Hispanic immigrants flee US-supported violence: Writer

American writer and political analyst Mickey Z. says mainstream US media denounce undocumented immigrants from Central America as leeches and rapists but never talk about what role the United States has played in making their countries so violent.

In an interview with Press TV on Friday, the author of Occupy This Book and Occupy These Photos said President Barack Obama has deported more people than any other US president in history.

Mickey Z. made the remarks while commenting on a statement by Donald Trump who is taking credit for the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) plans to deport hundreds of undocumented immigrants from the country next year.

“Wow, because of the pressure put on by me, ICE TO LAUNCH LARGE SCALE DEPORTATION RAIDS. It's about time!” the Republican presidential front-runner wrote on Twitter on Thursday.

Mickey Z. said, “It’s so easy for allegedly liberal Americans to express righteous indignation at the latest outburst from Donald Trump and look down their noses at his growing number of supporters. But where’s their outrage when it comes to the Democratic Party in general and the Obama administration in particular?”

“Once again, Donald Trump’s white male supremacist agenda has peeled away a layer of corporate propaganda as he recently took credit for the Department of Homeland Security’s plans to deport hundreds of undocumented immigrants in early 2016,” he added.

“The media, of course, will mostly focus on whether or not Trump had anything to do with this decision. Conveniently missing from the discussion will be the reality that Obama has already deported more humans than any previous US president and seemingly doesn’t need any encouragement or pressure to continue doing so,” he stated.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Mickey Z. said, “What also goes unexamined are facts buried deep in the two-party narrative. For example, as a recent article explained, this is Obama’s ‘first large-scale deportation attempt since tens of thousands fled violence in Central America.’”

“Let that sink in. We hear about undocumented immigrants as everything from leeches to rapists but learn virtually nothing about why they are reluctantly fleeing their homes. No one, of course, is talking about what role the US has played in making their homelands so violent,” he said.

“Also missing is how such rhetoric and policy is inherently hurting those most impacted by US-created violence: women and children. Absent is any mention of a global epidemic called femicide, the killing of females by males because they are females. Femicide, by no coincidence, is rapidly increasing in the countries from which these women are fleeing,” the activist stated.

“In Mexico, it’s six women murdered per day. The femicide rate in Columbia, with a much smaller population, is one every two days. Guatemala reports two women murdered per day with a prosecution rate of 2 percent for their male attackers. These impoverished women are forced into unsafe environments like so-called ‘sex work’ and their murderers enjoy widespread impunity due to patriarchal beliefs and views on the role of women in society,” the analyst noted.

“So, while privileged Americans argue Republican vs. Democrat via smart phone, the targets of femicide - victims of both US political parties - remain virtually invisible. Their struggle and the struggle of millions like them goes far behind wealthy politicians arguing on Twitter, and none of this will change until we start naming the problem,” Mickey Z. concluded. 

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