the health crisis “[f]eminism may have become more visible in the streets, but inequality has intensified in the home”. Yesterday’s victory was important, but the struggle for a woman’s voice in laws about her body continues. Below you’ll find Claudia Rivera Amarillo’s article from September about Latin American feminism in the age of covid.
One of many motivations to vote against Donald Trump was immigration policy. From the first day of his initial campaign, when he demonized people coming to the US from Mexico, Trump’s rhetoric and policies have been delineated by racism and xenophobia. Lowlights have included the Muslim ban, the wall, and the separations of families resulting in caged children. However, while electing Joe Biden does mean a change, is that change enough? Biden was Barack Obama’s Vice President and therefore an important part of his administration. As much as people have focused on Trump and his policies, with an incoming Biden administration, it is important to remember that the infrastructure for private prisons caging people at the border and speedy deportations was well-established by the Obama administration. Kristan M. Campbell summarized Obama’s record on immigration with the following:
“At the close of his presidency, Barack Obama -who won a Noble Peace Prize at the beginning of his presidency in 2009- failed to live up to his 2008 and 2012 campaign promises to achieve comprehensive immigration reform. In fact, during the eight years of Obama’s presidency, his administration affected the removal of more noncitizens from the United States than any other president in history. It is clear, in retrospect, that despite the many lofty promises made by Obama, his immigration policy was a near-total failure.”
As we move towards the beginning of a Biden presidency, it is time to think about immigration policy. Campbell’s article is a great place to start as we reflect on how Trump’s crimes were built upon Obama’s failures.
